Fiction Are We Kids Or What? by George W. S. Trow. William Akers, 40, born William Akers Framner, is disturbed by the AIDS-related death of a fashion designer who, like him, had been a part of the crowd at Studio 54. He resumes his identity as "a Framner": he quits his job, ends his relationship with a big blonde woman...

The Talk of the Town Cuts by Mindy Aloff. Talk story about the effects of budget cuts at the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The branch is now closed Tuesdays; and until fall, on Saturdays--to the confusion of library patrons. Head librarian Claire Gottfried points out that the branch has had to reduce class visits...

A Critic at Large L'HOMME ENGAGE by William Pfaff. A CRITIC AT LARGE about Andre Malraux, the French novelist and war hero. He remains a figure of the international literary canon, but the public personality overshadows the work: Malraux was a phenomenon of the political history of 20th-century Europe, as of its cultural history, his early novels being...

Around City Hall Grand Tour by Andy Logan. Whether or not Mayor Dinkins' prediction that Nelson Mandela's visit to New York would heal the ethnic strife, the easing of tensions in any area is nothing that anyone can count on on in this town. Weeks before the South African arrived, many local Jewish leaders, including some with a...

Fiction The Planet-Sensitive Art of the Nineties by Benoit van Innis. Four captioned illustrations showing various artists and their work...

The Talk of the Town Summer by Deirdre McNamer. Talk story about a lawsuit against the Bellshire United Methodist Church over some electronic church bells. A friend in Missoula, Montana tells about it. She went to Nashville, where the church is located and her friend Kirk, the newspaper reporter, lives. The lawsuit was brought by Vaughan Pritchett and five...

Fiction On the U. S. S. Fortitude by Ron Carlson. The narrator lives with her two children aboard their own aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Fortitude. The children, Dennis and Cherry (who is only 12), fly around in their own F/A-18 Hornet airplanes. Their mother recalls their cramped life in the Hotel Atlantis, on West 22nd St. She says...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town J.R. by Claudia Roth Pierpont. Talk story about the closing night of the New York City Ballet's Festival of Jerome Robbins' Ballets; this was a gala performance marking the retirement of Robbins from the company. The event took place at the State Theatre. After the final ballet, "The Four Seasons," the curtain fell only to...

Annals of Radiation CALAMITY ON MEADOW STREET by Paul Brodeur. ANNALS OF RADIATION about cancer & power lines. Writer tells about an extraordinary number of cancer cases & other illnesses among residents of Meadow St. in Guilford, Conn. The trouble may have been caused by an electric substation on the street but Connecticut Light & Power Co. said there was...

Comment by William Finnegan. Briefly mentioned in comment about Nelson Mandela's visit to this country. After Mandela spoke at the White House, Bush said he couldn't get over the way his guest spoke without using notes...

Poetry The River at Wolf by Jean Valentine. Coming East we left the animals...

Poetry At the Classics Teacher's by Elizabeth Macklin. You gave us phlox, blue-rose, burst on the marble...

Poetry Walk, Night Falling, Memory of My Father by Eamon Grennan. Downhill into town...