Lexington Herald-Leader from Lexington, Kentucky • 50

D6 LEXINGTON HERALD-tEADCR LEXINGTON KY SUNDAY AUGUST 5 1 984 I Books Tevis sequel has Lexington flavor These lists were compiled by The New York Times Irorn computer -processed sales ftg-ures from mote than 2000 bookstores throughout the United Slates Fiction Review Helen Hooven Santmyer i AND LADIES OF THE CLUB" (1 last week) (Putnam Si 9 05) Lite in an Ohio hamlet trom 1 868 to 1 93? 2 LINCOLN Gore Vidal (2) (Random House $1 9 95) Fictionalized account ot the Civil War presidency By RicK Bailey Haraktlaadat staff wit let Fast Eddie is back In middle age In a middle-class environment In of all places Lexington Fast Eddie is back in The Color of Money a sequel two decades later to The Hustler which to trivia buffs was a memorable movie with Paul Newman Jackie Gleason and George Scott of all people in a supporting role To others of us The Hustler was also a memorable book The Color of Money a Warner paperback original Is by Walter Tevis who grew up in Lexington and graduated from the Univeristy of Kentucky He dedicated the sequel to Toby Ka vanaugh a boyhood friend who taught him to shoot pod The Hustler marked the debut of a versatile imaginative and entertaining novelist A quick rereading revived memones of Tevis' tension-packed atmosphere and his vividly descriptive writing The sequel is equally satisfying perhaps even more so because of the familiar setting and because of the out and frightened" but more mature Fast Eddie Felson Twenty years after his unforgettable victory over Minnesota Fats Fast Eddie is divorced He has lost the Lexington poolroom he owned in the settlement He is a long-dismissed legend the table were fully awake and dreamlike" But Fast Eddie is not naive about his comeback against a new breed of hustler high on cocaine instead of whiskey but just as arrogant as a young man named Felson 20 years earlier At last Tevis brings his reading fans to another showdown not in the dark dingy decaying poolrooms of Chicago but in the glamorous glitter of Tahoe and the cameras of "Wide World of Sports" Once more as he did years ago Tevis lays it on the line Once more he delivers Don't take my word for it Clarence Petersen of the Chicago Tribune writes has added some of the glamour but the grit remains together with the suspense of a competition whose only literary counterpart is the gunfight of the old West" Publishers Weekly in its review notes "The writing is taut and evocative Tevis is unequaled when it comes to creating and sustaining the tension of a high-stakes game Even readers who have never lifted a cue will be And those of us who were young when Fast Eddie was young and who have moved toward middle age? Now as then captivated too But Fast Eddie tries to come back His ally is his dd enemy Minnesota Fats living in easy retirement in Florida Eddie wants on "Wide World of Sports" so he teams with Fats In a series of shopping-mall exhibitions staged by a television cable company But he discovers that while some recognize him few care to remember an old legend He Is not playing well otMK At last Eddie comes to terms with the reality of his game It has changed from straight pool to nine ball and he must change with it But at 50 Ed is a different man He needs glasses to "watch the balls rdl and to know beforehand where they were going to as Tevis writes in The Hustler "He had thought he was a hustler and a good one until he had tried the ordinary world of American Tevis writes in The Color of Money Fast Eddie had been called a bom loser years ago and he believed it While Fats had kept on winning Ed had not "The best part of him had died and he grieved for it" But life takes a new turn with the TV deal and Fast Eddie's reunion with Fats He acquires a new companion Walter Tevis an Englishwoman recently divorced from a UK faculty member The couple even own an art shop on Main Street for a while But the lure of the pool table its cloth the color of money is too much Fast Eddie changes his game And he begins to win in world he understood more than he would ever understand life" was no way he could miss" Tevis writes whole fatty accumulation of his middle-class life had fallen away and his movements at 3 THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION Robert Ludlum (3) (Random House Si 7 95) A lawyer is caught in a conspiracy to seize the Western world "4 FULL CIRCLE Danielle Steel (4) (Deiacorte $1 5 95) The relationship ot a mother and daughter is altered by the changing values over 40 years 5 THE HAJ Leon Urls (6) (Doubieday SI 7 95) One experience in the bloody wars ot the Holy Land DEEP SIX Clive Cussler (5) (Simon Schuster $1 7 95) One man copes with a sinister Asian shipping family and an even more threatening Soviet plot THE BUTTER BATTLE BOOK Dr Seuss (7) (Random House $6 95) A warning about the nuclear arms race in words and pictures I THE WALKING DRUM Louis Amour (8) (Baniam $1 5 95) A young man trom Brittany sets out to tree his lather enslaved In 12th-century Asia THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE Susan Howatch "(9) (Simon Schuster $19 95) The legends of an old manor haunt four generations of an English family ToT THE GREMLINS STORY BOOK Mary Carey (Golden Books $6 95) Illustrated storybook based on the current film Gremlins Non-fiction 1 THE KENNEDYS: An American Drama Peter Collier and David Horowitz (1 last week) (Summit $20 95) The dark as well as the glamorous sides of four generations ot a prominent family 2 WIRED Bob Woodward (3) (Simon Schuster $1 795) The troubled life of the late entertainer John Belushi tTnGOD'SNAME David A Yallop (2) (Bantam $16 95) A British journalist argues that Pope John Paul I death in 1 978 was a case of murder THE NIGHTMARE YEARS: 1930-1940 William Shirer (4) (Little Brown $2250) Second volume of the memoirs of a celebrated foreign correspondent 5 THE FIRE FROMWlfHlN Carlos Castaneda (5) (Simon Schuster $1650) Another report on the world of magic and sorcery 6 GOOD MORNING MERRY SUNSHINE Bob Greene (7) (Atheneum $1 4 95) The syndicated columnist's journal of his child's first year 7 ONE BEGINNINGS Eudora Welty (6) (Harvard University Press $1 0) The novelist recalls her childhood in Mississippi 8 DV Diana Vreeland edited by George Plimpton and Christopher Hemphill (Knopf $1 595) Memoirs of the one-time Empress of Fashion 9 MOTHERHOOD: The Second Oldest Profession Erma Bombeck (8) (McGraw-Hill $1 295) A humorous look at the biggest on-the-job training program ever 10 FIRST LADY FROM PLAINS Rosalynn Carter (9) (Houghton Mifflin $1795) Memoirs Pryor biography gives readers nothing new Review rise that explains why even interested in the rest Pryor gained moderate success as a conventional standup comic before developing from Cosby clone to Piyor original But what of Richard Pryor: A Man and His Madness? Predictably it builds to a fiery climax (Chapter XIII: The Fire) only to tiptoe away from the facts for the umpteenth time who else was there remains the subject of controversy and writes Haskins does exactly what Pryor and company were doing when the world exploded in front of Richard Pryor and his body was engulfed in Thanks Jim Consequently this patronizing boasts the depth and credibility of a press release The litany of superstar bad-boy brouhahas and main-man miracles is by now familiar and Haskins rehashes them: Bom illegitimate in Peoria Pryor was raised by a brothel-operating grandmother and got acquainted early on with moral underbelly He was expelled from school fathered a child at 16 and married several times He nearly died in a fire he ignited while freebasing cocaine (smoking cocaine treated with ether) in which he suffered third-degree bums over 50 percent of his body But also the story of his By Bill Wine Knight-Ridder News Service "Thass right thass nght he Or so comedy icon Richard Pryor the supremely gifted standup comic actor mimic satirist clown and confessor-therapist keeps demonstrating in his perplexed and perplexing roller-coaster ride of a life Yet when all is said and done hilariously and self-destructively respectively Pryor will have earned a prominent slot in the comic pantheon as one of the consummate performers in stage and screen history At which point all the biographical minutiae dotting the landscape of his troubled life will be gratefully forgotten Including Richanl Pryor: A Man and His Madness billed as a biography by Jim Haskins (Beaufort Books $1495) slapdash work is a biography in the same way a pup tent is lodging briefly barely baldly and badly Like many of the books about black leaders and celebrities (Langston Hughes Andrew Young Scott Joplin and Diana Ross to name a few) it is probably best categorized as juvenile literature Not because juveniles are the target audience but because reportorial techniques and structure are sophomoric at best data gathering is carelessly cluttered his writing chatty and clear He merely surveys the journalistic literature on Pryor and collates it As if to atone for the lack of cooperation and participation and his own tendency to throw up his hands in the absence of crucial information he peppers his text with clumsily integrated needlessly specific details addresses telephone numbers quotes from glaringly peripheral characters 99C with coupon V- -C- THE WHOPPER: DELICIOUS ALL WAYS -s- STEPHEN FOSTER story UNDER THE STARS America Favorite Outdoor Musical BARDSTOWN KENTUCKY 8:30 PM NIGHTLY-EXCEPT MONDAYS FOR RESERVATIONS: Toll Free 1-800-348-5900 P0 Box 546 Bardstown Ky 40004 26th SEASON OPENED June 9 TWO EXCITING OUTDOOR DRAMAS History Comes to Life in Kentucky's First Pioneer Settlement The James Harrod Amphitheatre in Old Fort Harrod State Park Located at US 127 KY68 in Historic Harrodsburg Call (606)-734-3346 for Reservations with special gut tar RATT TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 4 8:00 RUPP ARENA ALL SEATS RESERVED AND 1075 AVAILABLE AT THE RUPP ARENA BOX OFFICE DISC JOCKEY RADIO SHACK (WINCHESTER) RECORDSMITH (RICHMOND) TICKETRON (LOUISVILLE CINCINNATI FRANKFORT AND MOREHEAD) STEREO WAREHOUSE (PIKEVTLLE) SOUND SHOP (SOMERSET) (HAZARD AND MANCHESTEHR) AND WCKQ (CAMPBELLSVILLE) RESTAURANT FINE ITALIAN CUISINE PIZZA Jan Hartman's THE LEGEJND OFv" Daniel Boone Monday Wednesday All Performances 8:30 pm EDST by Michael Walters Friday and Saturday June 9 thru August 25 Tuesday and Thursday TELEPHONE 277-1116 or 1117 1765 ALEXANDRIA DR LEXINGTON KY 40504 We start with sizzling hot flame-broiled beef We add fresh tomato crispy lettuce crunchy BURtlCR onion-and other tasty And then Af we serve it just the way you want it 11 fcr' Fodor's covers more countries than any other American-produced travel series Central Largest Independent Qqq Seller HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US AND THANKS TO YOU LEXINGTON We are 8 years old and still ONLY AUTHENTIC FOUR STAR ITALIAN RESTAURANT COME IN AND CELEBRATE WITH US ALL DAY MONDAY AUGUST 6th WITH FREE CHAMPAGNE AND BIRTHDAY CAKE Maps Travel Books and Guides Foreign Languages Books Maps Out of Town Newspapers Out of Print Searches Globes Special Orders Fodor's dated guides are updated and revised every year Fodor's maps and plans are reviewed and updated annually WHOPPER sandwich 99C Please present this coupon before ordering Limit one coupon per customer Not to be used with other coupons or offers Void where oaifMen Prohibited by law This offer expires iiLiil This offer expires 8-13-84 Good only at All KINU Lexington Richmond locations America's Best-Known Travel Guide Series Books Mops Etc The Best Seller for You Book Dolor ppBy the fountcsn in Patched Village (606)269-4611 j-H Mon-Sat 10-9 Sun 1-5 Burger KinglWhopper-neg Pal iTMOtt 1982 Burger King Corporation I i.