North County Times from Oceanside, California • 51

ft i 'TV rsjsw i ,1 4-. iflOTB SUNDAY. Mu- I N- TM I l- E-S BEST SELLERS Nr Tim- Outnumbered sings a song of redemption SCOTT EYMAN O.X Nf'li SFRYT FICTION 1. The Street Lawyer, by John Grteham. (Doufjled.iy, $27.95.) A yun Liwyer cuis to ten ns with himself after drXMiing his (xost gxxis firm's dirty secret.

2. Paradise, by Toni Morrison. fKrxjpf, $25.) A smill black utopia rural Oklalioma experiences tragedy and regeneration it encounters ttte real world. 3. Pandora, by Anne Rice.

(Knopf, $19.95.) A vampire re-coijnts her experiences, from Impenal Rome to 20th-century Pans and New Orleans. 4. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier. (Atlantic Monthly. $24.) A wounded Confederate soldier journeys home near tt te end of the Civil War.

5. Blood Work, by Michael Connelly. (Uttle, Brown, $23.95.) A retired FBI agent undertakes to solve the murder of an alluring woman's sister. 6. Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden.

(Knopf, $25.) The life of a young woman in prewar Kyoto. 7. Black and Blue, by Anna Qdncflen. (Random House, $23.) After her husband turns violent, a woman flees to Florida with) her young son to start a new life undc-r a new name. 8.

Thrill I by Jackie Collins. (Simon Schuster, $25.) Passion and ambition at work aid play among the film folk of New York and Los Angeles. 9. Mirada Curse, by Michael Palmec (Bantam, $23.95.) A cardioF ogist. seeking to find the facts about a miracle drug, uncovers a huge, deadly conspiracy.

10. Guilty Pleasures, by Lawrence Sanders. (FArtnam, $24.95.) The Folsby fame's publishing empire is threatened by deadly John Browns raid provides focus for book Socrates Fortlow is 58 yean old, and thats not the worst of it. I le has no money and no job but he does have a past: He spent 27 yean in prison for killing a man and raping a woman. He was guilty of the crimes.

is getting old, but the size of his hands and the look in his eye can still scare anybody over the age of 6. 1 lardly a day goes by when he doesnt think about what he did; hardly an hour goes by when he doesnt wonder if God really forgives sin. Socrates isnt a private eye, is only infrequently a fairy godfather really the same thing in most detective fiction. And Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (Norton, $23), Walter Mosleys latest book in a career of unblemished excellence, is a lot closer to RLs Dream, his blues novel, than it is to the Easy Rawlins books. In form, its a series of 14 interlocking, largely self-contained short stories.

Theres only a slight progression. As the book begins, Socrates is a solitary scavenger, eking out his living by selling bottles. Midway through the book, in the story called Equal Opportunity, Socrates gets a job at a grocery store and, contrary to expectations, keeps it Still later, we discern the formation of a peer group Right Burke, a friend; Iula, the owner of Socrates favorite diner and a woman whose sexual potential Socrates idly gauges without ever doing anything about it; Luvia, the mistress of a boarding house ho cant abide Socrates for the odor of rage and death that accompanies him Socrates new job enables him to live a little farther away from the knuckle in his tiny two-room apartment in Watts. Hes slowly putting together the pieces of a life, but hes not one to be overconfident, because he doesnt trust himself. Mosley makes it very dear that Socrates is going to keep himself humble because hes on the road to his own private Calvary.

Mostly, these are mood pieces of varying degrees of excellence. Mosley really has little interest in plot as such; hes far more concerned with people and their environment. Mosley's concerns remain the same black men trying to redeem themselves while staying true to their nature. The stories in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned are part of Mosley's continuing attempt to broaden his reputation beyond that of a writer of detective fiction. At the end of Outnumbered, Always Outgunned we know several things: Socrates Fort-low is earning $159.33 a week, not counting tips for making deliveries.

He is trying very hard to save a box named Darryl from being a gang-banger. And at the end of each day, Socrates gives himself a grade. Most days he gives himself a C-plus. On the days when he judges himself a failure, somebody had been hurt by those big rock-brealdng hands. That Walter Mosley is still regarded as primarily a genre writer is because his work is overtly moral in nature and resolutely apolitical, which is to say it verges on the unfashionable.

Exodus a quest for biblical gold i CATHERINE BRUSH Rt Worth Stsk-Teiriram AMY SELWYN rn ther and our family that by the time you arrived at my cabin door I had long since ceased even to question my silence. I remind you of all this so that you can place my remarks, memories and revelations into their proper context. Without continuous consideration of context, no truth of my fathers life and work can lie the whole truth Banks seems to be saying that one must understand even the fictionalized telling of stories to understand the whole story. For ss hile Cloudsplitter very definitely tells a tale of the 1840s, it is also about contemporary race relations and forms of protest. As such, it is relevant for a society where marginalized, fringe militia groups do battle with the U.S.

government, and race relations continue to deteriorate. In that way, Owen Brown's story becomes a story of the ages. Ilis character says: The truth is, for us, the so-called Civil War was merely an aftermath. Or, rather, it was part of a continuum. One thing had led obviously and with sad predictability to another, with no break or permanent ending point between the early years of the slave uprisings in Haiti and Virginia and the Underground Railroad in Ohio and New York and the Kansas battles and Harpers Ferry and the firing on Fort Sumter and Shiloh and Gettysburg and Vicksburg and Appomattox Courthouse and the killing of Abraham Lincoln and the savage, dark, murderous days that have followed, even to today, at century's end.

They are like beads on a string to us, bubbles of blood on a barbed steel strand that stretches from the day the first enslaved African was brought ashore in Virginia to today, and we have not reached the end of it yet. With a well-paced narrative and the backdrop of the vast heartland. Banks has crafted an imaginative, fascinating and extremely thought-provoking book about a moment in 19th-century history. Kusst-11 Banks Cloudxpht-ter" (HarperFlamingo, $27.50) is a novel alxmt anti-slavery activist John Brown, a giant of a man whose principles and beliefs made him immovable and intnu table. At the same time, Cloud-splitter is alxmt America and its scarred history of race relations.

As Bunks explains ui this whopping, 738-page story, Cloudsplitter is a mountain, a sight so utilising, huge and so overwhelming that it splits the sky from the earth Ix-lovv. Banks novel is written as a long and often ajx lingerie letter from Brown's last surviving win. Owen, to a researcher seeking the truth about the elder Brown and the insurrection at Harpers Ferry, Va. Writes Owen: I ask you to understand, however I have remained silent for so many sears on all matters touching on Fa NONFICTION Talking to Heaven, by James Van FAaatfi. (Dutton.

$22.95.) A 'world famous mednm discusses communication with ttie otfier sFe. 2. Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch AJbom. (Doubkiddy. $19.95.) A soortswnter tells of his weekly visits to his old college mentor near death's door.

3. Angela's Ashes, by Frank Mo CocrL (Scnbner, $24 An msb American writer recalls hs ctukfiood amd tfie miseries of Umenck. 4. Midniit in the Garden of Good and Ev4. by John BerendL (Random House, $23.) The mysterious death Of a young nvm in Savannah, Ga.

5. Spin Cycle, by Howard Kurtz. (Free Press, $25.) A journalist rc-pnrts on how 'the Clinton propaganda machine' deals with scanda-s and the press. 6. The Long Hard Road Out of by MarVyn Manson, wtth Net Strauss.

(Regan BooksHarper-Collins, $24.) Memoirs of the ineffable rock star. 7. The Man Who Listens to Horses, by Monty Roberts. (Random House, $23.) The memoirs of a professional horse trainer. 8.

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauet (Yillard. $24.95.) A journalist's account of his ascent of Mount Everest in 1996. its deadliest season. 9. The MiBknaire Next Door, by Thomas J.

Stanley and William D. Danko. (Longstreet. $22.) An analysis of wealthy Americans discloses that they share seven cfwact eristics. 10.

James Camerons Titanic, by Ed W. Marsh. Photographs by Douglas Kirkland. (HarperCollins, $50.) A lavishly illustrated account of the making of the film. Race is the Cloudsplitter in nations path, says author HILLEL ITAUE ivir BOOK EVENTS GwiriwiM LAURA GROCH VxVtATU IKhNS rtk'TO John Brown's story was a great American says Russell Banks, author of Biblical scholarship might sometimes seem a rather dry and academic topic.

Not in The Gold of Exodus. Howard Blum deftly weaves biblical archaeology, political intrigue and old-fashioned adventure. The result i- th iascinating true story of two mens search for the location of Mount Sinai. For wealthy investor Larry Williams, the story begins with a letter that makes the astonishing claim that Saudi Jabal al Lawz is Mount Sinai, Moses holy mountain. Moreover, it promises that a vast fortune all the gold the Jews brought out of Egypt is buried at the mountain's foot.

An adventurer by nature, Williams is intrigued, and he recruits ex-cop Bob Comuke to join him. Their initial investigation convinces them that Jabal al Lawz is the most likely site of the biblical Mount Sinai, and the men apply for permission to explore the area. But the Saudi government in the 1980s was in the midst of a top-secret effort to develop nuclear weapons, the authors say; curious outsiders were not welcome. Without realizing it, Williams and Comuke become entangled in the great maze of Middle Eastern power politics. Unaware of the significance of their quest, they enter Saudi Arabia illegally.

What they see convinces them that they have found the land of the Exodus. 1 loward Blums writing is brisk and engaging and he smoothly integrates information from a variety of private interviews and published sources. He captures Williams and Comukes motivations and experiences, and places them in the larger framework of political and biblical history. Although provocative and certainly exciting, The Gold of Exodus falls short of proving its archaeological assertions. Evidence that places Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia rather than its traditional location in Egypt is compelling and widely accepted, and Jabal al Lawz does seem a promising location.

But Williams and Comukes identifications of such things as the altar of the golden calf and the scorched spot where God spoke to Moses are more tentative. material, the more engaging he became, the more I lxgan to see how fascinating a person he was. It was a great American drama. The novel retells the highlights of Browns life, from his business failures to the ill-fated attempt to start a slave revolt at Harpers Ferry. But its still a Russell Banks novel, like Continental Drift and The Book of Jamaica.

its a story of race, like Hie Memory of My Imprisonment," its about faith. Like Affliction, it's alxmt fathers and sons. Banks was interested in the biblical story of Abraham, who is asked by God to sacrifice his son Iviac. I rememlxr getting a chill because I identified with Isaac, identified with the Ixiy whos taken up to the mountain bv bis father because God told him to. 1 think it's that wav for most any son whos dealing with a charismatic and interesting father." Batiks noticed very different relictions from friends when he told them what he was writing.

Whites would ask him if he thought Brown was indeed insane, while blacks praised bint for tackling the story. The IxHik reminded Banks of his own conflicts alxmt race. Owen Brown talks about the Russell Banks is the most prominent author in a long time to take on the story of abolitionist John Brown in Cioiulsplittcr." Its told from the point of view of Browns son, Owen, who escaped the 1859 Harpers Ferry raid and six-nt the rest of his life on a California mountain. Because relatively little is known of Owen Brown, the author felt freer to improvise. Inspiration was almost in Banks hack yard.

He lives a shott drive from John Browns grave, in North Elba, N.Y., and the title Cloudsplitter refers to a mountain visible from the authois house. Brown Ixxame a kind of ghostly presence, said Banks, who moved to Keane, N.Y., about 10 years ago, in an interview at his writing studio, a convened sugar-house on his property. Initially. 1 thought it would make a good magazine article. I thought most people didn know where ohn Browns body lies a-tnoldeting They know the song, but they don't know wlietv.

And then I lx r.aii lo do some reseat ill. The pet I got into the loneliness of a white man who can't identify with either race," Banks said. You cant identify with white people for moral reasons and you can't identify with the African-Americans because he can't take on their history and their suffering and so he cant claim that for himself. He described the emotional state which I didn't realize I myself had experienced for a long time, a kind of loneliness where you stand outside of both races. ijke most Americans, hite mid black, I had a very neurotic relationship to race.

If youre a white person attracted to black people because theyre black, then you have a neurotic re-lationship to race." Children Books: An Insider's View" is a seminar offered at Palo mar College from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 in. Apnl 4. Loam about tfie creation of children's books with instructor Joy Chu, a book designer. Fee is $69. Call (760) 744 1150.

Ext. 2702. At Wakien Books, North County Fair, Escondido, (760) 746-4859: David Faber signs 'Because of Romek: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir from noon-4 p.m. Apnl 18. At Borders Books Music, 11160 Rancho Carmel Drive, San Diego.

(619) 618-1814: Christopher P. Baker signs Cuta Handbook' at 7 p.m. April 11. bond rows nlxiut books, s.gnmgs and author appearances to Laura Gnxh, Features Editor. North County Times.

207 E. Pennsytv.mia, tscorxlido, CA 92025. 4.