Alton Evening Telegraph from Alton, Illinois • Page 18

B-4 Alton Evening Telegraph Friday, June 9, 1972 The revolution is coming--almost THE TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING by Leon Arden. Crown $5.95. Jimmy Breslin made fun at the Mafia in "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight" (the good book, not the awful film) and Archie Bunker pops the rednecks each week, but no one has really come up with a good satire on the radical left until now. Lorrie Benglesdorf, idealistic and 19 years old. writes letters to ponueians and suddenly starts hearing voices of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and others from the revolutionary era.

This is it. she reasons: her Joan-of-Arc-like call to join the revolution and lead this country to a new era. Time to man the stations and over-throw the hypocrisy and materialism in a society that is no longer democrats and free (whatever that is). She meets Justin Warmflash. associate professor of history and amateur filmmaker with a pipedream of making the world's best (and cheapest) documentary.

They become lovers, as all heroes and heroines do, but Lorrie )eaves the university and goes home with her dream of leftist reform. Somehow, she organizes her band of revolutionary' incompetents who burn the town draft office and picket the town's only factory. Justin, blond with love and lust, follows her and films the whole mess for either posteriety or embarrassment. Arden throws in typical American stereotypes: an overbearing general with two objectives in mind put down the revolution and get Lorrie into bed and a Black activist and American Indian. The book rambles, but the humor and satire is hard and biting among the four-letter words and contemporary cliches.

It is a funny, dirty, outrageous, rambling and reasonable book. But the movie will probably be awful. Thompson The Play's the thing TO SEE A PLAY. A Primer for Playgoers. By Albert and Bertha Johnson.

A. S. Barnes Co. $6.95. Theater entertainment is traceable to early civilization.

It long precedes Christianity and is still an effective means of communicating ideas through performances on stage. The Johnsons, who are retired theater directors, have interesting suggestions on how to get the most out of live theater. Come prepared, they say, with background information and the time spent will "be enjoyed beyond the general spectacle of the stage. Observe more keenly, styles and methods of the theater, appropriateness of costumes, use of lights, quality in acting. Familiarly witht he politics and customs of an era is necessary to interpret the classics and to see the humor in its comedies.

Modern plays, too, require background information on the newer approach to theater. The Johnsons' advisory on understanding plays is wellwritten and so inspirational, the reader develops a playgoing mood that increases with' each chapter. Only the insensitive could escape the Johnsons' fascination for this industry, describing beautifully, step by step, what theater is all about, how to appreciate it and the importance of getting involved as an observer. There is something of value here for theater buffs as well as those who seldom attend. Viewing plays with greater depth will help the naive to see the magic in theater.

To learn to evaluate a play is to enrich the experience of playgoing and, even if the show is disappointing, there will at least be the pleasure in knowing why. More from Welty THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER by Eudora Welty. Random House. $5.93. For Eudora Welty admirers The Optimist's Daughter is a special treat.

In this short novel Miss 'Welty explores the complexities of interpersonal relationships and examines life and death and loneliness as seen through the eyes- of Laurel McKelva, the widowed daughter of a Southern judge. When seventy year old Judge McKelva dies shortly after eye surgery, he leaves behind a much younger second wife, the lonely childless daughter of his first marriage, and a townful of friends to work out the meaning of his life. The conflict in this story is between Laurel and Fay, the new wife. It is between death, or rather, the idealized memory of life, and life as really is sometimes gauche and distasteful. Miss Welty has long been considered one of America's finest writers.

She is best known as a Southern Regionalist. Nothing she writes is without merit and for those who have the patience and the inclination to analyze and disect what they read "The Optimist's Daughter" has much to offer. -BevThacker Today's reviewers Today's reviewers are: Thacker, a St. Louis County housewife and aspiring -Helen Joseph writer; Joseph, a New York writer and sometime reviewer; Doug Thompson, editor of the Book page. books Best selling books Compiled by Publishers' Weekly FICTION "The Winds Of War," Wouk "The Word," Wallace "My Name Is Asher Lev," Potok "Captains And The Kings," Caldwell ''The Terminal Man," Crichton NONFICTION "The Boys Of Summer," Kahn "Jonathan Livingston Sea gull," Bach "The Game Of The Foxes, Farago "I'm O.K., You're O.K.," rt Harris Keel COT) Report From Engine Com- pany 82," Smith Jteal cop, Joseph Wambaugh, Los Angeles detective anil author of two best-selling books about policemen, advises James Wainriglit, actor, on the trials and tribulations of being a cop.

Wainright will play a cop in a new ABC-television scries "Jigsaw" this fall and says Wambangli sees (lie police as human beings. Rare gift for Hayner Until renowned pianist (left) presents a copy of her autobiography, "Forbidden Childhood," to Andrew Stimson, heud librarian at the Hayner Public Library in Alton. Mrs. Herbert Woodbury of Godfrey, (fight) found the rare copy through a California rare book dealer at a cost of three times the original. Miss Slenczynska is a member of the music faculty at SIDE.

bookJAckET Agatha Christie's books get better with age By DOUG THOMPSON Telegraph Book Editor Two years ago, on her 80th birthday, Agatha Christie published her 80th mystery novel and, although that book was popular, the demand for the first 79 is even higher. Since then, she has kept writing, now has 82 novels published and is working on number 83. Devoted mystery fans are well-acquainted with the adventures of Hercule Periot and Jane Marple as well as Mrs. Christie's other lesser- known sleuths, but it takes a little detective work of your own to find some older titles. "We're finding an increasing demand for old Christie titles," a spokesman for International Bookfinders in Beverly Hills said this week, "Some of the titles we are asked to trace are almost impossible to find." Bookfinders is a search service that locates old titles and offers them to their customers.

Prices for old Cristie books usually run $5, $6 and up. "The books aren't really the Bnok- finders spokesman said, "but a lot of people seem to want them, A few years ago, wi seldom got a request for a Christie book." Several old Christie titles appeared in the recent "Book Bazaar" sponsored by Famous-Barr in Clayton. They were gone the first night. Some rare-book stores, unaware of the increasing demand, charge as little as 25 cents for an old Christie title, but several others ask several dollars for the same book in similar condition. Agatha Christie is the world's best-selling mystery writer.

Her books are published in many languages and are for their complex plots. In London, a play from one book, "Ten Little Indians," has run continuously for more than 20 years and is the longest running stage production in history. Mrs. Christie is something of a mystery herself. Nearly 60 years ago, she and her first husband disappeared on their wedding night.

She was found, suffering from amnesia, several days later. Her husband was never found and she says that she still cannot remember what happened. Mystery or not, she continues to write and sell her books and the demand for old ones increases. At one rare-book store, a girl dropped five old Christie titles on the desk and asked the clerk how much. "What happened," he asked.

"Did the old broad die or something?" If she did, butler i it. A novel idea leads to a novel By PHIL THOMAS AP Newsfeatures Writer NEW YORK (AP) It took author Meyer Levin a while, but he finally got around to writing the book he first planned nearly 40 years ago. The novel, his latest work, is called "The Settlers," and deals with the flight of Jews from European oppression to Palestine in the early years of this century. The 66-year-old Levin, best- known, perhaps, for his novels "The Old Bunch" and "Compulsion," says, "I first planned the book in 1934, and I even gave a few pages of outline to a publisher. "But I was delayed.

I didn't have the money to work at it for a long time in security as I needed. Also I felt this book should be done by someone who had lived it more so I guess I was waiting for a Hebrew writer to do it. "It wasn't done and I finally got to an age where I realized that if I don't do it now I never will. The material inside me was pressing for expression. "It's the same with any art.

You get an idea or you discover a body of material and after a while it begins to work its way out of you into the form of a book, or a. play, or a film. That's why I write." Levin, a relaxed, talkative man, says the actual writing of "The Settlers," finished late last year, took him over four years. "Just in time," he says with a laugh. "The money I was getting from 'Compulsion' was running out, and 1 just made ii through Ihis book.

I got a pretty good advance for 'The spectacular, but 1 can live on it for a few years." Although he published his first novel "Reporter," when he was 21, Levin says he was not able to completely support himself by writing books until he was 50. "I always had another job- journalism, lecturing." he says, "but 'Compulsion' made me enough money so that 1 could just do writing." Levin used some of the money to build a home in Israel, near Tel Aviv, for himself and his wife, novelist Tereska Torres. They have three children. He and his family divide their time between that home and one in New York City. Levin has a writing retreat in both places.

"I have a system when I'm working on a book that I've stuck to since-the '30s," he says. "1 try to get away to some quiet place for thee or four days a week and stay isolated. 1 only can work seriously when 1 am alone. "In Israel I have a place about half an hour from my home. It is very small, but I like it because it is isolated and quiet.

In New York, it is the same. I have a barn out in the country and I go there to write. "1 do everything for myself, including cooking. I can take care of myself." Tom Scortia of Alton: writer in search of fame By RICHARD STOOKER Thomas N. Scortia of Alton hasn't appeared on the best- selling list yet, but he's been a successful writer since 1954, and with all the projects he's working on now, may still become a well-known.

Tom was born in Alton in 1926, and grew up here. In 1881, he moved to the west coast to work in the aerospace industry. He best remembers the odd acoustics of the Lovejoy Monument. A circular bench surrounds it, and a person sitting on one side can talk and be heard by someone sitting directly opposite. lie says that school bored him.

In four years, his skips accounted for one quarter of his school time. (He'd go in court if they caught him skipping that much today.) He did love dramatics, however. He liked to play charades, was a Thespian member, and took the lead role in the class play, "The Man Who Came To Dinner." Until his senior year of college at Washington U. Scortia wrote only poetry. But after having some of his poems ripped to shreds in a creative writing class, he decided to try a short story.

"Merry Christmas, Sweet Genivieve," brought much more favorable feedback. Except for one instance, he hasn't written poetry any more. Since his first published story in Scortia's written over HO short slories, several short novels, and in 1961 a novel, What Mad Oracle, which he's trying to get reissued. It created quite a stir in' the aerospace industry and predicted the multiple warhead atomic missiles that are commonplace now. Bits and pieces of Alton have appeared in his stories.

Many time they jump out of his subconscious and hit the paper before he realizes where they've come from. He has a half-finished novel called April Harvest that is entirely about Alton, the Alton he grew up in during the thirties. At that time Alton was a ''more provincial town, with really a very small village atmosphere." April Harvest is the story of a young man who, like every young man of that period, a obsessed with the American dream, only to find the American dream has fallen flat on its face." 1 Al Scortia spent about sue years in the military, he is strongly opposed to violence of any kind. "I'm a man who carefully avoids physical and emotional fights, not because I'm particularly a coward these days I'm probably braver than I've ever been in my life but simply because I find them completely nonproductive. Whether I win or lose, I am injured, and injured badly." This attitude extends into politics.

"Every human being should be allowed to do what he wants to provided he doesn't hurt anyone else physically or emotionally and I think we make a mistake when we don't structure our social institutions accordingly." And his writing reflects this idea, even when he.wrote for the violent pulps. "If you really examine most of the stuff I've done, I'm more concerned with love than hate and violence." Politically, Scortia considers himself a conservative socialist. He doesn't advocate overturning the present system, but says, "something must be done to regulate the monolithic growth of American industry." His relatives still live in Alton and he visits them from time to time. But it's unlikely he'd ever consider moving back. "I've become very acclimated to big city life, and I must confess I don't find Alton very stimulating." How does the west coast compare with Alton? "It's like another planet.

It's a lot more relaxed socially. Very few people dress up, and it's not uncommon to see people in sports shirts in the best restaurants. I heard a story of a group of office people who had been bothered all summer by a pile driver. When the construction ended, they took up a subscription, bought the pile driver, put it on a barge, carried it out to sea, and buried it with honors. That, would never happen in Alton." Drugs are one of today's major concerns and Scortia is critical of the way the situation is handled.

"The approach that's being taltcn in the U.S. from a pragmatic standpoint isn't working. The degree to which you are punished for pot depends upon your annual income, the clubs you belong to, and how you are dressed when you are picked up. With the advanced state of bio-chemistry we could, if we were willing to spend the money, develop a detoxification technique for any of the hardcore drugs." For the last two years Scortia's been very busy with his writing career. He's collaborating on a major novel with Frank M.

Robinson, and in late fall Doubleday will publish his science fiction novel Artery of Fire. I November Random House will bring out Strange Bedfellows, which he edited. Scribner's has a collection of his short stories and he's negotiating a novel for them. He and Quinn Yarbro are editing an anthology for Ballantine called Two Views of Wonder. All of these should be available at a bookstore in St.

Louis, although as Scortia said, "It's disgraceful for a town the size of Alton not to have a bookstore." In adJition, lie's working on a comic strip called Galactic Prime with Jack Kalz and has a play, "Little Boxes," opening this fall in San Francisco. Success like this doesn't come easily. "Writing is the hardest work I know. It's hard work because even in the pulpiest kind of writing you tear some part of your soul out and parade it before a public, and fall flat on your face. There you are before a hundred thousand readers falling flat on your face.

That's a pretty bad blow lo the ego.".