The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 48

The State COLUMBIA SOUTH The Local best sellers Compiled by The Happy Bookseller Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling Living History Hillary Clinton The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson Lakehouse James Patterson Patriot's Handbook Selected by Caroline Kennedy Sushi for Beginners Marian Keyes Longitudes and Attitudes Thomas Friedman The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold Scout's Honor Peter Applebome National Fiction The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown Naked Prey John Sandford The Guardian Nicholas Sparks The Face Dean Koontz The Devil Wears Prada Lauren Weisberger The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold Armageddon Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins The Sinister Pig Tony Hillerman The Second Time Around Mary Higgins Clark Dead Ringer Lisa Scottoline Nonfiction An Unfinished Life Robert Dallek Moneyball Michael Lewis The Teammates David Halberstam A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson Who's Your Caddy? Rick Reilly Leap of Faith Queen Noor Dereliction of Duty Robert "Buzz" Patterson Beyond of Belief Elaine Pagels Open John Feinstein Charlie Wilson's War George Crile Book SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2003 Hillary, even Reviewed by Jeff Guinn LIVING HISTORY by Hillary Rodham Clinton Simon Schuster, 576 pages, $28 figure's how much autobiography to tell, is how much calculation to THE CORNERSTONE OF ANY PUBLIC gloss over, what to emphasize, what to ignore altogether. That fact never has been more in evidence than in "Living History," current U.S. Sen.

and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's account of her life up to her 2000 election as the junior senator from New York. "I have done my best to convey my observations, thoughts and feelings as I experienced them," Clinton writes in an opening author's note. "This is not meant to be a comprehensive history, but a personal memoir that offers an inside look at an extraordinary time in my life and in the life of America." In Clinton's case, she obviously wants to present a memoir that tells enough to somewhat satisfy readers' prurient interests (Simon Schuster is paying $8 million for "Living History," after all), contains a few "mea culpas" to establish the author as a woman who recognizes her mistakes and learns from them, and remains sufficiently upbeat to indicate "this" senator and possible future presidential candidate hasn't stopped "thinking about tomorrow," to steal a line from the Fleetwood Mac song that the Clinton-Gore ticket used as its theme in 1992 and '96. And so we get the very book the reasonably objective among us dreaded: a passably readable tome that tells us little we didn't already know. Hillary Clinton enjoyed a comfortable childhood in a Chicago suburb.

She began as a conservative Republican but gradually was won over to the Democrats by that party's commitment to the social issues that would always hold sway in her heart. There are the oft-told stories of her further political, awakenings at Wellesley College in Massachusetts; how she met Bill Clinton at Yale Law School and gradually fell in love with him; her decision to move to Arkansas, marry her beau and support him in his political career; the "wonder" of the birth of their daughter, Chelsea; and then the even more familiar tales of the '92 and '96 elections and all the Review PAGE E6 King wanders a frustrating desert trail in 'Gunslinger' Fiction Reviewed by T.D. Mobley-Martinez THE GUNSLINGER By Stephen King Viking, 231 pages, $25 CONFESSION: THE LAST TIME I PICKED UP A a days Stephen were King meant for novel, a I little still thought Hawaiian summer Tropic, a tiny swimsuit, a lounge chair in all-day full sun and a scary book. So, it's been awhile. But as I turned the first pages of the "revised and expanded" "The Gunslinger," which was originally written in 1970, I felt that silky hook, that comfortable intersection of description and dialogue that King has wielded with much success in even his most thinly conceived novels.

The man sure can tell a story. But unfortunately, this isn't "The Shining," "The Stand" or even "Christine." In these stories, King transformed a familiar world into one in which the familiar is a twisted camouflage for evil. In "The Gunslinger," though, King creates a universe unto itself. There are humans, certainly, but ones with cumbersome mannered speech the other side we will hold much council and long with bird men, mutants with dozens of eyes, ed oracles and magicians who raise STEPHEN KING THE GUNSLINGER THE DARK TOWER REVISED AND EXPANDED WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION AND FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR "I wanted to write not just a long book, but the longest popular novel in history." Stephen King, in the foreword of "The Gunslinger" dead men best left dead. It's sort of "Planet of the Apes" meets "Lord of the Rings" meets "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" but with a whole lot more killing and almost no emotional connection between characters.

And after awhile, that wears. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed," begins "The Gunslinger," which King wrote four years before his first book, "Carrie," was published. Stark. A bit poetic. But, by the end of the book, you won't know much more than that sentence offers.

You'll run across some odd scenes, like the day Roland kills every man, woman and child all of whom wanted his blood in the dinky town of Hull. Or the way the 8-year-old boy, Jake, appears out of nowhere, surely planted by the man in black. Or how the piano player keeps playing "Hey, Jude." And maybe the mystery of it all is because this series runs roughly 4,500 pages. wanted to write not just a long book," he writes in the new foreword, "but the longest popular novel in That means these 200-and-some pages are only a fraction of the seven-volume story, a baby step in a very long narrative. This book (and the next book and maybe the one after that) is simply exposition, then.

I'm not supposed to understand what a "jilly-girl" is or the reason Jake has memories of modern New York despite his presence in this desert nowhere. I'm not supposed to untangle dialogue sticky with long silences, confusing flashbacks and "if it please yas. But even with King's flair for turning a hair-raising moment, that's a hard trick to sustain. How do you continue to care for a character who has so little feeling for anything? How do you stick with a story that only offers you a sliver of an explanation? As always, though, King is generous with his description. "He did not take the flint and steel from the purse until the remains of the day were only fugitive heat in the ground beneath him and a sardonic orange line on the monochrome horizon.

He sat with his gunna drawn across his lap and watched the southeast patiently, looking toward the mountains, not hoping to see the thin straight line of do smoke from a new campfire, not expecting to see an orange spark of flame, but watching anyway because watching was part of it, and had it's own bitter satisfaction." Sorta like the book itself. Mobley-Martinez is the Books editor at The State. Reach her at (803) 771-8498 or Nonfiction we hardly after this Living Hell Codian Clinton There's nothing new here, nothing to sway Hillary haters or further inflame Hillary fans. high and low points during and afterward. Throughout, Clinton offers observations at the expense of insights.

For instance, she has much to say about her reaction when her husband finally admitted that he'd engaged in "inappropriate intimacy" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky could hardly breathe. Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him but absolutely nothing about whether, during the earlier course of their lengthy marriage, she'd had any suspicion that he might have been unfaithful. The testimony of alleged ex-lover Gennifer Flowers and the legal attack by Paula Jones are barely ac- Advice More enlightenment from the Etiquette Grrls Reviewed by Mike Maza MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO BE TOLD By the Etiquette Grrls: Honore McDonough, Ervin and Lesley Carlin Berkley Books, $11.95 older, snippy THEY'RE but and still BACK: in A their opinionated little 20s, bit as as the first time around (and sometimes banal, too this is etiquette, after all). And they still have Big Trouble with capitalization. Now what? Substantial do's and don'ts for letter writing, tipping and gift-giving.

Transportation is big, too, includONE ing friendly driving tips and hints You on auto More Be Told decor. Things Need to don't mind your affixing a CD holder to your window shade (do they mean but we beg of you, let it not be Glittery, or Feathery, or Otherwise Also, there are lots of dating and style tips for men. But will guys take advice from people who won't call a visor a visor? Bonus: A very short entry titled "Goth Etiquette." A chapter on entertainment recommends conventional books and movies, except where it's callow or generationally reflexive (Stephen Sondheim musicals stink, they contend, but Rock Hudson-Doris Day movies were adorable). But, hey, attitude (and the inability to distinguish between personal preference and social grace) is what separates grrls from Miss know ye memoir knowledged here. Of course, the Clinton administration was beset by many problems scandals other than salacious ones.

She discusses some of these, most importantly failed initiatives to pass legislation mandating universal health care. Of that failure, Clinton offers a quick, general apology for "trying to do too much too soon," and notes that she mistook friendly responses from congressional subcommittees for general agreement rather than polite reaction to the unique event of testimony from the president's wife. But the real problem, Clinton maintains, were Republicans determined to derail sweeping, necessary health insurance reform for fear the president's success would guarantee him re-election in '96: "That was an outcome Republican Party planners were determined to prevent." In almost every case, from the never-ending Whitewater investigations to mean stories about her hairstyles, Clinton thinks right-wing opposition was involved. There's nothing new here, nothing to sway Hillary haters or further inflame Hillary fans. She carefully notes that both main political parties practice the honored political art of mudslinging but adds that the Republicans are simply better at it.

What "Living History" cries out for here is a more honest display of frustration rather than coolly considered remonstration. Anger might be a dangerous emotion for a politician, but its heat can make a memoir more palatable. Declaiming partial truths as absolutes is the oldest political game of all, and one of the lamest literary tricks. Some of Clinton's enemies undoubtedly were progress-haters who didn't want uppity women involved in the highest realms of government. But just as certainly, other opponents simply disagreed with her political philosophies.

Gender didn't "always" factor into it. "Living History" concludes with a few shortish chapters about Clinton's successful Senate race. She says that "a complete account will have to be told another time." Maybe so. And maybe Hillary Clinton will, at some point, write the memoir of which she is capable. Guinn wrote this review for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Bonus: A very short entry titled "Goth Etiquette." Manners and Emily Post. Maza wrote this review for The Dallas Morning News. NEWBERRY House "A Taste of Newberry" Under the Stars Local Cuisine, Wine Tasting, Live Entertainment in Memorial Park Eric Horner Gospel, Singer Guitarist 3 pm Beach Music Salute to America Clifford Curry, Rickey Godfrey, Clay Brown, Tony Howard more 8 pm Patty Lovelace She is back to the Newberry Opera House 3 8 pm Leo Kottke Contemporary acoustic guitarist in Concert 7 pm Patty Loveless Box Office: 803-276-6264 Buy Online: www.newberryoperahouse.com 23399-55 1 In Concert! Beach Boys (803) Tickets to 251-2222 order today! i Call Capitol They September 17 7:00 p.m. KOGER CENTER FOR THE ARTS On sale now at the Carolina Coliseum box office and all Capitol Tickets outlets. 17160-59 PHASES.