Comment by Jonathan Schell. A new kind of children's book in which the reader is invited to intervene in the story, is being published. This innovation is unsettling, for if in the past there was one thing everybody could count on about written stories it was that they would march to predestined conclusions without...

Books by V. S. Pritchett.

The Talk of the Town Winter Hardy by Bruce Bliven. Talk story about a visit to the Onteora Arboretum, a mile or so above Tannersville, N.Y., in the northeastern Catskills. Dr. and Mrs. Edward H. Ahrens, Jr. founded the arboretum 8 years ago in order to find out why some trees are winter hardy and others are not. Dr. Ahrens...

Personal History II-SOUND-SHADOWS by Ved Mehta. PERSONAL HISTORY about writer's last year of high school (12th grade) at the Arkansas School for the Blind in Little Rock. He won the race for Student Senate president. His opponent & good friend Gather Brown became vice-president. Describes the hard work the students had to do to set...

Fiction Spells by Tama Janowitz. Writer is at a birthday party for Daria, an artist. Writer's boyfriend, Stash, also an artist, sits almost touching Daria's legs with his own. She begins planning Stash's funeral. Daria's art is nothing to look at, but she can hear Stash telling Daria how much he likes her work. Going...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Air The Race by Sharon Olds. When I got co the airport I rushed up to the desk...

Fiction The Vonnegutenberg Bible: Genesis I and So On by Susan Lardner. Writer rewrites first chapter of Bible in style of Kurt Vonnegut: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, which was not a bad start, considering how things have turned out a trillion or so years later. Nowadays, a substantial majority of His creatures great & small entertain...

The Talk of the Town Report from Missoula by Bryan Di Salvatore. Talk story from a friend in Missoula, Montana, who belongs to a softball team, the Montana Review of Books. They had a bad season, losing their place as champions of the Missoula Northside Men's League. At the post-season party it turned out that many of the players either wanted...

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

A Reporter at Large NANCY by Berton Roueche. A REPORTER AT LARGE about writer's trip to Nancy, the ancient capital of the ancient duchy of Lorraine. Part of the reason for the trip was that the writer's great-grandfather, the man who had founded the family in America, was born in Nancy. Writer and his wife Kay spent...

Poetry Coral Washed Up at Golindano, Venezuela by Sarah Arvio. Here is a lumpy chunk of gray matter...