| Show - 1 ' 11 E2 BOOMS Sunday January19 1992 The Salt Lake Tribune Getting below the skin of victimization Eve lives in a nice New York apartment with Charles her devoted French filmmaker lover As feminist at a Playboy-typ- e magazine she writes bitingly "How to Tell sardonic columns If Your Girlfriend Is Dying During Rough Sex" for instance — though she is soft and affectionate in her personal life She moves in a circle of interesting friends "who love Eve as much as anyone who has a career and a love life and parents in the modem world can be said to love anyone else" She has also turned 40 It is an alarm bell it is the ghost of Hamlet's father rousing the complacent princeling to confront the Furies Eve's 40 years will have her challenging herself her domestic bliss her gilded and en- dowed world It will have her as Emily Prager's novel begins nervously entering a bikers' hangout in a grimy industrial park Hung with chains skulls swastikas it belongs to Big Dan who tattoos violent pornographic scenes on the biceps of his cronies Eve carries an old photograph she has found among Charles' beof a womlongings It is a close-u- p an in her 40s in concentration-cam- p stripes and with a tattooed number on her arm She wants that number she tells the bewildered Big Dan and she asks apologetically — it is the voice of a comfortable class that likes to think of its handymen as craftsmen if he will lower his standards and make the tattoo as crude as the photograph's Tattooing is Eve's protest against a number of things loosely 'related It is against forgetfulness and the passage of time and of her against the privileged society The tattoo is partly to shock and partly as she puts it to bring the anonymous concentration-camvictim — Eva she calls her — back to life and "into the 21st century" - As she makes her daily rounds Eve displays her number At each encounter she invents a different Eva and a different story At her support group for former smokers she tells of a German Jew who manages to conceal her identity — Eva is blond — by spending all day every day walking her baby in the parks But the child grows older and her first words are: "I want to go home" Eva collapses 20-inc- leather-jackete- h d self-isolati- p ' - By Emily Prager Random House: $19 ' ' '' ' - - 400'1' fit'' n Gilbert Kaplan was a man with a dream He wanted to conduct Mahler's great "Resurrection" Symphony Though he couldn't :read a score he hired a conductor traveled around the world listening to performances of the work and hired the American Symphony :Orchestra for a dozen full rehearsals Finally :he rented New York's Avery Fisher Hall hired a pick-u- orchestra and choir and lived out his 'fantasy He has since conducted the work :about 20 times and even made a recording For Walter (and Wanda) Mittys without Mr Kaplan's means at their disposal The Armchair Conductor may be the next best thing Would-bToscaninis can learn at home prac 71'''' s : ift-I er 46 -- p e fr : 1 it I 1141 i Ils ! 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It Tr :I i - 4 k 0 a - ' i ' 1 " OP - ' A -- " -- 7 these musings as a way of creating a real struggling and even appealing character There is something heroic and worthwhile in the faint looniness with which Eve goes around telling her Eva stories — the stories themselves based on real instances are compelling — and separating herself more and more from everything she has been attached to Our disbelief is suspended we see a foolish winged thing but the wings appear more and more real And then the author lets it all drop disastrously The only way Eve can possibly fly is away Instead she flops back A happy ending descends r Eve like a great retreats into tenderness and apology Charles returns A frail flight flounders in a bog of reconciliation and fictional — Richard Eder Los Angeles Times on television she reflects blandly upon seeing a joyful East German half-bake- d celebrate her freedom: "Pretty soon Eve thought she'll be wondering who gave her chlamydia how to get cash for her weekend drugs and if her name is on the A list for parties" She suggests that her tattooing is at least as much a protest against the victimization of women as of Jews concentration camps seem to her an emblem of what women are put through Her thoughts hover on the threshold of definition often without making an entrance How could women be so enthusiastic about Hitler? she wonders Is there some link between his emphasis on purifying society on cleansing "degenerate" and "impure" strains and the present-daenergy expended on fitness and mental half-measur- fads? though Prager uses who don't want to embarrass themselves if they ever run into James Levine Catherine Comet Sir Georg Solti Christoph von Dohnanyi or Mstislav Rostropovich on the street of course the authors also give technical advice ranging from how to hold the baton to hand to what to do with the on if the orchestra it something goes blaming and Ed Goodgold Dell 810 96-pa- great conductors past and present The reader learns for example that Leonard Slatkin of the St Louis Symphony has been known to give baseball scores from the podium and that the legendary Herbert von Karajan was the only person allowed to drive in the bus lane Salzburg Festival during the There's even a pronunciation guide for those wrong Handy diagrams illustrate the basic beat patterns There are also pointers on getting into shape for conducting For those who still can't get the hang of it take heart: The authors remind us that even Beethoven was lousy with a baton — Catherine Reese d pre-wa- A I I I j in 195'9 It is the account ef the expedition by southern Utah Mormons charged with can' liole-inthe-Ro- z By Angela Carter Farrar Straus and Giroux $21 :: spring — two more sets of twins entertainers all — from a safe dis- - 1 1 P 1 ‘ ap- proach to life is carried to absurd extremes: People who have wronged him even ever so slightly are left anonymous although they are certainly long dead to avoid insulting the people who pestered a postage stamp committee he was on to choose their ancestral land to commemorate he invents the name "Splendovians" Michener would have done well to describe more fully the process involved in selecting sites to write about the South Pacific gets fairly extensive treatment but few of the others do He makes fleeting: allusions to some of his characters — inmamcluding the moth — that will leave those who haven't read the novels in the dark but who will read the autobiography who hasn't read the novels? In typical and wonderful 11lichener fashion the book's endpapers have maps — and these locate the sites of his books There are many authors who have led tumultuous and fascinating lives and whose personalities match their most outra- But perhaps not safe one-tusk- g r t 1 t ed t 5 James geous characters' Michener is not among them but that's more an endorsement of the imagination in his work than a condemnation of his life — Helene Lorber News Service r Knight-Ridde- MIIEMIIEMB Non-Fict- I Fiction Last Week Weeks On List Seertett Alexandra Ripley 2 No Great Lowe Danielle 1 15 Steel Needful Things Stephen King 3 9 2 14 This Week 1 a 3 the Beast 5 The Bum °IAD Fears 10 4 4 22 8 18 5 — 7 19 Tom Clancy IL Med 5 7 I 18 4 7 2 10 21 9 -- Week 1 The Best Treatment Isadore Rosenfeld L French los Cats Henry Beard and John Boswell 3 Awaken the (Mod trithba Anthony Robbins 4 Mors Wealth Without Risk Charles J Givens 5 Find Waldo How Martin Handlord 1 45 9 14 1 6 with Wilkie Novak II 59 13 Iron Jolos Robert Bly 10 The World Is My Horne 5 James Widener 9 Advice How-T- o and Miscellaneous Weeks Last 10 The Jolly Christmas Postman Janet and Allan Ahlberg 3 H 7 The Doomsday CoespIrsey Sidney Sheloon 8 Illindidght Robin Cook 9 The Finn John Grisham Weeks Os List 7 Plitesible Nadel Mark lato ' Under Irks Ohm L North Over Water Ken Follett Week SckaaSuanFaiud1 Disnes Beauty and 4 Lad This Week 1 Des et Thieves James 11 Stewart 2 Memories Ralph Emery with Tom Carter 3 Me Series ol Ily Life Katharine Hepburn 41 The Jordan lbako Sam Smith Robert Eulginon 5 Ult-O- ls 5 Week On List I 7 — 1 - — 2 — 7 4 45 allin11010111MINNIO lit1w 1 -' t 0 t I' a ' '- - ' k ' - t4 I $ '‘ - 4) ti ' 'tt i ii ty' $- 4 SOc40 ' 1 l'''-- “- ' ''':-it' 'cil (11 I - I - 4k IRFAr : A t SHEERS Sely199 01 i tt Antique SATINS f° 1 !) i tt 7 Embroidered : '4Wit:?-- ':j-- OrrF 04 On Fabric 21 Fabricut and Sala) t: '' -- 1 i '''' 4- f k:tIm ii FABRICS :' Sr99 t mer Night's Dream" during ND Many colors which Melchior discarded Wife No 1 Lady Atalanta for Wife No 2 Delia Delaney nee Daisy Duck And now decades later on April 23 they've been invited to to choose Iron THIS PERFORMANCE AND DON'T TRY THIS nt -- U-1- troupe boasts some of China's most gifted tumblers jugglers contortionists cyclists and gymnasts Their unmatched flexibility and precision guarantee an evening nothing short of amazing And if that's not enough you can probably I lIole In The Rock Devid E Miller Publishers Press CO 95 CALL t more than l!ry--- tt1 - -- L— -- - P 1 V Spmored I N G 11(MIITS Sig 4t4-710- 1 1156 by elf Utah Symphory - E - r- f :i 1I4 VA) ATI1 1 —-- :t i 1 - CI 33rd So - - : - i - e fleti -- ' II V- 9s-----: A -1 1 fl t '' i'l :C4 1 -- 4 ? i fkltrLov t i k qt 1 Botntl!ul - - PCy 279-0115- I 2 619-40a- 3 — i e viT QUALIFIED DESIGNERS -- -- I 1 1- ---- p Nor - 1 A ic p -- " I'l ' i "'-whit it pm rl it114 urrnyi VLilliatii 1sj No one offers Symphony Box Office 1 90 DAYS FREE S-1 INITItE77 ION MX NEOAX ESTLIffilTE Willi By Way 533-NOT- E HI Dam TriviTTIT:nrin'T Lirma L14 pick up some valuable tips on stacking fiirniture The Peking Acrobats visit Salt Like City on January 28 in or visit the Utah Symphony Hall or tickets call ionlomominnue '04 On Selected Patterns 7 Working Day anomm1 ult' 1J : 111114 ETIMTV Pr! ltillitatiLlt a ni plren Their finesse with furniture notwithstanding The Peking Acrobats are one of the world's most unique and exciting acroba tic tmupesThe I Unfit AT HOME st 1 Louver Drape Verfic les DON'T MISS the televised celebration of Sir Melchior's 100th birthday It's also Dora and Nora's birthday — and Shakespeare's Not surprisingly the that ensues is worthy of several Shakespearean comedies involving as it does a host of revelations and reconciliations concerning fathers daughters mistaken paterthand nities and several long-lomore recently lost persons — Nancy Pate Orlando Sentinel ing a wagon road through this most inhospitable and treacherous terrain for 200 miles through the Colorado River gorge in 1879 in order to settle San Juan County t ! New Tort Times Serske The listings below are based on computerpro cessed sales figures from 2000 bookstores in every region of the United States An after a book's current rank indicates that Rs sales weighted to reflect the industry nationally are barely distinguishable from those of the book above - ''N enough After all the Lucky Chances were on hand for the disastrous Melfth Night Costume Ball at Melchior's manor house which went up in flames thanks in no small part to an errant cigar Dora and a waiter who thought she was Nora The Chances also were in Hollywood to play Peaseblossom and Mustardseed in the even more disastrous filming of "A Midsum- wom! ' ! Best sellers W4 74- - Piece of Utah history now in paperback This new paperback edition of Hole In The Rock by David E Miller revives a chapter of Utah Estop first treated by the author i ' Wise Children debacle-denoueme- 1 Mil QtV 19 'MERE "11111161111111111111111111"wmlwmll'alw tance I an MUM Wise Children digs comedy out of stage farmlys tragedy "Comedy is tragedy that hap- pens to OTHER people" notes Dora Chance the irrepressible narrator of Wise Children Angela Carter's exuberant new novel about a British theatrical dynasty And indeed the events that overtake the intertwined lives of the eccentric Hazard and Chance families are not things one nor- mally laughs at: murder jealousy infidelity illegitimacy and incest But this is a tale that's all in its telling and since chatty witty earthy Dora's doing the telling it smacks much more of the music hall than of Greek tragedy That's only fitting too because Dora and her identical twin sister Nora are aged hoofers who at 75 "can still lift a leg higher than your average dog if called for Once upon a time they were the "Lucky Chances" who began pounding the boards as young girls and who grew up to be the r London and to toast of dance with the Prince of Wn1Pg Theater's in their blood They're the illegitimate unac- knowledged daughters of the leg- endary actor Sir Melchior Hazard and a maid "poor Kitty" who died at their birth Brought up in Brix ton by Kitty's landlady Grandma Chance and taken un- der the wing of Melchior's larger- an-life twin brother Peregrine they've mostly watched the per- ambutations of Melchior his three wives and his four legitimate off- - 1 candle-snuffe- y Somehow 1 lib-orke- n best-sellin- I to stand because he thought it would be absolutely safe) He has had any number of political appointments and strongly defends what he calls his for politics yet he Activithe House ties Committee and his politics in some of his books — Texas comes to mind — are anything but liberal In The World Is My Home his self-effaci- Rhonda Hai learrhe Salt Lake Tribune tieing their baton technique on the CD player volume which comes complete The with baton is packed with anecdotes about tourist-jamme- rile-m- e By James A Mithener Random Boom $25 That's frustrating to someone used to a nice chronological scheme a Michener scheme But the organization makes sense for a book designed to show Michener's evolution as a writer It starts with his adventures as an admiral's aide during World War H Michener had free rein to commandeer planes and hop about South Pacific islands as he saw fit Those experiences were of course the basis of his first book Tales of the South Pacific which won a Pulitzer Prize These early adventures point out a side of Michener — the observer not the doer — that while it no doubt served him well as a writer is a bit sad as commentary on Michener the man When the other sailors were living with exotic island maidens Michener was explaining why no he wouldn't be a good candidate because he had mumps as a boy manner His which extends to his abilities as a writer (he won't say "author" that's not for the likes of him) seems put-oat first If James auMichener the thor isn't confident of his abilities who can be? But that too stems from that childhood Michener has led a interesting life He shipped out with the Scottish merchant marine before the war and has traveled to and lived in all corners of the Earth as his title states He's met with presidents run for Congress survived three plane crashes and nearly been gored by a bull in Pamplona (although he'll tell you he chose that spot - 1 The World Is deals with his early years doesn't start until Page 475 The Armchair Conductor By Dan Carlinsky Less an autobiography than a series of philosophical treatises James A Michener's latest is at once informative and infuriating He alludes many times for instance to the unusual and painful circumstances of his childhood but the section that - : ironic Charles' reaction by contrast is and pain He is Jewish and through the German occupahe has converted to CatholiEve thinks his anger constitutes denial — at the end we learn that it is something much deeper — and is heartbroken when he leaves her after she refuses to have the tattoo removed Eve's Tattoo is a story in precarious balance a balance that depends on what one can make of Eve's gesture Is it profound or frivolous? Is it a genuine statement on behalf of the century's horror or is it a dilettantish act that strikes attitudes with it? Certainly Charles' rage — until we learn its true cause — suggests the latter Furthermore Prager has taken the risk of making Eve seem in many ways a very silly person Her musings can be vague disjointed and trite Watching the tearing-dowof the Berlin Wall ' ' '' -- well-wor- n rage lived tion cism 4! 4:- '' and is betrayed by a "catcher" — a Jew employed to detect other Jews — and arrested In another version Eva is a nurse posted at a railroad station to give water to the trainloads of German wounded When a train pulls in carrying Jews bonnd for the concentration camp she offers them water as well A Gestapo man boots her through the open door of the wagon and slams it shut she is carried to her death Waiting at the veterinarian's she tells the other pet owners of an Eva who rescues dogs belonging to arrested Jews forges new pedigrees for them and sells them to Nazi officials She too is picked up and sent away After a street accident Eve is taken to a hospital there she tells the nuns of a devout Catholic Eva a social worker who defends her Jewish charges against the Nazis The reactions play over the tiniest of gamuts from mild irritation to mild sympathy At the support group one woman wonders if getting a tattoo will help her to give up smoking At a literary party two women both Hollywood agents want Eva to write her story down for "development" Prager even on the subject of New York's decadent can be deftly and amusingly I '6 ! 44011b t C- -' w It kt ---N ': Eve's Tattoo Fans get chance to conduct orchestras of the mind I Alichener's memoir not as imaginative as his work - - It I i i i 1 t 1 I |
