Books by Susan Lardner.

Fiction A Half-Life Ahead by Penelope Gilliatt. Nicholas Grey, an architect, lives with his 2nd wife, much younger than he. She is Egyptian, 6'4" & says she has royal Watusi blood. She calls him Bambino & answers to Bambina. She must once have had a name, but this was the only one she reliably replied to...

The Talk of the Town Chief by William McKibben. Talk story about John O'Rourke, who retires this fall as chief of the city's Fire Department. Chief O'Rourke first worked in Brooklyn, in Greenpoint. Then, as a young lieutenant, he was assigned to Brownsville. In Brownsville, there were a great many fires. They went from 300 runs a month to...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett.

Comment Comment, Pt. II by Lawrence Weschler. We've been haunted in recent weeks by memories of a scene in Gillo Pontecorvo's 1965 "The Battle of Algiers." That film, as you may recall, was a stirring piece of agitprop, a gritty, cinema-verite-style re-creation of the urban terrorist campaign that precededed Algeria's liberation from French colonial...

The Talk of the Town Secure by William McKibben. Talk story about Scott Armstrong, executive director of the National Security Archive, a clearing house for important information extracted from the government by various researchers. Armstrong is also a former Washington Post investigative reporter and the co-author with Bob Woodward of "The Brethren," a book about the Supreme Court...

A Reporter at Large I-FROM MARCOS TO AQUINO by Robert Shaplen. A REPORTER AT LARGE about the Philippines. Last February there was an extraordinary rebellion in the wake of fraudulent election. It was primarily peaceful, although behind it lay elements of potential violence that could have exploded into civil war. It has brought into sharper focus social & economic disparities that...

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

Comment Comment, Pt. I by Ian Frazier. Letter from a staff writer: After I heard that my friend Kim Williams, the author, naturalist and radio commentator had died of cancer at her home in Missoula, Montana, I hung up the telephone and took out my notes on her. I have hundreds and hundreds of them; somehow, just...

Reflections QUESTIONS ABOUT LANGUAGE II-CATS by Vicki Hearne. REFLECTIONS about cats. Writer looks at the mysteriousness of cats. She explains that in some ways they want to please us more than dogs do. She prefaces her discussion by saying one should not be objective; to be objective is to try to approach the condition of being No One...

Fiction Horse Camp by Ursula K. Le Guin. Fantasy story about two sisters, Sal and Norah, and a friend, Ev, who go to horse camp during the summers and are transformed from human form to equine. As they wait to board buses they discuss the cabins they will be assigned, and the horse trainer, Jim Meredith (Meredy). They...

Poetry by C. K. Williams. He has his lips pressed solidly against her cheek, his eyes...