The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 21

r- SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER MonJay. Match 20, 1989 3 Enduring fashion for first ladies the Little League diamond get in the way of their interconnected WW WJ 'M Ik pSi i mm fe" mitt 'flSli-: jsV 3M I I jy Irving's allegory of boyhood jOwen Meany pinch-hits for jLittle Lord Jesus "A Prayer for Owen Meany." By I John Irving. Morrow. $19.95. 543 By Tom Dowling EXAMINER BOOK EDITOR HE WORLD IS full of im- probable incidents, bizarre coincidences, sudden vio lent denouements and often concealed, if ultimately immanent, circularity that ties them all together, That, as we all grow older, is one life's chief mysteries, if not its one infinitely repeated miracle.

It explains perhaps man's continuing search for the divinity that shapes -his end. Is it fear of the unknown accounts for so many death-bed conversions, or the knowledge "that there is, after all, an inexorable what at first glance seems quagmire of random chaos? hat is the strong, if eccentrical--ly, even inconsistently, rendered Xalvinist sense of predestination informs John living's seventh novel, "A Prayer for Owen Meany." The book, a kind of jocularly doom-laden religious meditation on the implacable blessings and damnations of boyhood, is living's most convincing, affecting and dazzling work since "The World According to Garp." Indeed, to the degree that boyhood is a truer, more deeply felt experience than manhood, Owen Meany is a more engrossing and believable figure than T. S. Garp. He is also a far stranger one and caught in the toils of far more incredible events which, as students of Garp will readily recall, is going some.

A THE book's narrator, John Wheelwright, writing from the vantage point of a Canadian jexile in 1987, explains it, the little "Owen Meany he grew up with in the '50s and '60s is no relation to the gruff, cigar-chomping labor leader, George Meany, whose early and enduring support of the Vietnam War was, to borrow one of living's implicit religious metaphors here, one of the rocks on which Lyndon Johnson built his imperialist church in Southeast Owen is a lifelong midget waiting for the growth spurt that will ultimately enable him to meet, by standing on his tiptoes, the army induction height requirement 5 feet the better, like Christ, to assume in military death the moral burden of his countrymen's guilt for the triple curse that hangs over American life in the 1960s and -beyond: Vietnam, the Kennedy assassinations and late-night television. In Owen's and living's I Barbara Bush is third to wear Adele oimpson ByMuidyBehbdwni OF THE EXAMINER STAFF I YOU APPEAR impressed when told that first lady Barbara Bush buys a large chunk of her wardrobe from Adele Simpson in New York, you will be gently reminded that the company has dressed two other first ladies as well. "We dressed Mrs, Nixon and Mrs. Johnson," says Simpson's daughter and the company's executive vice president, Joan Raines, in San Francisco recently to present the spring line at I. Magnin.

"We've been around a long time." Indeed, If you survive 10 years on Seventh Avenue, it's cause for surprise. If you last 40, it's a miracle. But that's exactly what the Adele Simpson company has And so successfully that its clothes are still touted by the often acid-tongued Women's Wear Daily as being "dependably pretty." Simpson herself is now 85 and no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the operation. For 30 years, though, she ran the company, winning awards galore and being one of the first designers to introduce ethnically inspired collections. I "She was the first to go to India," says Raines, 45, who is the niece of the late Cyril Magnin and cousin of Magnin's daughter, Ellen went as the guest of Mrs.

Nehru, who was involved in cottage industries, and Mom went to work with Mrs. Nehru in those industries and we ended up being in the sari business and it was wonderful." Ten years ago, Simpson handed over the company reins to Raines and her husband, Richard. Now, the six-times-a-year line of conservative but pretty tailored silk and wool suits, two-pieces and dresses in graphic and floral patterns, is POUGAN from B-l CBS sitcoms aimed at two audiences hardly enthused about the young woman who's coming "to live in my house, raise my baby and take my place in my child's life." Her teen-age son, Danny (Chris Young), is positively ecstatic once Lisa walks through the front door in her mini-skirt. Danny and his best friend, a latter-day Eddie Haskell type called Gator (Lightfield Lewis), promptly plan the Seduc tion of Lisa, a clumsy affair that, presumably, will comprise the comic thread of every episode to follow. It's a tiresome thing to witness.

When Lisa spurns Danny's first come-on here to take care of children not to date his response is blatant hostility. last thing I need is a date with Crocodile That may be the wittiest line in the show, which bottoms out on the second night of Lisa's residence in the Mathews household. Gator arrives to ask Danny: "Did you bop her yet?" HAVING FAILED to bop, Gator and Danny drill a hole into the bathroom, the better to watch Lisa shower. Now we see Lisa undressing in a sequence of close-up shots that reveal who the producers perceive as their audience men as sexually immature and easily titillated as Danny. "Live-In's" humor is broad and overdrawn, the sexuality is condescending and the performances Barbara Bush purchased the positivenegative print two-piece dress, at left, off the rack; Joan Raines, above, took over the company 10 years ago from her mother, Adele Simpson.

"We're now dressing three generations of women," says Raines. "I think the main reason for our success is the honesty and integrity of the merchandise. They're classic clothes, yet always of the season, but not clothes that say, 'Hey, look at me, I'm wearing a. Raines also attributes the company's success to an awareness of fashion trends while keeping the target market strictly in focus. In addition, Raines says, the company is still implementing two of her mother's most famous innovations clothes that are practical and trunk shows going on the road from town to town and store to store presenting the clothes and working the customer in person.

Barbara Bush has been buying from Adele Simpson for more than 10 years. Even since becoming first lady, Bush has gone shopping at the showroom in New York. "The security men come and do a scouting and hold an elevator for her but that's about it," says Raines. "I frankly cannot believe she actually still comes to Seventh Avenue to third act, a tornado is roaring straight toward their porch. CLEARLY, THESE aren't the Huxtables a point that's made as the family watches the "Cosby Show" in utter amazement.

B.L., a crusty old coot who isn't afraid of hard work or, for that matter, another Dust Bowl, serves as the comic focus in this dismal setting. Most of the humor draws from his hatred of any place that isn't Nebraska particularly New York and California. "Eighty-two percent of the population (in California) is on cocaine," he announces authoritatively. "Fifteen percent are your gay activists and the other 3 percent are Eddie Murphy's bodyguards." When a grandchild asks whether Jews and Muslims can get into Heaven, B.L. explains that God just greets them at the gates and converts them to "people like us." God, incidentally, is a tangible shop, instead of having the clothes sent to the White JJouse.

But she's the kind of person who likes to beat the system, you know. Don't write that, but she really is. She met my mother in China in 1976 when the president was heading a mission in Peking. Mom had gone to China with Ellen and Walter Newman and Cyril. And they became friendly.

Mrs. Bush loves people. I get angry when people criticize her, her hair and all that. She's got the most beautiful head of white hair that people should be envious of. Her priorities are right" Bush buys primarily from Simpson and two other designers Bill Blass and Arnold Scaasi.

"We don't quite know how he (Scaasi) got in there," says Raines in hushed tones. Bush recently bought a couple of outfits off the rack at Simpson a black cotton bolero jacket with black and gold buttons, straight black skirt and black and white silk jacquard blouse with tie neck; and a black and white silk jacquard positivenegative print two-piece dress with jewel neckline, two breast pockets and black patent belt. Bush also recently ordered a couple of custom dresses, says Raines. "We made her a red silk four-ply crepe long gown with a black re-embroidered bodice that she wore to one of the inauguration parties, and lately we made her a very beautiful navy blue chiffon, high neck, long sleeves with silver and gold dots. She called it the thousand points of light.

And we just made her a black and green brocade suit, very classic with a button front and straight skirt. It's very rich. It almost looks like obi fabric." For custom clothes, Bush comes with her own ideas, says Raines. "And she's learning. She's learning what photographs well, what is suitable for getting out of a car, walking onto a platform so there can't be too much or too little.

She used to wear a lot of prints, but I think she's realizing they don't photograph well. We suggest things to her, and then we cook things up together." presence in "Heartland." He is there to protect people who pray, and even pigs in a twister. Though never heavy-handed in its references, "Heartland's" open acknowledgement that these are religious people is rare in sitcomville and typifies the show's essential honesty. But something's missing. "Heartland" isn't particularly funny.

We know it's possible to pull laughs from adversity, because "MASH" did it. essentially a comedy about brutal, mindless death, drew its humoir from bitter irony. The sheer dumbj-ness of war provided a comic You can't mock a drought or an economic recession because these terrors have no human personifications. That is "Heartland's" disadvantage. The writers may find a way to overcome it, but Monday's debut leaves little cause for hope.

Eight Shows This Week! NOISES OFF The onstage and backstage antics of a wacky troupe of British actors "A COMIC MARVEL" Chronicle. "ACHIEVES CRITICAL COMIC MASS IN THE FIRST MINUTES." Examiner. "AN ENTERTAINMENT BONANZA." Pacific Sun It's pure non-stop fun! Call now! Tlx S16-S22. Tue-Fn at 8pm. Sat at 28.8pm, Sun at 24.7pm.

Groups of 12 or more: 346-7805 MARINES MEMORIAL THEATRE 609 Sutter (at Mason) CHARGE -BY -PHONE 771-6900 Low Priced Previews Begin Wednesday NOTHING SACRED Bay Area Premiere! In George F. Walker's robust new comedy-drama. an angry young generation struggles with its elders for the future of 19th century Russia, sowing the seeds of the great revolution to come. Directed by Robert Woodruff "The best play the city has seen in years!" Toronto Glode Mail. Good seats through May 6 only.

$7 Student Group Matinees at 1pm: Apr 27 May 2. Group discounts: 346-7805. CHARGE BY PHONE: 673-6440. Also STBS Union Sq THIS WEEK Wed. Thu at 8pm: Sat 2pm NEXT WEEK: Mon.

Tue, Fri 8pm AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATRE Repertory Season Geary i Mason 671-6440 Tonight 4 Tom'w 8pm SAINT JOAN "A T. HAS A HIT! Deft direction by Michael Smum!" Herb Caen. "Mighty SAINT JOAN A vivid showcase for the remarkable depth of A C.T 's company!" Examiner. Through April 7 only $7 Student Group Matinees at 1pm: Mar 29, 30, Apr 3 7 Group discounts: 346-7805. CHARGE BY PHONE 673-6440.

Also STBS Union Sq THIS WEEK- Mon, Tue, Fri. Sat 8pm NEXT WEEK: Wed. Thu 8pm; Sat 2pm 1 8om AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATRE Repertory Season Geary S. Mason 671-6440 Bay Area THEATRESPORTS Varsity Match Improv as a sporting event Tonight at 8 00 p.m. 55 New Performance Gallery 3153-17th Street 124-6220reservations destiny.

With a flinty determination red olent of Hawthorne's Roger Chil lingworth, not to mention an inno cent good cheer worthy of little Pearl, the pair set out to discover the identity of Wheelwright mys-teriouB and absent father. Tabitha claimed to have conceived her son during a "fling" on the Boston Maine railroad while returning from a singing lesson in the Hub. Along the way, Owen envisions the exact date of his death while playing the Ghost of Christmases. Yet to Come in a Gravesend Yule-tide performance of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." '--v He also, it turns' out, is believed to be the product of an immaculate conception by his dim granite quarry-operating father and his certifiably feeble-minded mother, a revelation the parents vouchsafe to their 11 -year-old son shortly after he has fatally beaned his best friend's mother. The consequences of this misguided parental chat are, of course, dire, as even a non-New England Puritan could readily surmise.

BUT THEN America itself is in dire condition, as Wheelwright keeps remorselessly reminding us in protracted, tiresome and whining laments against LBJ and Richard Nixon's Vietnam policies and Ronald Reagan's Nicaraguan involvement. Though a powerhouse denouement provides a brilliantly realized thematic justification for Wheelwright's foreign policy obses- sions, the fact is up until that final moment Wheelwright's shrill im precations, aside from their heavy-handed lack of, originality, seem more living's concerns than those of his fictional narrator, who both as boy and man possesses an almost wimp-like capacity to gra ciously accept the other fellow's point of view. Strange and full of hidden pur pose as the ways of the world ad mittedly are, it may be doubted that they are quite so bizarre or seamlessly linked as John Irving regularly maintains and never more conspicuously so than irt this extended religious allegory of the Little Lord Jesus sent to pinch-hit by the seemingly malicious, but ul timately redemptive Manager in the Sky, selecting his batting orders in strange and wonderful ways. Moreover, living's theology strictly speaking, as blasphemous as anything Salman Rushdie is capable of, if a great deal more sincere in its basic ethical and religious intent is somewhat muddled. For, if Owen as he himself and Irving both maintain is the instrument of God's will, supernat-urally armed with the capacity to foresee the future and to overturn the amoral Calvinist dictates of predestination in an act of heroism that borders on holiness in saving a handful of Vietnamese children who appear on the scene at the very last moment why does he set in motion a chain of events that torment and cripple the people he loves who are the book's main characters? Where exactly is the appropriate redemption here? And why, as the potential apostle of free will, does Owen undertake this needless mission with a vengeance that even Jonathan Edwards' Puritan God would find cruel and excessive? Yet it is bootless to complain of living's sometimes imprecise reasoning and fanciful taste for comical mutilation and death when the man writes as engagingly, indeed as movingly and engrossingly as he did with Garp and as he does here with Owen Meany.

"A Prayer for Owen Meany" may elude credibility and befuddle searchers after theological consis tency, but its characters remain oddly more real than they have any right to be and the stoiy they enact holds us rapt hostages around the mesmerizing light of living's camp-fire. Muppets' creator inks picture pact HOLLYWOOD Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, has signed a contract with Golden Harvest to create all the characters for "Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles," a movie planned for release during the Christmas holiday. "Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles" is being directed by Steve Barron and produced by Kim Dawson. A spokesman for Golden Harvest said Henson was signed to bring uniquely original creatures to the screen. designed by Wayne Kastning (formerly with Carolina Herrera), with Joan Raines supervising fabric purchases and overseeing all design.

This hasn't slowed the company down one bit. Today, Adele Simpson has a $10 million sales volume. The collection, which runs from $450 to $950, can be found in the upscale departments of major better department stores across the country Neiman Marcus, Saks, I. Magnin, Nordstrom and in high-end specialty stores such as Elizabeth Arden. Simpson has outlasted most of her peers Jeanne Campbell, Nettie Rosenstein, Mol-lie Parnis, Ceil Chapman, Anne Fo-garty and the company continues to increase its business and following.

with the exception of Patrick, who deserves a better vehicle are mediocre. While "Live-In" is hip, "Heartland" is homey. The closest thing we see to teen lust here is a young lad's curious adoration of his pet pig. "I remember when I could hold her in my arms. One day you turn around, and your little girl is a sow." "Heartland" draws on hilarious comic elements like crop failure, farm bankruptcy and natural disaster to fashion a story so bleak viewers may have trouble finding the humor.

That's obviously the case with the writers, who pull precious few gags out of a depressing storyline. Yet the true-to-life circumstances that beset the Stafford family may endear this show to residents of America's real heartland. As Monday's episode begins, we meet Tom and Casey Stafford (Richard Gilliland and Kathleen Layman), who own some 350 acres of Nebraska wheat country. They share their modest farmhouse with Casey's dad, B.L. (Brian Keith).

He's been there ever since the bank auctioned off his own home and possessions. The Staffords have two boys and an adopted Asian daughter. It's not a good week. An impending storm threatens to destroy their crop. Their single combine is kaput.

They have no running water and are hastily building an out house. A venal banker is pressuring them to sell their land. And, by the At 13 '7i3Q (415) 243-9001 3 THnATnnGrjTnnTAirjr.icNT guide words the 1960s have brought America to a long deferred point of reckoning: "WE HAVE A GENERATION OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ANGRY TO LOOK FORWARD TO. AND MAYBE TWO GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE WHO DONT GIVE A (ex- pletive deleted)." In case you're wondering about all those capital letters and the jjook's dialogue is filled with them, let it be noted that Owen suffers from a defectively placed Adam's apple that causes him to speak from earliest childhood in an ear-splitting, high-pitched primal scream. noN'T MS DMSY; HW-WJM drives aayl CONCERT REDWOOD SYMPHONY Or.

Eric Kujawsky. Conductor Presents MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 4: Susan Taylor, soprano HAYDN: SYMPHONY NO. 94 WED MARCH 22 AT 8 PM; For tickets (415)322-3100 CANADA COLLEGE THEATRE 1-280 AT FARM HILL BLVD. REDWOOD CITY LECTURE CITY ARTS LECTURES presents March 22 BRUNO BETTELHEIM April 4 -JOHN IRVING April 14 MICHAEL OORRIS 8.

LOUISE ERDRICH 8 PM Box Office: (419) 552-3656 HERBST THEATRE Van Ness at McAllister THEATRE The Pulitier Prize-Winning Comedy! JULIE BROCK HARRIS PETERS DRIVING MISS DAISY "True artistry at work!" Friedman, KGO Radio FINAL 8 PERF MUST CLOSE SUNDAY! Tue -Thur 8PM, Wed Sat. Mats 2 30PM, Fri. Sat. 8 30PM. Sun.

Mats. 3 00PM. Tickets at Curran Theatre Box Office, Ticketron outlets all maior agencies. CHARGE BY PHONE: (415) 243-9001 (call Ticketron 9AM-9PM 7 flays a week) Groups of 20 or more: (415) 441-0919 CURRAN THEATRE 445 Geary nr. Mason 241-9001 TOMORROW AT 8PM RICKY GRAHAM GRAHAM CRACKERS LOW PRICED PREVIEWS THRU FRIDAY.

ALL SEATS 59. Mon 8PM (10, Tue, Wed 8PM. Fri 11PM $12, Sat 9PM 517, Sat 1 1PM 514. Sun 9PM 512. Tix at Ticketron: 392-SHOW, Theatre Box Office: 609 Sutter 8.

All Major Ticket Agencies CHARGE BY PHONE: 771-6900. GROUP SALES 111-0165 CABLE CAR THEATRE 430 MASON STREET TUIJE in einal 8 Performance: Charge by Phone: 0W C0ME the 8trange Pa8-i Though so small that as an 11 -year-old he is shorter than a Little League baseball bat and too feeble to swing one, Owen is nonetheless sent up to pinch-hit in a game and sends a sizzling line drive into the stands to strike Tabitha Wheelwright the narrator's beautiful mother and the Mary Magdalene of Gravesend, N.H. in the temple, killing her on the spot. It has a "Garp" ring to it, doesn't it, particularly for those who recall the mouthful, so to speak, that book spoke on unmanning coincidence in automobile front seats. The aristocratic Johnny Wheelwright and the shanty Irish Owen are best childhood friends and too theologically sophisticated to let one of God's wayward surprises on Tomorrow a (tlRRAN Call Tlckitron taThMKOiK -IHEmE? A 9AM to 9PM dally WGMivniltKantenFiancisco.unletiliediMclionalCaiojesrwenmniHarsandJaiTwsM NMeibnttr.