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ARCHIVES

Walter Kirn

May 24, 1999 | The Book Review
True West

Writing about the West is trickier than it looks -- and Annie Proulx, in her new collection of stories, carries it off without a hitch.

May 10, 1999 | The Book Review
Second Coming

Paula Fox's "Desperate Characters," reissued after 28 years, hardly feels dated -- one definition of great literature.

April 12, 1999 | The Book Review
Immaculate Confection

"East of the Mountains," David Guterson's follow-up to "Snow Falling on Cedars," is polished, heartwarming, civic-minded -- and devoid of mystery.

March 29, 1999 | The Book Review
All the President's Man

George Stephanopoulos's odyssey from star-struck, ambitious young politico to older, wiser, much richer pundit is an emblematic generational story -- not in a good way.

March 22, 1999 | The Book Review
Lewinsky in Oz

Dorothy had ruby slippers; Monica had presidential knee pads. Dorothy had the wicked witch; Monica had Linda Tripp. Guess who the wizard is.

March 15, 1999 | The Book Review
Diet Fiction

New novels by Hanif Kureishi and Chimo are attractively slender -- the book as accesory -- but there's less there than meets the eye.

March 1, 1999 | The Book Review
Escape From Ireland

Out of old-fashioned Irish literary stock -- crazy father, long-suffering mother, many restless children -- Emer Martin makes a modern, fast-paced (if slightly woolly) novel.

February 15, 1999 | The Book Review
The Smashing Eggheads

Norman Podhoretz's memoir of bare-knuckle intellectuals is good, trashy reading -- Jerry Springer by another name.

January 25, 1999 | The Book Review
More Than Zero

For a few hundred pages of his new novel, Bret Ellis makes art out of vacuous night crawlers and brand names. Then -- too bad -- he tries to make a point.

January 11, 1999 | The Book Review
Gore Text

An anthology spanning 50 years of Gore Vidal's smart, gossipy, opinionated prose reveals this acerbic writer -- whatever literary form he chooses -- as a people person.