The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 214

THE PAIM Bf ACM POST SUNDAY, PfCTMfil 30, 1900 AII-Ameriean boy Sieve Alford 1 111 balanced view of Knigbl gives l-jiKlishi; IrlU hw flobby Knight ri into hit player, throws chair, disowns the team and bemhet star avers even if it ntrans uing a game. Hut Knight uarre U-havior is bdlanctM by hi eitraordmary mm Publishing Notes Box-office clehiil can mean boosl in hook's sales tJy bETH MclCOO PtAYINO FOR KWGMT. Steke Aifo4 itn Canity. frsje. tkv l-y S.hxvi 4 SitHjMef; 2j3 p.if, $9 'jr'j.

Four rdti a(ju, H.it writer John Frmtein ripoM-d imiuni t'nuttKy etlive t4intMlI tM in Ihe Itll all t- M-llcr. A Ni l'ie lit ink Now Ihrre a raiej irriin uiluble for children ano) ruJih aJuli uf (Wh Uliby Knittht i iiiljinou ijiitrums and iniunidjtin l4 li- uxd to (irudiMT winning rvlltce teams ir K'uij'ii i an autobiography by Sinf Allord. a wu-aiy It jn Induna boy who grew up lo live his dream id pl-iung for the llmtMeni and inning Ihe luninmliip die' i ttmMrvaliv be writes Fur Ihe ret-ord. I dn I approve of profanity and don'l ue it casually niVM-lf There will be no more of it in these jif won even employ the usual dashes and euphemisms, which the littlest kid ran figure out ') The easy proe (Alford hirel Spirit ilusir.iirtf'i John (larriiy to put hi lile into correct, readable amfiipiihnmu ihruugn me perjtetive of Alford, who was an All Anwt lean guard and member of Ihe CM I'S Olyinpif team Knight ruathtJ Id a gold medal Alloid does My that what Feinsiein wrote is atrurate but mavbe nut at Uilanctit at il thould have hern More than the story of Botbv Knight, though, or Knithi it the story of Steve Alford It about a young man devtition to bit father (a high hmt basketball ruacbl and the sacrifice necessary to play at this level of the sport, It's a story that will play well in IVoria and in Indiana homes where allegiance lo I lousier basketball is nest to godliness It could also inspire many youngsters, regardless of where they live, who dribble and shout their days away fantasuing their team ts in the championship game, down by a point, they've got the ball, they put up the shot, and It GOUI Steve Aifocd and coach Bobby Knight talk after Indiana won the NCAA Championship in 1987. tttut hjpjx-n b'k whn new nun its mine lo Ihf theater? VWH, il cm actually I good new lor mine (iitililu-r S'iit btkMire are Mocking up Vn- i.i,ff.i!)i-f (NAM, M-irio I'uo best seller that Mikt-d Ihf movie CtkHathrr II.

and J'hn Carre new spy novel. Vie Secret 1'iUintu iltjiijoin IIoum-i, Mill be (-online out shortly The movie V.e It ussui iiuM', which opened Friday, is b.iM-d on his previous novel by the wine name. ILintam alo mil re-release the novel in paperback rn IF TLKIE lm A crime novel uses South Florida as a backdrop to cite the environmental price of development litis month Thi It misery? This inonih Stephen King not only had another movie based on one ol his books Misery but King ali occupied five places on 71ie York rimes best seller lists. Four I 'ust MutniaUt (Viking) and 71ie 5tiiil (Doubleday) were on the Times hardcover fiction list Tin Hark Half (Signet I. Aisery (Signet) and It (Signet) were on the Times paperback fiction list.

Stephen King is so popular that he could rite his name on a Brian E. Crowley BOOKS EDITOR By BRIAN E. CROWLEY Pm Bci esi Hs diio APPARENT WIND, by Dallas Mutphy. Pocket Boohs Hardcover; 272 partes; 19.95. DKm IxHimis was a gilted writer, t'nfor-tunately the book he wrote was a fraud, part of an elaborate eon game (hat got him two years in a New York prison.

Now he has returned lo his native Florida Keys where he discovers that he has inherited a small but valuable town that greedy developers are battling to take over. From this premise. Dallas Murphy weaves ij' 1 napkin and earn tl million for the book and movie rights Award winners In paperback: IVnguin has announced il will release the paperback version of Middle Passu ut' by Charles Johnson under its I'lume imprint. This was the historical novel that won this year National Book Award for fiction. The non-fiction inner.

7'hc House of Morgan: An Hanking Dynasty uml the JJi.se of Modern Finance, by Hon Chernow. is to be published in paperback by Simon Schuster under its Touchstone imprint. Both are due out this spring. A chance to laugh at ourselves: Anyone who is a Ikmneshury fan should get a copy of Garry Trudcau's Recycled Dooncshury: Second a talc oi murder and intrigue. Dut (his book.

Apparent Wind, is much more than an excellent crime novel. Murphy is askin? his In rp- illli pj member that Florida has highways, cranky tourists and embittered natives, lioom Looiins discovers that the property he owns is sinking but that's not stopping New York billionaire lnald Sikes or his rival. Big At Hroadnax who rules Omnium Key. from trying to take over Ihe land. They ant to develop it and let someone else worry about the sinking.

When Doom discovers that one of these men murdered his father, he begins to plot his revenge. Part of what makes this book a success is that Murphy, who grew up in West Palm Beach and now lives in New York, uses the environmental themes as a natural backdrop to his crime story. He never overwhelms the reader with his environmental concerns. The blending is so well done that it's almost like asking your doctor when he's going to give you the shot, only to find out he did it while you were thinking about something else. The characters are interesting; their conversations always have a natural feel.

Murphy's dry wit and sardonic style often leads to a laugh. There are no heroes in this book. Nearly every character is crooked or foolish or vengeful or all of those things; even Loo-mis. The most implausible characters in the book are the "two Annes" women determined to film every minute of Loomis' life for a possible movie. When first introduced, they are interesting side characters.

But as the plot moves along; it simply makes no sense that Loomis would continue to let them hang around. What happens to the film later in the book really just doesn't work and weakens the ending. Despite the problem with the two Annes, Murphy's second published novel (his first was Lover Man, Pocket Books) demonstrates that he is an imaginative and skilled author. Apparent Wind is scheduled for release puiu a puniiui 1,11 ii uiiiiii it tal price for its development. What makes this story so masterful is that MurDhv touches our envi- Thoughts on a (hided Age (Andrews and McMeel).

This anthology has some of Trudeau's best and fiercest satire of the Reagan and Bush administrations. He also takes shots at Donald Trump. Gary Hart, the press, cigarettemakers and just about anybody else who deserves it. He does it all with a cast of characters that is as fresh today as it was 20 years ago. Japanese When Murphy ronmental conscience without preaching.

He sets the tone early in the story by introducing a pair of developers who arrived in South Florida in the 1920s with a new view of the land. "There had arisen in the North a new concept of life vacation and with it a new concept of land that would alter South Florida forever. After the birth of vacation, land was no longer viewed as a utilitarian place in which to hunt, gather, farm, or homestead. Land became a parcel, a lot, a unit, a part of a portfolio. It became real By 1990, the shape of the land has changed for the worse.

The natural environment of mm mmw Trudeau 'Apparent by West Palm Beach-born Dallas Murphy, follows a felon who returns to Florida, where he inherits land, faces greedy Matsushita announced that it planned to buy MCA for $6.13 billion, there was a lot of talk about the increasing domination of the Japanese in the American movie industry. When Matsushita bought MCA they got more than movie and television businesses. The company also picked up Putnam Berkley Group which, according to Publishers Weekly, contributes 6 percent of MCA's revenues. A spokeswoman for Putnam Berkley told 'IV that it expects Matsushita to aggressively expand and market the developers and learns of his father's murder. in January.

Omnium Key has given way to overcrowded Terrorism' Writer makes povcrful case in 'Narco- By CHRISTOPHERLEHMANN-HAUPT and illicit activity is and always has non. Syria, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. New York Times News Service been the United States, as a natural TvDical of her survey is the Palestine Typical of her survey is the Palestine publishing group while leaving control with existing management. continue to rise until we acknowledge our true enemies. Ehrenfeld, who has an Best Sellers consequence of economic and political factors," Ehrenfeld writes.

"For the trafficker, the United States is the wealthiest and biggest consumer of illegal drugs in the world. "The proof for narco-terrorism is found in bits and pieces scattered across the globe," she writes. "Some elements are missing. Some only can be surmised. And since I am not putting anyone on trial, the body of evidence is not airtight." All the same, what she has assembled is "a mosaic in which the patterns are distinct enough to form substantial conclusions." This mosaic comprises countries such as Bulgaria, Cuba, Leba Liberation Organization, which, she asserts, earns $300 million from the narcotics trade yearly.

But almost equally to blame is the United States itself, whose rising demand for drugs continues to make narco-terrorism work. In her concluding chapter, "The Other America: From Grass to Crack," Ehrenfeld points a finger at everything from the counterculture of the '60s to presidents such as Jimmy Carter, whom she considers drug-permissive, to the sort of flabby thinking that promotes the legalization of drugs. Because America lacks the will to fight back, she argues, addiction will advanced degree in criminology, makes a powerful case, though there are certainly gaps in her logic. Her case against legalization in America is based on extremely limited source material, and her fanciful projection of what would happen if drugs were legalized can be refuted by an equally plausible scenario that would prove just the opposite. Nonetheless, by calling attention to what drugs have done to societies other than to the United States, Narco-Ter-rorism serves powerfully to raise one's consciousness of their danger.

NARCO-TERRORISM, by Rachel Eh-renfeld. Basic Books; 225 pages; $19.95. Narco-terrorism, writes Rachel Eh-renfeld in this sobering if somewhat sketchy report, "is the use of drug trafficking to advance the objectives of certain governments and terrorist organizations." In her paradigmatic case, a drug-producing subculture is offered protection by a politically radical organization. The organization sells drugs to raise money for weapons and uses them to promote revolution and to provide protection for the drug producer. "The major target for this deadly New York Times News Service HARDCOVER Fiction 1 THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE, by Jean Auel (Crown.

95). 2 FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT, by Stephen King. (Viking. THE POLAR EXPRESS, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg. (Houghton Mifflin.

$17,951. 4 THE WITCHING HOUR, by Anne Rice (Knopf. 5 DAZZLE, by Judith Krant. (Crown, 6 MEMORIES OF MIDNIGHT, by Sidney Sheldon. (Morrow.

7 CARL'S CHRISTMAS, by Alexandra Day. (Farrar, Straus Giroux. 8 JURASSIC PARK, by Michael Crichton. (Knopf. 9 THE BURDEN OF PROOF, by Scott Turow.

(Farrar. Straus Giroux. $22 951. 10 LONGSHOT, By Dick Francis. (Putnam.

$19 95). IliHHIftiWHMIIHl Non-fiction Modern world reinvented in audacious 'Traffic' 1 A LIFE ON THE ROAD, by Charles Kuralt. (Putnam. 2 THE CIVIL WAR, by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns.

(Knopf. $50). 3 BO KNOWS BO, by Bo Jackson and Dick Schaap. (Doubleday, 4 MILLIE'S BOOK, as dictated to Barbara Bush (Morrow. 5 ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN, by Robert Fulghum.

(Villard. 6 IRON JOHN, by Robert Bly. (Addison Wesley. 7 THE CAT AND THE CURMUDGEON, by Cleveland Amory. (Little Brown.

8 GET TO THE HEART, by Barbara Mandrell with George Vecsey (Bantam. AM AMERICAN LIFE, by Ronald Reagan. (Simon Schuster, 10 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, by H.G. Bissmger. (Addison Wesley.

fiercely unsealing, both explicit and otherworldly; a man who can make interspecies love seem reasonable has no trouble in expressing the myriad motivations and desires of human sexuality. His political scenes have the same detachment; as his heroine expresses herself with her sexuality, his diplomats take the same pleasure in their machinations. That detachment is a major part of what gives Traffic and Laughter its strength; Mooney is a calm observer of his characters, examining their cultures with an anthropologist's eye. Even his most familiar scenes have a hallucinogenic edge of lucidity, an otherworldly brightness that both suggests and amplifies the worlds diplomatic and show business he investigates. With his first novel, Mooney's promise was With Traffic and Laughter, it is well on the way to By PETER SMITH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer TRAFFIC AND LAUGHTER, by Ted Mooney.

Knopf; 402 pages. Ted Mooney's first novel, F.asy Travel To Otlier Planets, was a coolly erotic tale of a research scientist who had an affair with a communicating dolphin. It seemed to fall between the cracks; too odd for mainstream tastes, and not especially noted by science fiction followers. But its reputation grew among science fiction readers and writers; William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, leaders of the "cyberpunk" science fiction movement, regard it as a seminal work for its portrayal of information disease, an illness that comes from taking in too much data at once. Mooney's second novel.

Traffic and LaiKjhter, contains a more subtle bit of alternate reality, one that leaves the reader gasping at his audacity. Mooney has clearly thought out this reinvention of the world, creating changes both smooth and jarring. The novel takes place in 1990s Los Angeles. Two daughters of diplomats, one an actress, one a disc jockey, meet and impulsively decide to share a house; they don't know that their fathers are literally negotiating the fate of the world between them. As the two women grow closer, it becomes obvious to them that they are being manipulated by forces that have more to do with their fathers than anything else.

Mooney is a lyrical writer; lyricism tempered though, by a sense of detachment. Some short scenes of the novel are written in screenplay form, which is used to suggest the theatrical unreality of the situations as well as the shallowness of the Los Angeles milieu. His erotic scenes are I I Mil II IIBIOIINU PAPERBACK Fiction In 'Traffic and Ted Mooney confirms his promise as an unconventional writer with the use of his trademark explicitness. 1 DANCES WITH WOLVES, by Michael Blake. (Fawcett, $4 95).

2 MISERY, by Stephen King. (Signet. 3 THE BAD PLACE, by Dean R. Koontz. (Berkley.

4 FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, by Umberto Eco. (Ballantme. 5 THE DARK HALF, by Stephen King. (Signet. 6 THE GIFT, by Julie Garwood.

(Pocket, 7 SLEEPWALK, by John Saul. (Bantam. 8 IT, by Stephen King. (Signet, 9 DADDY, by Danielle Steel. (Dell.

10 DAWN, by V.C. Andrews. (Pocket. Paperbacks cover World War II, civil rights, prostitution Non-fiction By CHARLES SOLOMON Los Angeles Times News Service Manhattan '45, by Jan Morris (Oxford University Press; Jan Morris has compiled an enraptured valentine to New York at one of the most exciting moments in its history, the soldiers returning from Europe. This entertaining, informal history makes it obvious that for most of its inhabitants, Manhattan was a safer, more agreeable place to live in 1945 than it is in 1990 Midnight Cowboy, by James Leo Herlihy (Primus; Considered daring in 1960, this novel about a would-be male prostitute, seems decidedly tame 30 years later Willie Mae, by Elizabeth Kytle (EPM; Published in 1958, 1 ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGAR TEN, by Robert Fulghum.

(Ivy. $5 95). 2 THE CAT WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS, by Cleveland Amory (Penguin. 3 EDUCATION OF A WANDERING MAN, by Louis Amour (Bantam. 4 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, by Lynn Goldsmith.

(Kodak. Rizroli. 5 FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM, Thomas L. Friedman. (Anchor Doubleday.

6 THE CUCKOO'S EGG. by Cliff Stoll. (Pocket. 7 THE ROAD FROM COORAIN, by Jill Ker Conway. (Vintage.

8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, by Stephen W. Hawking (Bantam. $9,951. 9 LIAR'S POKER, by Michael Lewis. (Penguin.

$8.95) 10 THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, by M. Scott Peck student revolution. (Apparently not much.) He comes across as a not very likable opportunist, smoking dope and partying at other people's expense A Child's War: World War II Through the Eyes of Children, by Kati Davis (Avon; Originally published in Holland, this collection of first-person recollections includes accounts from all areas of Europe. The most common reaction to the war was incomprehension: Why did a relative die in battle or have to flee because he was Jewish? A Czech dental technician, haunted by his memories of the neighbors who abused and starved the Jewish child they agreed to hide, sadly reflects, "Human cruelty is always waiting for an opportunity jit is waiting for that opportunity even New In Paperback Willie Mae was one of the first books to bring the contemporary problems of African-Americans to a large national audience. This vivid memoir of V'illie Mae Wright captures a resourceful woman who endured and even enjoyed her life of toil.

It is the ordinariness of the story that gives the book its power Beyond the Revolution: My Life and Times Since Famous Long Ago, by Ray Mungo (Contemporary Books; One of the founders of the Liberation News Service and a minor '60s icon, Ray Mungo tells what he has been doijpg since the heady days of the.