Books by John Newhouse.

The Theatre MILKMAN by Edith Oliver.

Fiction Tristan and Iseult by John Updike. The narrator describes the experience of having his teeth cleaned, as if it were an exulted romantic encounter with the dental hygienist. She leads our hero to her little, heavily equipped room and offers him, as she settles him onto his back, only the most grudging small talk. The threat...

Comment by Garrison Keillor. A friend uptown writes that he's been fixing Thanksgiving dinner for five years, ever since his wife turned the job over to him. This year's dinner, for nine, seems to be his best. This dinner is exactly like his mother always made, except that she served ice water and they...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town In Sympathy by Mindy Aloff. Talk story about a perfectly preserved viola d' amore made by Thomas Eberle, a contemporary of J.S. Bach. Now owned by William L. Monical of Staten Island, the instrument made its professional debut during a performance of Bach's Cantata No. 205 by New York's Musica Sacra at Avery Fisher Hall...

Fiction At Whom the Dog Barks by Lore Segal. The story is prefaced by a quotation from Max Frisch, about the phrase, "A poor man but honest." At the Concordia Institute, in Conn., the electric pencil sharpener turns up missing. The Institute's director, Leslie Shakespere, and his wife, Eliza, throw a party attended by Nat & Nancy Cone; Ilka...

The Current Cinema MIDDLE OF THE ROAD by Terrence Rafferty.

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Two days after election the Pres. announced that about 200,000 more troops were being sent to the Persian Gulf. Though this was dressed up as a policy decision what actually happened was that the military changed its estimate of what it needed to carry out the offensive option it had...

The Talk of the Town Living Author by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about the Trollope Society in England and the Trollope Society in America. The latter organization recently brought a group of performers over from London to put on two evenings of Victorian songs interspersed with readings from Trollope's novels. The Folio Society, a London publishing enterprise, along with the...

Poetry Sculpture Garden by Mark Levine. I won't speak for everyone. But my father, not...

Poetry (Zurich, 6 December) by Karl Kirchwey. Whether a man hired from town or the father of friends...