Fiction The Windup Bird and Tuesday's Women by Haruki Murakami. The narrator, a resident of Tokyo, has quit his job in a law office, and is living as a house husband. One Tuesday morning he receives a phone call from an unknown woman, who says she will help him "come to an understanding," if he'll give her ten minutes. Busy...

Fiction Caution: Wet Paint by Michael Crawford. Six illustrations with captions, showing contemporary artists with examples of their work; beneath the captions there are brief quotations in which the artists explicate their aesthetic ideas, in a style parodying critical jargon. The captions read: "Wolf Danny with 'Random'"; "Mary One with 'Horror Show' (In Progress)"; "Jimmy Mussolini with...

Comment by William Finnegan. Comment about people writer sees on street and in subway in New York City. Is it writer, or has NYC been producing more than its usual crop of apocalyptic images? Writer's not thinking so much of all the recent bad news--the random violence, the municipal cutbacks, the "News" strike...

The Theatre SHADY DOINGS by Mimi Kramer.

The Talk of the Town Envy by Susan Orlean. A talk story about the Long Island Custom Car Show, held at the Coliseum. Big Daddy, who had his own booth is more famous than writer. In fact, while writer was talking to him, a young man walked up and asked her if she knew that Big Daddy was the...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Books by Faith McNulty.

Jazz by Whitney Balliett.

A Reporter at Large THE UNCOMMITTED CRIME by Alec Wilkinson. REPORTER AT LARGE about Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska. An Indian frontier town called Angoon is the only town there. Most of its 630 inhabitants are Tlingit & they want to preserve their ancestral ways. Writer visited there in Jan. & then in Apr. Tlingit denotes a language, not a...

The Talk of the Town Good Use by A. Alvarez. Talk story about a recent concert by the Grateful Dead, in London, at the end of a European tour. Though the writer isn't much interested in rock and roll, the Grateful Dead are special, a bell to toll him back to his youth. He visits the band backstage at Wembley...

Poetry Strange Thanksgiving by Tess Gallagher. I don't know anyone at the table except...

Poetry November On Her Way by Deborah Garrison. Here we go again...

Poetry Small Mercies by Eamon Grennan. From where I stand I can see the chipmunk...