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Show in! iif.imA'mmi HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN I, The Ufe of a Stoiyteller ; . BYC.EUZAKTHDAVIS Wc oftCn identify authors by their most famous works and investigate no further. But a writer's output is, of course, only " V the tip of the iceberg. Readers interested in delving into the life experiences that ' shape an author, will delight in Jackie . : Wullsdilagers Hans Christian Anderaem The Life of a Storyteller, a achoJariy.detailed biography of one of the worlds most renowned writers. Bam in Odertse,Jenmarfc, oa April 2, 1805, in a small cottage in the poorest part, . of the village, Andersen' spent his life try- -. ing to escape his humble origina He once.; described his uneducated parents as full of love but ignorant of life and of the la" It1 W 'rvii'ni MmrMmlMJg ':'.V BBNM4SS273Z7 BBN 15M2U629 ' Like any other institution devised by human beings, slavery had its inconsistencies. Lalita Tademys saga. Cane River, highlights the peculiar way this peculiar institution was practkxdin the . Louisiana of her ancesiors. One hesitates to say that slavery was more benevolent in this part of the Deep South, but the Catholic slaveholders of Louisiana did believe their slaves had souls that should,; at least minimally, be tended to. Thus, Thdemys ancestress Suzctte is given First Communion, and later her daughter Philomene is allowed tobe married (to the extent that a slave could be married) by a priest. These episodev among many, give Cane River a thrilling sense of newness for the reader that is missing from many grim slavery and post-sl- a very nar- . - HOME TO WAR : A History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement By GenUNIcotla ' Ctwn,t3S MORRIS As author Gerald Nicosia explains it, die American soldiers who fought in .... Vietnam lost two wan: one in Southeast Asia to gain and hold territory and one at home to gain public Understanding of their experiences. The Vietnam veterans movement instruh .. mental in exposing America's duplicity during the late '60s and early '70s is the subject of .Nicosia's new book Home to War. : -- Andersen'slife literary genius of Hans Christian Andersen and trac- -, ing those influences throughout his prolific works, Wullschlager has created a fas- -' cinating psychological profile of the leg-' V fendary. author. If . wassgnif-icantf- y ' influenced by his travels, the patronage of royalty and wealthy friends and his association with other,19th century artists. Wullschlager includes fascinating stories, rich with historical detail,of his relationship with such notables as Chaiks Dickens, Will iam Thackeray, hknemtswau 'nwribyAnkaRiaBadam! ' Badamfs deeply resonant debtd itovd , . places her jn the ranks ' ofwrfteralike jhumpaLahiri.i. r; ; arid Mariil Surl" , EliztibethDavis is a former marketing director for Turner Broadcasting System.' . cemented by chilttoearing, to real, if forbidden and dangerous; love. ; Tademys writing is gripping, whether ; y itoes describing the dnidgery of , slave life, tire dread felt by slaves ahdut to be sold sway from their loved ones, or the V. finally getjoy of an ting tier pwh hum and gathf ering in the sundered parts of ' . . - - The author brings a dramatists eye to this mammoth narrative, playing out hundreds of separate stories through the personalities of the participants. An exhaus . . . passionate and sometimes wrong-headwomen who labored, in all scnses of die word, through slavery and beyond.' The book begins with Elisabeth, who was sold from Virginia to Louisiana, and one of Thdemys many brilliant touches is her de$crip-tio- n of the matriarch's diflfi- - ; cuities with the Creole French spoken by the slaves and, their masters. Tademy proceeds k recount ' Elisabeths female descen-difficulties the with men who dams' owned them or thought they did. As if a metaphor for society itself, the relationships between Suzette and Philomene and Emily and the white fathers of their children evolve from flat-orape, to. distrustful financial arrangements . . . tive work (Nicosia says he interviewed KXJpeople For the book), Home to. War offers accounts of incendiary demonstrations and loud rap" sessions, Kafkaesque eburt trials and petty infight-in- g, majestic displays of solidarity. moments of euphoria and days rtf despair. Not only did the vets fight to expose the war as a human catastrophe, they also struggled to convince an indiflerent pub- lie and a hostile government that their wounds particularly the psychological V: ones were of S different sort than America was used to..-- . 1 "'v,.' heartwarming: ; indeed, ft kmd of lridian Christmas Carol? Kirkm Reviews . ... ' ve her family,' l" ; Tademy doesnt stint on the long-terdamage slav-ery inflicts; the women, :Y. Rich in Sensuous detail, both sweet arid bitter.and an almost cinematic " sense of color and emotion. '' ' Booklist .' ;; ' m 1. ' identifying with those who ; aggressed against them, value long straight hair and fair skin above all ih their ; children. But most of the.. women emerge witfi their r sanity and human dignity y : . iniact, and this, along with V; the fact tint Ihdemy, a fanner Silicon ' Valley exec, is here to ieU the tale, is the miracle of Cane River. V ; 0 Cl AYS QUflT Ha 1 - ' , Arlene Mckank writes from New York Jpry and a cobcicnt narraiion Jamaica,: V V of fagt. ' .. While die veterans have scored Nicosia says, theirs has not been a story With a happy ending. At the ' Vietnam Veterans of America convention in 1999, be notes, someone : pointed out that most of die vets --balding, gray- - or v some-triumph- T CUrSQIWT a novel by 53m Howe . . whitebaired, deeply wrinkled, with huge potbellies or else emaciated, many walk- ing slowly with canes looked as thoui they were in their 60s or 70s, when in fact they woe actually 20 , ' years younger. Premature aging has been universally A deep love for home suffuses ; this heartfelt, debut novel set in the Kentucky hills. . well-craft- , Publishers Weekly . X)ne . observed among Vietnam veterans, and in some respects it has already been med- ically verified." And these were just the visible scars, V .. of the truest and most exciting new voices in American fiction. -R- OBERT MORGAN, . Instead of relying on the loftiness of political themes to do die work, the author uses recurring characters to endow his chronicle with a sense of direction and momentum. Overall, -Nicosia strikes a pleasing balance between a vivid but fragmented oral his-- ; Well-writte- n, . ' ' PMihersVfcekfy toned day-ttnla- .. . M129910M REVIEW BY EDWARD . ts. ed . ISBN '.'-'- . d, REVIEW BY ARLENE McKANIC V . heritage created in identity crisis that remained throughout his life. According to Wullschlager, Andersen's fairy tales equal The triumphant Ugly .. Duckling, the loyal Little . Mermaid, the steadfasLllri Soldier thestoriesof them'. ' characters show Andersen's Own ability to empathize : with pain, sorrow and tejec- tiom rarives, such as Toni Momsona Beloved, that take place in other areas of the South. Cane River is a novelization of stories Tademy gleaned from years of research about toe generations of strong, dedicat-e- By LaSta Tademy ' com-pose- T V: CANE RIVER " . iden-tify.b- ut By Jackie WuBschlager Km (30 ;; ISBN 007M550M''. t Franz Listz and die Grimm brothers.' ;The fust to write fairy tales fair adults ; d as well as for children, Andersen narratives thM compel readeis to. ' confront their innermost thoughts and fears; Soulaearohing satires of;' ' humankinds foibles and j absurdities ate woven into the fabric of his tales talcs that, according to Wullschlager, reveal Andersen's owrt inner conflict: a battle between ' achieving acceptance and " success and rebelling against conventional constraints. . , ; Exploring the circum-' stances that contributed to the world. His riseto fame removed him physicallyfrom Odense and placed him. in the homes and palacesof the noblemen and royalty with whom he wished to the psychological scan of his true author of Gap Creek "Silas House is a writer whose work is better than good v ! T - CiQttisiworkofart Lexington . Herald-Lead- a " Edward Morris writes from Nashville. for BookPage MAY-O- . AvaXabla wharavar backs am saM, |