Fiction The Forgiveness Trick by Elizabeth Tallent. In London, an American family, Charlie, Kyra, and their son, Nicholas, who is almost five, have rented an apartment for the year because Charlie's New York publishing firm has sent him there. Nicholas has begun to need his father at night. He comes into his parents' bedroom after a bad...

Obituary by William Shawn. Obituary of Winthrop Sargeant, who died Friday, Aug. 15, 1986. He was "The New Yorker's" music critic from 1949 to 1972, and continued as a staff writer thereafter...

The Sporting Scene FORTUITY by Roger Angell. THE SPORTING SCENE about the Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants, the Boston Red Sox & the Oakland A's. Writer watches a game between the Giants & the Cubs at Wrigley field. Wrigley Field seems to have survived the great lights crisis, according to Cub's fan Tim Shanahan. After the...

Fiction Dandelion Golf by Douglas Gasner. In Massachusetts, a couple with three children live on a dairy farm. Their cows were declared superfluous and carted away. Tom, the narrator's husband, had done the last milking at 5:30, when it was still dark. He did not have to do it, but he knew the cows would be...

Books by John Lukacs.

The Talk of the Town Popcorn Memoirs by Susan Lardner. Talk story about a fourteen-year-old boy who was making his debut behind the popcorn-and-candy counter of the local movie house in a village that lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great South Bay. The boy talked about being hired by his employer, L, for the...

Comment Comment Pt. II by Gwyneth Cravens. Comment about Emily Dickinson and Edvard Munch. Dickinson died in Amherst a hundred years ago, after decades of seclusion. She and her poetry remained mostly in her room, unknown. Writer carried the recent Belknap/Harvard two-volume fascimile edition of her poems on a plane to San Francisco earlier this...

A Reporter at Large II-FROM MARCOS TO AQUINO by Robert Shaplen. REPORTER AT LARGE about recent events in the Philippines. In Feb. there was a fraudulent presidential election, which Pres. Marcos claimed to have won. Tells about his efforts to legitimize his election & discredit his opponent Corazon Aquino. Tells about her efforts. Then came an amazing 4-day rebellion that...

The Theatre MUDDLED MASSES by Brendan Gill.

Anniversary Colombian by Henry S. F. Cooper. Talk story about the plans for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the New World. Preparations for it have started in at least 20 countries, most of them in and around the Caribbean, which Columbus explored on his 4 voyages. We learned this over lunch with...

Comment Comment, Pt. I by Daniel Menaker. Recently, we saw a segment of PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer report that all too painfully caught our attention. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, MD & Dr. Mathilde Krim, a research scientist at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, here in NYC...

Poetry Upon a News Item by Gordon Osing. The waltz of the water at this depth, they say, is both...

Poetry 28 by Philip Levine. At 28 I was still faithless...