St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 34

CIO st. louis post-dispatch ARTS ENTERTAINMENT Sunday, November 5, 2000 postnet.comentertainment g) "For, however unfashionable it may be, there are serious intellectual issues almost buried beneath the avalanche of morbid kitsch and populistic trivia which this subject From "The Third Reich" In "Setting Fires," characters rise from the ashes i I rj ri i Scholarly approach gets inside the spirit and culture of the Nazi years Sunday Brad Newsham: The author of "Take Me With You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home" will talk about his travels and sign copies of the book. 4 p.m. at Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue. Free.

(314-367-6731) Robert Munsch: The author of children's books including "Love You Forever" and "The Paper Bag Princess" will sign copies of his books. 2 p.m. at Barnes Noble, 9618 Watson Road, Crestwood. Free. (314-843-9480) Tuesday Carolyn Ferrell: The author will read and sign copies of her award-winning book of stories, "Don't Erase Me." 8 p.m.

at Washington University, Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Skinker Boulevard and Forest Park Parkway. Free. (314-935-7130) THE THIRD REICH Wednesday Brad Newsham: (see Sunday) 7 p.m. at Travel Den Books Maps, 461 South Kirkwood Road in Kirkwood. Free.

(314-909-6900) St. Louis Publishers Association: Guest speaker Todd Porter of Unique Books will speak about How to Tap Into the Library Market. Networking is from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at Richmond Terrace Retirement Center, 1633 Laclede Station Road in Richmond Heights.

(314-275-7728) "The Third Reich: A New History" By Michael Burleigh Published by Hill and Wang, 965 pages, $40 Nazi war criminals Hermann Goering (left) and Rudolf Hess listen to the verdict against them at the 1946 trial in Nuremberg. Goering was sentenced to death. He committed suicide just hours before he was to be executed. Hess received life imprisonment. He committed suicide in 1987.

By Joseph Losos Special to the Post-Dispatch Forty years ago, William L. Shirer produced the widely read "The Rise and JKall of the Third Reich," a well-researched work by an amateur historian that can be still found in numerous private libraries. Shirer was among the first to seek to sum up what the story of Nazism was about; his sprightly narrative has been followed by an immense outpouring of books on the subject. Most notable are learned tomes on every conceivable aspect of Adolf Hitler's Germany. Michael Burleigh, a noted British scholar, now attempts to use all that scholarship to write a new large study of the Third Reich.

The subject is basically that of Shirer's, but Burleigh has created a very different book. Some of the differences are personal: Shirer had lived and worked in Nazi Germany as a news correspondent, and his book reflected his experi-' ences and predilections, whereas Burleigh is a professor who writes very largely from a thorough knowledge of a vast literature. Whereas Shirer composed his study largely from the writings of the Nazi era supplemented by the information derived from the Nuremberg trials and their aftermath, Burleigh has the advantage of years of research and the thoughts and emphases of another generation. (Burleigh, a visiting professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, is Distinguished Research Professor in Modern History at Cardiff University.) Shirer produced a rather straightforward narrative of the years from 1933 to 1945 I By Dale Singer I Of the Post-Dispatch In the middle of a search through the debris of the Wald-mas family's burned-out weekend home in Connecticut, seeking a cause for the flames, Josh Waldmas and a fire investigator come upon what seems to be a perfect a tin can with hbles in the side, attached to an aluminum pie plate with four neatly twisted wires. "Looks like the arsonist set it up so the accelerant would drain out slowly onto the.

pie plate," the investigator explains somberly, as Josh head in disbelief. Then Annie Waldmas bursts out laughing: "It's the bird feeder!" The exchange captures' the tone of Kate Wenner's "Setting Fires," one of wariness and worry that often evaporate in the face of further explanatioiibut still haunt the characters as much as the rubble of their home does. The action of the bird feeder-arson device also reflects Wenner's effective technique: fuel for suspicion and emotion that drains out slowly before having the desired effect. That description fits Annie's dogged pursuit of what she insists are connections among curious fires at properties owned by Jews' in the rural areas surrounding'lftew York City; her gradual reawakening to a religion that she thinks has made her a target; the cancer that is eating away at her father; and the relationship between him and Annie and her three siblings as they grow closer during the progress of his illness. The religious implications are particularly well done as-' Annie's investigation into the; fire parallels a renewed interest in her family's faith.

She calls' her background "a California brand of "Abe Fishman had passed virtually nothing of the Jewish religion to his children, as nothing had been passed to him when he was growing up. In our smart, secular, left-leaning family, religion was regarded as the opiate of the masses." Wenner weaves these threads of the story skillfully, though the novel sags early on as Annie's father lapses into a long recitation of his early life, supposedly to inform his daughter but really to give the reader crucial background. The relatively clumsy handling of that backstory is one flaw of the book; another' the question of why Wenner felt she had to tell the reader, within the first two pages, that two-fires bracketed Annie's life: theone that destroyed her family's country home and the equally traumatic one that gutted--her father's family store when he was just a teen-ager. Saving, that information for later could have enriched the novel's lessons-. But those criticisms do not negate the book's strengths.

The Waldmas and the Fishman families experience true trials' by fire, and like all such show what the are truly made of. Both a detective story and a family history, ''Setting Fires" provides worthwhile lessons of forgiveness, redemption and loyalty. ter of current thought. Thus, he quotes the recently published Klemperer diaries and seeks to refute the Goldhagen thesis. This is a masterful explication of the scholarly view of Nazi Germany.

The differences in treatment from works of the years after 1945 throws light, therefore, not only on the change of substantive views but also on the changes in the mores of the historical guild. On the other hand, Burleigh is, in some important respects, much like Shirer. Both writings are full of personal opinions and full-bodied gusto. Moreover, both writers are single-minded in their detestation of the Nazis, with this book gaining from the piled-up evidence of 40 years of new information. This new history deserves to find a place on people's bookshelves next to the older work.

Joseph Losos is a St. Louis investment adviser. fabric of the Third Reich, while the military campaigns (so exhaustively studied in earlier books) are treated haphazardly, with a close examination of the war in Russia and little else. The diplomatic history to which Shirer devotes many chapters is almost ignored. Burleigh's preferences are very much in the mainstream of contemporary scholarly history.

The author is not only well grounded in the writings of numerous historians but is also an almost perfect prototype of the contemporary academic. He wants us to know about the degree of complicity of individuals of both high and low status in Nazi crimes. He is determined to get inside the spirit, the culture (in all senses of the word) of both' the regime and the society, and he is interested in what makes the laws tick more than how they were enacted. He is very much in the cen- and dealt largely with the diplomacy and military record of the Nazi government, with a fair amount of economic history and occasional social commentary thrown in. Most of the attention was paid to Hitler and his top henchmen, tracing primarily the actions of the leaders and secondarily showing how this was seen from below.

Burleigh's treatment is radically different. The book proceeds more or less chronologically, but takes different subjects in large lumps. The areas with which Burleigh deals are chosen as especially significant, so this book goes into the pogroms against Jews, Gypsies and sick people at great length, as well as devoting chapters to Nazi welfare programs, concentration camp methods and the anti-Nazi resistance. A great deal of attention is paid to the social and cultural Week ending Oct. 21, as compiled by The New York Times Hardcover fiction a The Last Precinct, by Patricia Cornwell Merrick, by Anne Rice Drowning Ruth, by Christina Schwarz Shopgirl, by Steve Martin II The Rescue, by Nicholas Sparks Prodigal Summer, by Barbaba Kingsolver The Bear and the Dragon, by Tom Clancy The Sky Is Falling, by Sidney Sheldon 0 The Carousel, by Richard Paul Evans EO The Devil's Code, by John Sandford Hardcover nonfiction ffl The Beatles Anthology, by the Beatles 0 The O'Reilly Factor, by Bill O'Reilly On Writing, by Stephen King Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, by Richard Ben Cramer Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom Nothing Like It in the World, by Stephen E.

Ambrose El My Father's Daughter, by Nancy Sinatra with Jeff Coplon Drudge Manifesto, by Matt Drudge with Julia Phillips It's Not About the Bike, by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins Ed Shadows of a Princess, by P.D. Jephson Paperback fiction Pop Goes the Weasel, by James Patterson Tom Clancy's Net Force: Breaking Point, created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik, written by Steve Berry 0 Beyond Eden, by Catherine Coulter Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins El Calder Pride, by Janet Dailey Monster, by Jonathan Kellerman 0 Saving Faith, by David Baldacci 0 A Walk to Remember, by Nicholas Sparks 0 Assassins, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins ED Hiding in the Shadows, by Kay Hooper Paperback nonfiction 0 The Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav 0 A Child Called "It," by Dave Pelzer 0 Tis, by Frank McCourt A Man Named Dave, by Dave Pelzer 0 Have a Nice Day! by Mick Foley (wrestler Mankind) 0 The Lost Boy, by Dave Pelzer 0 The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger 0 The Liars' Club, by Mary Karr 0 A Walk In the Woods, by Bill Bryson EO Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt Novelist plays with words and your head WHAJ Ml VOU "What Are You Like?" A novel by Anne Enright Published by Atlantic Monthly Press, 272 pages, $24 ing wouldn't be so much fun. The characters in the novel include the many-sistered Albert "Berts" Delahunty, a recent widower and even more recent father; Maria, the child (see above); then the second wife, Evelyn, and their children, plus a boyfriend named Anton; a sad sort named Rose; and a grumpy nun named Sr.

Misericordiae or Maura. Enright is witty and poetic and her observations are keen. "All pictures are taken in colour. Some of them come out in black and white," she notes. When Evelyn and Berts closed the house for the night, they did not wind the clocks or put out empty milk bottles, but "they walked through the ghosts of old routines as they performed the new ones, switching on timers, setting alarms." Rose "ate and went upstairs again and slept like she was eating sleep." Rose whose mother has died.

They "handled her from arm to arm, with the dip that people make when they give away a baby Ahh, it's all there, in every double meaning of idiom. The innocent double meanings begin with the title itself and continue through the chapter titles, such as "Spilt Milk" and "Mother Alert" and "The Country of the Lost." "What Are You Like?" is not a novel with a plot that can be summarized in a review. Enright doesn't explain the crux until 80 pages in, but even then, if you are not reading carefully, you might not put two and two together until closer to page 225. The novel is amazing (see and admirable. You're willing to forgive what, on the surface, is confusing or tedious after you realize that she had to do it this way, had to play with the words as well as your head.

Otherwise, writ By Martha K. Baker Special to the Post-Dispatch No matter how carefully you read "What Are You Like?" you may need to read it again. Anne Enright gives you all you need to know, but not at the beginning. At the beginning, she presents you with a first paragraph in a first chapter that, even if it weren't going anywhere, would be nigh on perfect. On second reading, the beginning offers the gift of content (unclear the way beginnings can be) that springs from wisdom wrapped in the heritage of language.

Here is how it begins: "She was small for a monster, with the slightly hurt look that monsters have and babies share, the same need to understand." It grows by accretion, gathering voices from the omniscient author's to the aunts' murmurs as they passed around an infant says, "Everything makes sense, but only if you translate it in time." That could well be Enright's thesis as well as her comfortable words to the reader. Martha K. Baker is a St. Louis writer and editor. Speaker -h: Who: Kate Wenner Where: St.

Louis Jewish Book Festival, Jewish Community Center, 2' Millstone Campus Drive When: 11 a.m. Monday How much: $5 More info: 314-432-5700 Authors sense of alienation shades melancholy novel "Cool for You" A novel by Eileen Myles Published by Soft Skull Press, 185 pages, $14 (paperback) ReadingSigning Who: Eileen Myles Where: Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday How much: Free More info: 314-367-6731 one confides in a childhood friend. By the end of "Cool for You" you do feel as though you know Eileen Myles, and you're glad you took the time to listen to her story. Charles Shipman is assistant director of news research for the Post-Dispatch.

LEFT BANK BOOK! andTravelDen Books present a discussion signing with 1 Rrari Newsham Vr By Charles Shipman Special to the Post-Dispatch Have you ever spent an evening with an old friend who wants to catch you up on her life? There's not enough time to cover everything that's happened over the years, so your friend tries to hit the high and low points. She shares events momentous and mundane, not necessarily in any obvious order but as connections come to mind. Reading "Cool for You," by poet and performance artist Eileen Myles, is a little bit like that. Although billed as a novel, "Cool for You" seems to be more a collection of scenes from the author's life than a fictional narrative, and it's not clear what, if anything, is "fictional" here (except in the sense that all memories are fictional to an extent). The book jumps from scene to scene, event to event with little explanation as Myles surveys her life, particularly her childhood in Boston.

This is disconcerting at first, but gradually say, I was 12 years old and I wanted to be an astronaut, and then I was sitting Myles devotes several scenes to her school days. She attended a Catholic school staffed by a troupe of nuns straight out of a Hollywood casting agency: bitter, repressed women with dour expressions and explosive tempers, hell-bent on thrashing the innocence and independence out of their students. (Can Catholic school really have been as awful as it is so often portrayed?) She also describes two grim jobs, one at a home for mentally disabled men, the other at a nursing home. And she writes bitterly of her grandmother's confinement to a mental institution for the last 17 years of her life. These episodes contribute to a general melancholy that pervades "Cool for You," and help explain Myles' sense of alienation.

Although the writing is sometimes too fragmented to follow and occasionally becomes a tad melodramatic (oh, those awful Myles has an undeniable gift for capturing the small details and mundane events that shape our lives. She's also capable of writing with tremendous sensitivity, and because she never slips into sentimentality, her tender passages are all the more affecting. Here she describes her relationship with her mother: "Her strength is what makes the world safe. The mother at the stove. In her house.

My mother turning the light out. The heated child body, the sick child is tended by her. The humming of her voice, the song she sings while she's waiting for her kid to get up. She taught me to pray. She has struck me several times.

My mother enforces the clock. As the temperature changes she hands me clothes. The food warms and cools as the earth turns slowly through the year. My mother is time. She hands it to me." Myles plunges you right into the events of her life as if you're familiar with the names and places, and confides in you as Meet the expert brothers seen on PBS's Antiques Roadshow Leigh Leslie Keno you settle in and simply let Myles tell her story.

As the scenes build on each other, you eventually get to know Eileen Myles at various stages in her life: as a young, bookish tomboy growing up in lower-middle class Boston; as a young adult coming to grips with her homosexuality (or more accurately, coming to grips with a society not willing to accept her homosexuality), and later, as a recovering alcoholic trying to make sense of her life I first sat in a church basement, and I was no longer drinking I had this one thought I don't understand, I would author of the new travelogue Take Me With You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home LEFT BANK BOOKS; 199 N. ElKLID Sunday, Nov. at 4:00 pm 114-7-6711 I TravelDen Books 461 S. Kirkwood Rd. -r Wednesday, Nov.

8 at 7:00 pm 314-909-6900 authors of the new book, Hidden Treasures Monday, Nov. 6 at 7:00 pm no appraisals please LEFT BANK BOOKS 199 H. EUCLID 167-6711.