St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page F010

ANNIES Post-Dispatch Political Correspondent As Jean Carnahan puts it in her latest book, she was well beyond 60 when her well-ordered life was swept up by unexplainable, the unpredictable and the unplanned that took the lives of her husband and son, destroyed the family home and thrust Carnahan into the U.S. Senate. The book aptly titled Let the Fire Go is attempt to bring meaning to those unwanted tragedies, while explaining how she transformed her sorrow into hope and her grief into action. The title comes from a private comment often made by her husband, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, when left their Rolla, home on a chilly morning.

It became public when his daughter, Robin Carnahan, used it in her emotional eulogy at her funeral just days after the Oct. 16, 2000, plane crash that also killed the eldest son, Randy, and a close aide, Chris Sifford. But it soon became the rallying cry for allies, who sought to carry on his campaign for the Senate and beseeched his widow to agree to serve in his place should he still be elected. Mel posthumous victory over incumbent Republican John Ashcroft marked the and only time a dead person has been elected to the U.S. Senate.

Most of the facts of that disaster and campaign are well known in Missouri. What book provides is a window into her own mind, as she grappled with decisions that she never had dreamed have to make. Her new book comes out as two of her children campaign for public State Rep. Russ Carnahan, D- St. Louis, is running for the 3rd District congressional seat being vacated by Rep.

Richard A. Gephardt. Robin Carnahan is running for Missouri secretary of state. Jean Carnahan provides some new detail, such as her thinking on the Sunday afternoon less than two weeks after the crash when she agreed to two statements: one accepting any Senate appointment, and the second turning it down. After the acceptance, she told the gathered consultants and crew that there was no need to the will-not-serve alternate.

But the most revealing moments come when she acknowledges cracks in generally been her public get-on-with-life-and-make-a- difference On Sept. 8, 2001, while Carnahan was at her home in Rolla, lightning struck the house and touched off a that destroyed much of it. After rescuing her portrait and some other treasured items, she recounts standing in the rain next to a neighbor and dissolving into tears. have I done I sobbed. It was the same pitiful, faithless question Job had asked centuries earlier.

It was the lowest point in my poor- little-me state of most striking, though, is that less than a third of the book deals with two years in the Senate. And for the most part she avoids delving into the nitty-gritty of her Senate defeat in 2002. Carnahan does recount her anger over a nonpartisan observation that she appears in the a comment that becomes part of the Republican ad campaign against her. But she fails to explain why her own campaign go more on the offensive against that jab. She also recalls the controversy over her public comment in the campaign that President George W.

Bush was unfairly targeting her which also prompted GOP outrage and a subsequent Carnahan apology. She makes no apology in the book, which leads the reader to wonder why Carnahan defend herself with more public gusto during the campaign. The most intriguing Senate tidbits have to do with her observations about Washington big shots especially her former colleagues. She portrays Sen. Trent Lott, as somewhat of a chauvinist jerk, and explains why Sen.

Dick Durbin, is dubbed for his rhetorical skills. Carnahan also recounts her awe at watching Sen. John Edwards, artfully field three phone lines at once during a frenzied afternoon of fundraising. Her down-to-earth recall is priceless. Reviewer Jo Mannies E-mail: OSEPH OSOS Special to the Post-Dispatch imon Sebag Montefiore has written a supremely important book about Joseph Stalin, a biography that other scholars will very hard to equal.

There is a bit about life before 1932, setting the stage for the years when he became, as the author remarks, a The story really begins when Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (the birth name) had climbed to the top of the greasy pole (to use Benjamin wonderful analogy), having pushed aside Vladimir expected successor, Leon Trotsky, and then cleverly defeated the leftist group and then the rightist group. He was the No. 1 man, but shows how he was still merely first among equals, a leader but not the leader. As the 1930s, that horrid decade, unfolded, Stalin gained more and more power. His right-hand man, Sergei Kirov, was assassinated to this day historians debate whether it was doing or not.

But it certainly was convenient, for it removed a possible rival and allowed Stalin to eradicate any other contenders or imaginary contenders for power. Not to put too delicate a spin on the matter, he had members of the Politburo tortured and murdered with sadistic glee, and then had many of his appointed murderers wiped out as well. While he was at it, vast numbers of lesser functionaries and a wide swath of ordinary Soviet citizens were shot, hanged or sent to the ghastly Siberian gulags. The wiping out of millions of non-poor farmers in the early had been atrocious, but at least there had been some rationality about it; this was sheer viciousness. In the process, Stalin grew ever more cynical and paranoid.

This tendency toward loony sadism, interspersed with bizarre kindnesses, continued and accelerated up to his death in 1953. The German invasion of 1941, about which Stalin had been warned but for which he refused to take ample precautions, at threw Stalin into deep gloom, followed in the years of survival and victory by manic meanness. By the time Stalin died, he was aping Adolf Hitler in his anti-Semitism and Ivan the Terrible (his greatest model) in his everyday beastliness. The book ends with a fascinating recol- lection, from V.M. Molotov, who lived for years after death and in his last years told about a nightmare: in some sort of destroyed city, and I a way out.

Afterwards I meet That is what one of his very closest followers came to think. What can one make of such a man? is as persuasive as one can be, depicting a person of above-average intelli- gence; great charm, when he wanted to display it, and natural shrewdness who had a tough youth and a tougher education in a time of conspiracy and slaughter. Stalin may have been a Tsarist agent before 1914; that did not prevent him from being an especially brutal Bolshevik among a gang of very violent men. The kinder, more thoughtful parts of his personality, which this book brings out as few others have done, drained out or were converted to the nastiest form of hypocrisy. All of this emerges from a marvelously well-researched work.

The Soviet archives are now open, as only the documents of an overthrown regime can be, and has assiduously mined them. In addition, he seems to have interviewed children and read writings. The author moves from high politics to the small stuff of everyday life, trivia that in the Kremlin was, as one realizes, by no means trivial. This is sure to be one of the outstanding books of the year. All books about Stalin portray him as a very strange ogre.

He is strangest in Unknown If there is an unknown Stalin, it is not the fault of numerous writers who have worked to reveal everything about the famous tyrant. Roy and Zhores Medvedev set out to discuss career and place in history through examining diverse aspects of his life. On the one hand, there is no question here of his monstrous crimes. In discussing the treatment of Nikolai Bukharin, who had been a longtime associate and presumably a friend, the authors remark that Stalin acted like a well-fed cat playing with a half-dead mouse. On the other hand, a sort of whimsical, almost likable and very smart guy is pictured here as well.

The authors say that Stalin, despite claims to the contrary, was indeed a superb leader during World War II. When he was not planning killings, he was literally tending his garden his specialty was lemon trees, in the vicinity of Moscow and advising poets and musicians. The Medvedevs admit that this could be dreadful or ghastly, but also, they say, sometimes helpful. The order in which these chapters appear is haphazard thus a detailed examination of the arrest, trial and execution of the noted Bukharin, is followed by a shorter piece about mother and an evident uncertainty on the part of the authors. They appear to be ambivalent in their treatment of character and place in history.

Joseph Losos is a St. Louis investment adviser. PAGE f10md1ae0418 F10 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ARTS ENTERTAINMENT SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 2004 Books Books demands the necessary falsity, the essential lie that the imagination knows is truer than what your rational self thinks is true about your William Kennedy BEST SELLERS SUNDAY 45th Annual Poetry Concert: Winners of two contests will read their poetry. Sponsored by St.

Louis Poetry Center. 1:30 p.m. at Conference Room Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Boulevard. Free. 314-770-9130.

MONDAY River Styx at The 29th season continues with readings by poets Joy Katz and Devin Johnston. 7:30 p.m. at Restaurant, 392 North Euclid Avenue. $5, $4 members, students and seniors. 314-533-4541.

TUESDAY Debra Dickerson: The author of End of Blackness will be the keynote speaker for National Library Week. 11 a.m. at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, 3400 Pershall Road. Free.

314-595-4484. Patricia McKissack: The award- winning book author will speak on for Sponsored by the Friends of the University City Public Library. 7 p.m. at University City Public Library, 6701 Delmar Boulevard, University City. Free.

314-727-3150. Qiu Xialong: The author will lead a seminar on the craft of writing. 4 p.m. at McMillan Cafe, Washington University, Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Free.

314-935-5576. Writing Festival: The three-day event will offer presentations, performances, panel discussions featuring essayists, poets, playwrights and storytellers. Call for more information. Tuesday-Thursday at St. Louis Community College at Meramec, 11333 Big Bend Boulevard.

Free. 314-984-7526. WEDNESDAY Ridley Pearson: The local mystery writer will read from and sign copies of his book Body of David 7 p.m. at Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue. Free.

314-367-6731. THURSDAY Amy Goodman: Host of radio program will discus her book Exception to the 8 p.m. at Sheldon Concert Hall. $25 per person in advance; KDHX. 314-5341111.

Ann Liberman: Author discusses Mansions of the 7 p.m. at Branch Library, 225 North Euclid Avenue. Free. 314-367-6731 READINGS of By Bob Woodward Published by Simon Schuster, 467 pages, $28 On sale Tuesday The Court of the Red By Simon Sebag Published by Knopf, 785 pages, $30 Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death, and By Roy and Zhores Medvedev Published by Overlook, 317 pages, $29.95 Weiss on Writing Join Post-Dispatch writing coach Dick Weiss at his forum Weiss on Writing. This week: A daunting challenge Summing up St.

Louis in 100 words or less. STLtoday.com/writing An intimate look at Joseph Stalin New research in Soviet-era archives presents a fuller picture of the notorious communist dictator Let the Fire Go A memoir by Jean Carnahan Published by University of Missouri Press, 252 pages, $29.95 Jean Carnahan When: 7 p.m. Monday Where: Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue How much: Free More info: 314-3676731 Soviet communist leader Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). ARRY EVINS Post-Dispatch Senior Writer Prepublication buzz held that Bob book about the war in Iraq, of would pack the same shock-and- awe factor of Richard All But if you rush to the bookstore on Tuesday, when book will go on sale, be prepared instead for Insider Rehash. Although of has its high points, unlikely to light up talk radio and cable TV news in the way that book did.

Like earlier book on the aftermath of Sept. 11, at his new effort shows homage to those in power and largely avoids analysis. of reads more like journalism than history. Which given that Woodward is a journalist, one with extraordinary sources. Like most of his books, this one runs long on insider detail and short on attribution.

Still, Washington insiders will lap up of Among the highlights: The tension between Vice President Dick Cheney (a hawk) and Secretary of State Colin Powell (a dove). Woodward says Powell thought Cheney an unhealthy Powell thought that Cheney took intelligence and converted uncertainty and ambiguity into fact. The back-and-forth frustration between Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Mideast commander, Army Gen. Tommy Franks. At one point early in the war planning, Franks told Rumsfeld either to let him do his job or to him.

But Woodward describes how the two gradually made their peace and fashioned a plan that substituted velocity for mass. Details on a CIA operation that handed out cell phones to Iraqi and learned on the eve of war that Saddam Hussein was almost surely in a given building. Within hours, that building became the target. warning to President George W. Bush that once he invaded Iraq, own it, problems and all.

CIA Director George shouted assurance at one high-level meeting that the presence of weapons of mass destruction was The book opens on the day before Thanksgiving in 2001, barely two months after the World Trade Center attacks. On that November day, Bush asked Rumsfeld for a plan of attack against Iraq. Although asking for a hush-hush plan falls far short of declaring war, Woodward says, he perhaps had not realized was that war plans and the process of war planning become policy by their own But at that point, on Page 3, Woodward largely sets aside analysis. He says little about the philosophical seeds that led to this war. Instead, he proceeds in chronological order through the long bureaucratic process that ended in telling Americans on the night of March 17, 2003, that their nation was at war.

Interesting? Yes. Insightful? Not particularly. Still Bush sat down late last year for a pair of on-the- record interviews. When Woodward asked the president whether he had turned for advice to his father, the President Bush, the current president replied: know, he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal By the way, this book makes no mention at all of Richard Clarke.

Reporter Harry Levins E-mail: Phone: 314-340-8144 Woodward is long on process, short on insight Carnahan explains how she kept the burning Week ending April 3, as compiled by The New York Time Hardcover Glorious Appearing, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom 3rd Degree, by James Patterson and Andrew Gross The Last Juror, by John Grisham Hardcover Against All Enemies, by Richard A. Clarke Ten Minutes From Normal, by Karen Hughes Deliver Us From Evil, by Sean Hannity The Other Man, by Michael Bergin The Passion, photos from of Passion of the Paperback Birthright, by Nora Roberts Angels Demons, by Dan Brown The Second Time Around, by Mary Higgins Clark The Guardian, by Nicholas Sparks Deception Point, by Dan Brown Paperback Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom Moneyball, by Michael Lewis Trump: The Art of the Deal, by Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1.