Fiction The Bookseller by Elizabeth Hardwick. Roger runs a second-hand bookstore called the Pleiade on Columbus Ave. It is November. He gets a lot of business from the overflow from the movie showing down the street. Describes him and the things he knows about books. He knows a lot of writers who are surprised to...

The Talk of the Town Drama by Marion Knox Barthelme. Talk story about Pavel Kohout, the Czech playwright who was stripped of his citizenship and exiled after a series of govt. actions against him dating from his signing of the Charter 77 human rights manifesto. He is 52 years old, and now living in Vienna. He recently met with a...

The Talk of the Town Cat Story by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about a promotion session at Sardi's for a book about cats and how to take care of them, edited (so to speak) by Morris, an orange tabby cat, who is the star of a cat-food advertising campaign. (The food is not mentioned, but it is Nine Lives...

The Talk of the Town Light by Calvin Tomkins. Talk story about a California artist whose first New York show opened in late October at the Whitney. Turrell's work involves the illumination of spaces to create optical illusions. The Whitney show includes five installations, which are described. Turrell has been doing such work for 15 years. He attended Pomona...

Dancing Mythology by Arlene Croce.

Profiles Court Buff by Mark Singer. PROFILE of Benjamin Shine, of Brooklyn, a 73-year-old court buff, an individual who spends most of his days observing criminal trials at the State Supreme Court, at Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn. Mr. Shine is particularly fond of murder trials, but he also happens to be a student of the...

A Reporter in Europe ZURICH by Jane Kramer. A REPORTER IN EUROPE about Zurich and Switzerland. The Swiss take it on faith that the survival of any goodness in the world depends on the survival of the Swiss franc, and Zurich is the city most devoted to that end. It is a beautiful, congenial city. In Switzerland there...

Comment by James Stevenson. A friend told of a radio commercial for a catering firm that offers "catered-affair-cancellation insurance". He said: "It's for when the happy couple split up just before the wedding reception, the guest speaker gets laryngitis, or the company picnic is rained out. Now I hope the insurance industry...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Television Knicker, Knacker, Snicker, Snooker by Philip Hamburger. Parody of public television's production of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," based on the novel by John Le Carre. The hero is Frisbee. The scene is London. A moderator summarizes the story. At Central Central, one of their own is gnawing from within. Aorta is dying. Frisbee opens a locker at...

Books An Earlier Day by John Updike.

Musical Events Of Dames, of Knights, of Love's Delight by Andrew Porter.

Poetry North and South by Derek Walcott. Now, through the vigil of Venus--the steady star...

Poetry Precipitation by Debora Greger. It comes down, it falls everywhere like some ruined...