The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 31

ChelBurlmgtonjfreePress The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, Sunday, October 2, 1988 5D Tyler breathes life into 'Lessons? By Ruth Pollack Coughlin Gannett News Service People started talking about Anne Tyler's 11th novel, "Breathing Lessons," long before advance reading copies were shipped. Among the Tyler cognoscenti which is to say, those of us who began reading and relishing her work 14 years ago when her debut novel, "If Morning Ever Comes," was published word was out: All of "Breathing Lessons," we heard, takes place in a single day, a day that begins with a trip to a funeral parlor. This, we murmured among ourselves, will be no easy feat to pull off. Death, dying, and more than 300 pages about what happens in a funeral home? Can she, 1 -X 5 5 JSP -1 f-. Review 'Breathing Lessons' By Anne Tyler Alfred A.

Knopf $18.95, 327 pages ANNE TYLER'S 'Breathing Lessons' is 'about the small and often ordinary deaths that take place in a life and in a marriage. It is, too, as are all Tyler novels, about love and its various and strange What happens, metaphorically, on the day of the funeral (of Maggie's friend's husband) is that Maggie and Ira friends, lovers, parents, sometime-enemies, man and wife get to consider their lives, past and present. Maggie's mood swings range from despair to gratitude to jubilation. Ira plays solitaire. Vermont books "Alcohol: Uses and Abuses" by Margaret O.

Hyde, cloth, $13.95, Enslow Publishers, Hillside, N.J. Hyde of Shelburne explains in a straightforward way what alcohol is and how it affects people. The book explains why drinking may a produce a hangover, the risks of drinking while pregnant, the chemistry of alcohol and more. Also included chapters about children of alcoholics and groups such as SADD (Students Against Driving Drunk) and Al-AnonAlateen. Authors available for Vt.

speeches Seven Vermont authors who write for children and young adults would like to share their ideas and experiences with an interested audience. The writers are members of the Speakers Bureau of the League of Vermont Writers. They are available to speak to schools, clubs and community organizations about subjects ranging from plot, research and characterization, to use of language and storytelling. The authors include: John Clagett, a retired Middlebury College professor whose books include "Typhoon" and "The Island of Rutland resident Peter Cooper, author of "The Secret Pages of Julia Kathleen McKinley Harris of Charlotte, author of "The Wonderful Hay Jules Older of Orleans whose books include "Hank Prank Henrietta" and "Jane and the Ronald Rood of Lincoln whose books include "Loon in My Bathtub" and "How Do You Spank A Gloria May Stoddard of Essex Junction, who is currently at work on a biography about Grace and Calvin Coolidge; Nancy Means Wright of Cornwall, whose titles include "Down the Strings." For information about fees and booking call Julie Becker at 482-2978. Johnson State seeks literature for magazine Vermont writers are invited to submit poetry, fiction and non-fiction to the Green Mountains Review, the literary magazine of Johnson State College.

With assistance from the Vermont Council on the Arts, the Review will devote a major part of its springsummer issue to the work of Vermont writers. The deadline for submission is Dec. 1. Send poetry to Neil Shepard, and fiction and non-fiction to Tony Whedon at Green Mountains Review, Johnson State College, Johnson 05656. Compiled by Molly Walsh she who must be recognized as one of the finest novelists writing in America today, actually draw us in on this one? We turned to the first page of "Breathing Lessons." Indeed, the novel begins with Maggie and Ira Moran, married for 28 years and still living in Baltimore, en route to services for Max, the recently departed husband of Maggie's best and lifetime friend.

That Tyler commences with a death is significant (and, yes, the novel does takes place over the course of a day), but her story is by no means solely about one death or one funeral home. It is, instead if one must reduce any Tyler novel to a Hollywood concept about the small and often ordinary deaths that take place in a life and, in the case of "Breathing Lessons," in a marriage. It is, too, as are all Tyler novels, about love and its various and strange permutations. One can view Maggie and Ira as the Odd Couple or as Every Couple. A character describes the slightly daffy Maggie, who cares for the elderly at the Silver Threads Nursing Home, as "not a straight-line kind of person." Driving a car at 60 miles an hour, a distracted Maggie shifts into reverse.

Her son Jesse, a sometime rock singer, to whom she is achingly devoted, thinks of her as "his harum-scarum klutzy mother." Her daughter, Daisy, poised to go off to college, barely considers her at all. Before Maggie, Ira wanted to be a doctor. Instead he remained in Baltimore, taking over his father's picture-framing shop and taking over the care of his father and two sisters. Ira believes he's given up his dream, but he doesn't dwell on this. Instead, in good times and bad times, Ira plays solitaire.

What happens, literally, on the day of the funeral is that Maggie, taking on a yeoman's job, attempts to reunite her son with his estranged wife and small rush of air that comes when a person you're accustomed to is all at once absent." And Maggie, in her endorsement of, and wonderment about, love and marriage, realizes that "driving a car is nothing, nothing, compared to living day in and day out with a husband and raising up a new human being." Tyler is talking about being able to breathe. Sometimes you lose your breath, sometimes you feel claustrophobic, but mostly you keep on breathing. Maggie and Ira may at first seem too odd a couple, too irksome, too trapped in the everydayness of living, but Tyler breathes her own special and inimitable life into them. daughter. Maggie always wants things to be right; Ira, as much estranged from his son as is his daughter-in-law, doesn't much care.

What happens, metaphorically, on the day of the funeral is that Maggie and Ira friends, lovers, parents, sometime-enemies, man and wife get to consider their lives, past and present. Maggie's mood swings range from despair to gratitude to jubilation. Ira plays solitaire: "He had passed that early, superficial stage when any number of moves seemed possible, and now his choices were narrower and he had to show real skill and judgment." And that, finally, is the stuff of "Breathing Lessons," a novel about people who realize that while making love work and making life work is not easy, there are possibilities. When Maggie leaves a room, Ira notices "the empty Ruth Pollack Coughlin is book editor for the Detroit News. Hardcover best sellers this week Non-Fiction Fiction Kopf's comics give a little 'Edge' to life 1.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin. Tom Clancy 2. Till We Meet Again. Judith Krantz 3. Alaska.

James Michener 4. Doctors. Erich Segal 5. The Bonfire of the Vanities. Tom Wolfe 6.

Spock's World. Diane Duane 7. Shining Through. Susan Isaacs 8. To Be the Best.

Barbara Taylor Bradford 9. Demon Lord of Karanda. David Eddings 10. Love in the Time of Cholera. Gabriel Garcia Marquez Review 'Into Every Life a Little Edge Must Fall' By L.J.

Kopf Fantagraphics Books 160 pages, $6.95 1. A Brief History of Time. Stephen W. Hawking 2. The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure.

Robert Kowalski 3. The Lives of John Lennon. Albert Goldman 4. The Ragman's Son. Kirk Douglas 5.

The Boz. Brian Bosworth 6. Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. Harvey Mackay 7. Trump: The Art of the Deal.

Donald Trump 8. Generation of Swine. Hunter S. Thompson 9. All You Can Williams 10.

The Duchess of Windsor. Charles Higham Source: Gannett News Service DANIEL WILLIS, Free Press By Jim De Filippi Special to the Free Press Many of us in northern Vermont were prepared for "The Far Side" comic strip when it started running in the Free Press a while back only because for years we have been reading, enjoying and once in a while understanding "Edge," the strip by L. J. Kopf in the Vanguard Press. Going over "Edge" to get to "The Far Side" actually makes some sort of sense.

The two strips are similar in their surreal view of our universe or someone's universe, at least views created by a few deft strokes of a pen dipped in high-test lunacy. The humor of "Edge," which has appeared in every issue of the Vanguard Press since the paper began, back in 1978, actually is harder to pin down than that of the legendary "Far Side." The majority of Gary Larson's "Far Side" panels derive their humor from taking a cliched situation, either from everyday life or literature, and then transposing it to an absurd setting the animal kingdom, prehistoric ages or maybe the Wild West. On the other hand, Kopf's work, recently collected in "Into Every Life a Little Edge Must Fall," has no such predictability. Kopf may at times start with the cliche the black sheep of the family, the road curve sign, the morning cup of coffee but he takes it and then runs in one of any number of directions, including out of bounds. He has produced wordless cartoons that are plays on words (a group of lemons running off the coast into the ocean) and social comments (the personal computer putting its moves on its attractive operator) and pieces that Larson himself might have wished he had done (the elephant trying to drink from the water fountain, but coming up one trunk short of success).

It is actually a hopeless task to explain "Edge" with words. Just let it be said that the book shows that the only thing more whacked-out and funnier than one dose of Kopf's view of the world is 160 views, all strung together, in book form. About 140 of them hit home. So, pick up a few Vanguard Presses they're free and check out "Edge. If you like what you find, then buy the book.

Kopf, who has taught cartooning, done advertising work, worked as a clerk at Winooski and Burlington book and record stores, and does a local radio jazz show, would probably appreciate your interest, and you would probably appreciate his weirdness. Jim De Filippi, a teacher at Winooski High School, writes book reviews and a weekly column for the Free Press. 'V ion i i 4 A v-T Inn in 0 0 0 Remember when This picture was taken in northern Vermont. Can you tell us where? Do you have any fond memories of it? Jot down your recollections and send them to Remember When, The Burlington Free Press, 191 College P.O. Box 10, Burlington 05402-0010.

We should hear from you by Oct. 25. If you have a black-and-white photo from the 1 940s, '50s or '60s that you'd like to loan to Remember When, send it to the above address. Please enclose a stamped envelope if you want the photo returned. fin Wdi.