Books & Literature

Novelist Albert French. He found inspiration for his first novel, "Billy" (Viking), in the true story of an 11-yr-old getting the electric chair in the 1930's. "Billy," is the story of the "legal lynching" of a ten year old boy in the deep south who inadvertently kills a white girl. French writes in "Delta" dialect, epitomizing racial hatred in America. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Readings from the PEN American Center's benefit for Bosnian Writers, "An Evening For Sarajevo", held last night in New York City. Fifteen American writers read from their work to raise money for the writers of Sarajevo for food and supplies; writers in the besieged city are fighting to keep their literary culture vital and undiminished in a time of war.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Wendy Lesser's book, "Pictures at an Execution," looking at why we are fascinated with murder.

Former homeless man and writer Lars Eighner. He's written an account of his time on the streets with his dog, "Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets," (St, Martin's Press).

Former president of Harvard Derek Bok. In his new book, "The Cost of Talent: How Executives and Professionals Are Paid and How It Affects America" (Free Press), BOK argues that the rich shouldn't be so much richer. He says that huge salary gaps result in social and economic losses, "jeopardiz[ing] democracy by weakening faith in the economic system". Bok was the president of Harvard University from 1971 to 1991. He has written five other books.

Storyteller Garrison Keillor. He's the host and writer of "A Prairie Home Companion" on National Public Radio--a show that "pokes at the heart of American sensibilities and sensitivities." His new book is called "The Book of Guys" (Viking). Keillor has written five other books including the best-seller "Lake Wobegon Days."

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Jacqueline Deval's new book, "Reckless Appetites" (Ecco).

Movie producer Art Linson. He broke into Hollywood with "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." His other films include "Casualties of War", "The Untouchables," and "This Boy's Life". The New York Times called him an "energetic tough guy film maker with a tendency for the offbeat." Linson grew tired of everyone (including his mother) always asking what he does. So he's written a book about his job called "A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood" (Grove Press).

Afrikaner poet, painter and dissident Breyten Breytenbach. In 1975, Breytenbach was an anti-apartheid activist in exile. When he made a secret visit to his native South Africa, Breytenbach was arrested, charged for treason, and imprisoned for seven years. In his writing, Breytenbach "alternates outrage at South Africa's governmental policies of apartheid with love for his country and its landscape". Breytenbach's most recent work is "Return to Paradise" (Harcourt Brace).

Ralph Wiley: journalist, staff writer at "Sports Illustrated" for nine years, he's now an essayist on the dynamics of race in America. His pieces have been collected in two books, "Why Black People Tend to Shout" (Penguin) and newly, "What Black People Should Do Now" (Ballantine).

Maureen Corrigan reviews novelist E.L. Doctorow's first book of essays, entitled "Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution."

Martin Espada, a poet, tenant's right attorney, and now Assistant Professor of English at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Brooklyn born -in 1957- of Puerto Rican heritage, he calls his work, "poems of advocacy, based on the lives ...consigned to silence." Espada was lauded by PEN/Revson Award for Poetry for giving "dignity to the insulted and injured of the earth." Poet Carolyn Forche describes Espada as "that subversive someone we know." His new book of poems is "City of Coughing and Dead Radiators" (Norton).

Drummer and lead vocalist for the rock group The Band, Levon Helm. Helm's Arkansas roots gave the Canadian group an American folk sound. In the 1960's The Band, got it's start backing Bob Dylan. They went on their own in 1968 with "Music From Big Pink." The Band is back with a new album, "Jericho," and a tour. Helm's written a book about The Band called "This Wheel's On Fire" (Morrow).

Health care reporter Laurie Kaye Abraham. For her new book, "Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: the Failure of Health Care in Urban America" (U of Chicago), Abraham spent three years with a poor African American family studying the problem of lack of access to medical care. Abraham reveals how difficult it is for a poor family to make sense of Medicaid and Medicare, and the discrimination that blacks face in trying to find health care.

Irish writer and journalist Tim Pat Coogan. In the expanded edition of his twenty-some year old book, "The IRA: A History" (Roberts Rinehart), Coogan explains the historical background of the Irish struggles. For hundreds of years the Irish Republican Army has been fighting for home rule in Northern Ireland...their latest attack was a massive bombing of London last April. "The IRA: A History," is being released for the first time in the U.S., thought it's been required reading for British and Irish Military officers alike.

From 1953 until 1989 Helen Suzman served as an Opposition Member of the South African Parliament. Suzman was a pioneering political leader in the fight against apartheid and anti-semitism. For thirteen years she was the sole representative in the Parliament to reject race discrimination.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two sequels to literary classics, "Sherlock Holmes" and "Pride and Prejudice".

Israeli peace activist and novelist Amos Oz. He lived on a kibbutz for many years and is a veteran of the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Oz is a leading acivist for peace between the Arabs and the Israelis. His new book is called "Fima" (Harcourt Brace), he has written eleven novels in all. Amos Oz received the German Publishers Peace Prize in 1992.

Writer Edmund White. He has been called "unquestionably the foremost American gay novelist." White's novels draw significantly from his own experiences in a style he calls "auto-fiction." In his newest book, "Genet: A Biography" (Knopf), White documents the life of controversial French writer, Jean Genet.

Should you get a flu shot? We hear from Robin Marantz Henig, author of a book about viruses "A Dancing Matrix," and Dr. W. Paul Glezer, epidemiologist at the Influenza Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine.