Reflections THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER THE MURDERER-II by Janet Malcolm. REFLECTIONS about the lawsuit brought against writer Joe McGinniss by convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald. McGinniss wrote a book, "Fatal Vision" about MacDonald's murder of his pregnant wife & children in 1970, and a subsequent trial. Both in his prepared story & in his unpremeditated responses MacDonald used language that was...

Comment Comment Pt. II by Fred C. Shapiro. Two weeks ago the writer, who lives in Beijing, saw Bush being welcomed, feted, outmaneuvered & publicly rebuked in the Chinese media. The Chinese government's exclusion of the dissident physicist, Fang Lizhi, from Bush's banquet played differently in the Western & Chinese media. The Chinese government felt that it had...

Fiction Goodness and Mercy by Alice Munro. Bugs & her daughter Averill are on a cruise in the North Atlantic. Bugs' real name is June Rogers; she is a singer who has not sung in public for over a year because she is dying. She becomes increasingly ill on the cruise & stops taking lunch & dinner...

The Current Cinema TWO-BASE HIT by Pauline Kael.

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Tells about the Senate's rejection of Pres. Bush's nominee for Sec. of Defense, John Tower. The episode, which has rent Washington, was unnecessary. It was an example (not the first) of Pres. Bush's exercising questionable judgment in making a key selection & then to show "strength", digging in. The uproar...

The Theatre MISCHIEF AFOOT by Edith Oliver.

Concert Records / Popular Music by Mark Moses.

Comment Comment, Pt. I by Suzannah Lessard. Nearly every American politician who has borne responsibility for nuclear weapons has felt that it didn't make sense to risk the end of the world for the stature of the U.S. But when push came to shove they did just that. The alternative, yielding to "nuclear blackmail" seems to involve...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

A Critic at Large "READER, I MARRIED HIM" by Judith Thurman. A CRITIC AT LARGE about Charlotte Bronte(who published 3 novels under the pseudonym Currer Bell)& her biographers. Because Bronte had achieved notoriety in equal measure with glory, Elizabeth Gaskell, Bronte's first biographer & friend, set out to vindicate Bronte. The next century of biographers take a less defensive...

The Talk of the Town Safari by Brendan Dealy. Talk story about Robert and Richard Blau who are in the business of throwing theme parties--a medieval bar mitzvah, or a wedding reception with an ice-age motif. Robert is 25 and his brother Richard is 4 years younger. Tells how they worked the birthday--party circuit when they...

The Talk of the Town President Vigdis by Mary Jo Salter. Talk story about a Massachusetts woman who has been living with her family in Iceland & about her encounter with the President of Iceland, a woman named Vigdis Finnbogadittir... What Iceland is most like is the inside of writer's furnished apartment. Looking out her kitchen window is like looking into...

Poetry Powder Compact by James Lasdun. Twenties, machine-age cloisonne, steel lines...

Poetry Overtime by Philip Levine. The rolling stock comes to rest...