Books: Leisure reading

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 2, 2004

'Loud and Clear'

By Anna Quindlen

Random House, $24.95.

Anna Quindlen, who left her job as a New York Times columnist to become a novelist, is still writing columns, currently for Newsweek. And they are very good. She is also writing novels -- and they are good -- but not as good as her columns.

Her last one, "Blessings," was interesting reading but not in the great category. That's why this book, "Loud and Clear" is so welcome -- it is a collection of her current columns.

Quindlen is a terrific social critic and she loves politics. Her range of issues is broad and her style is tight and witty. Among other things, she talks about family, drugs, women's issues (including leg waxing), reading, writing, the cult of personality, racism, the media, smoking and entertainment.

In one especially candid essay, Quindlen tells of visiting a school to talk about her craft and telling them she hates to write. "So why do you do it?" asked a kid. Flippantly, she replied, "To pay the mortgage." But then she backtracked, as she realized all the good things she has experienced through her writing. She encouraged them to "write a letter to yourself."

She encouraged them to write "uncompensated, even if they have no plans to become writers, for one reason only, and that is to know themselves, for now and for later. Their written words are their personal histories, as they have been mine. They bring the past vividly alive within the square diorama of the page. And that has been a great blessing, the gift I give myself, that keeps on giving." -- Dennis Lythgoe

'The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat'

By Eric Lax

Henry Holt, $25

This book provides "The Story of the Penicillin Miracle," the discovery of the world's first antibiotic.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 while studying a stray mold in his London laboratory. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, two Oxford scholars, made the antibiotic available before World War II ended, possibly saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Ironically, Fleming gets a lot more credit for the discovery than Florey and Chain, yet they were the ones who figured out how to effectively use the drug. All three shared a Nobel Prize, but none of them got wealthy through their medical breakthrough. Eric Lax, the author, artfully explains why it took 12 years from the time Fleming discovered the mold until "shoestring research" completed the story. - - Dennis Lythgoe

'Why She Went Home'

By Lucinda Rosenfeld

Random House, $23.95.

Brooklyn author Lucinda Rosenfeld has written a lot of fiction for various publications and the novel "What She Saw."

In "Why She Went Home," Her main character, Phoebe Fine, is almost 30 years old and has failed to make it in the marketing world. She leaves Manhattan and returns to her parents' New Jersey bungalow where she grew up.

Although she expects her existence now to be quite ordinary, she quickly becomes involved in all sorts of questionable projects, such as selling her neighbors' garbage on eBay, working on a solo album for electric violin and voice and dating the mysterious conductor of the Newark Symphony Orchestra.

Although this is clearly satire, Phoebe also has to deal with some serious adult issues, such as her sick mom, a tense relationship with an older sister and a financial crisis involving a viola. The writing throughout is smart and the dialogue is clever, making the book a fun, fast read. -- Dennis Lythgoe