European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse It a s v v s a a a it it a a a a = a a. A a a a it i to. A -. A a a f. R a _ it a is i a =. A a .7 i a a it of a j just a Lalum a Fitl very angry person takes a Stab at fiction dance with the Devil by Kirk Douglas random mouse 288 pp., $19.95 Don of Briant after acting in 75 films Kirk Douglas says that being a novelist is one of his most challenging roles. A a it san actors dream a he said. A you get to play All the parts. You decide who a going to have sex and who a not going to have sex. You play women men dressed in an open necked shirt and looking younger than 73, the actor was pacing the floor a cup of Coffee in one hand and his first novel a dance with the Devil a in the other. Despite the Success of his Best Selling autobiography Quot the ragman a son a Douglas expects to be criticized for venturing into fiction. But he thrust his famous Cleft Chin Forward and invited reviewers to take their Best it s not like i suddenly decided to become a nuclear scientist. Let the work speak for itself. If they done to like it i wont be writing a dance with the Devil takes place in familiar territory. The hero Danny Dennison is a poor immigrant who survives life in a Concan ration Camp and becomes one of Hollywood s leading directors. But his life is a lie. He has kept his jewishness secret and he has never made the one great film that would satisfy his artistic soul. There a a lot of autobiography in the novel Douglas says but he insisted that he began writing a dance with the Devil years before he wrote Quot the ragman s son.�?�. A. A a file 1959kirk Douglas in a a champions in 1959 left and receiving a French film Industry award earlier this year �?o1 was intrigued with the concept of what. People do to survive. I had this character who did no to want to be known As a jew then he gets to a Point where All of his lies Are giving him unhappiness and he wants to take inventory of his when Douglas came to that part of the novel he considered the parallels to his own life and decided to write his autobiography before finishing a dance with the both Deal with poverty stricken childhoods jewishness and anger. A a in a obviously a very angry person a he says his voice rising a one of the themes in my autobiography dealt with my father and me. He never gave or a Pat on the Back. People said a Well when you weren to around your father really talked about what you did. He really loved you.1 yeah a i said a but he never said it to me i was denied As one of seven children whose father was an illiterate russian immigrant Douglas was the target of anti semitism growing up in Amsterdam . Like Danny Dennison he turned childhood handicaps into fuel for Success. Quot everybody who comes from poverty is driven. Or they just sink. That a Why 1 Tell my kids that they Haven t had my advantages. If 1 had an old Man who was a movie Star and had enough Money and knew i would be taken care of i Don t know what i would have he attributed the Success of his autobiography to his honesty in revealing painful details of his life. He feels the same Way about his fiction. Quot people like directness Quot he says. A in a ragman a Sony there were Many things that i hesitated about. But you can to write thinking about who will buy and read the Book i just let it All pour Cox news service. The Book is available in stars and stripes bookstores. Reviews Louis la amour the outlaws or Mesquite by Lxi is l amour Bantam 199 pp., $16.95 la am our is dead but lovers of Louie love As my wife Calls him can catch All of his standards in this postmortem pack Saddle of eight Short stories. All the old la amour formulas Are Here. Spurned cowpokes wrongly accused rustlers old prospectors and sagacious men of the Law toe the stirrups in the latest Effort published by i amours wife Kathy and daughter Angelique. The Good Guy always gets the Gat in the end except when the Gal does t deserve the dude. A War and peace this Isnit but la amour never aimed for that. A Short bedtime Sampler of old fashioned values in the old West with Surprise endings is what you expect from the o. Henry of the old West and that a what l amour provides Here. His description of the terrain gives the Reader the feeling of being up in the Saddle with kid Cactus red Carter smoke Lansom and the rest just like la amour always has. Tim Boivin the stars and stripes the innocent by Ian Kcf wan Doubleday 270 pp., $18.95 in Lan Mcewan a grisly fictional world civilization is collapsing and innocence has become a hazardous stale of mind closely Akin to amorality on one hand stupidity on the other. The hero of Mcewan a latest novel is an innocent adrift in a precarious world. Leonard Farnham is a British technician who has been sent to Berlin in 1955 to work on a cia/mi-6 surveillance project against the soviet Union. He is soon initiated into the mysteries of sex by a pretty West Berliner named Maria. When his conflicting loyalties erupt a fight ensues that is shockingly bloody even by Mcewan a own disturbing fiction. This is a powerful and disturbing novel a tour de Force of horror and philosophical suspense. Michiko Kakutani new York times stardust by Robert b. Parker Putnam 256 pp., $18.95 Jill Joyce a self indulgent Beauty is a True product of the Tinseltown n Star system. She a american St sweetheart. And she a sure someone wants to kill her. Enter Spenser private Eye Par excellence who accepts the Case As a favor and agrees to find out who a has been harassing the Star. Spenser who does no to exactly warm to the Star quickly cams that he son his own to solve the Case. When questioned the usually vociferous Jill becomes a frightened and insecure woman who is either unwilling or unable to provide any clues. Jill is so uncooperative and cryptic that Spenser begins to wonder if these harassment Arentt just another ploy for attention. That is until the harasser confirms his presence and his intentions in a most deadly Way. Spenser fans rejoice a stardust a the 17th Spenser novel is like a trip Down memory Jane. Gone Are the Over indulgent plot lines and Flat characterizations of the past few efforts this is what Spenser books used to be like. This is the style that made so Many ardent fans and kept them clamouring for More. Gregory n. Krolczyk Baltimore Sun a books Dorii Isble -31 so Chi s and str Pes Book Sully a i Page 8 sunday alg Ljusi pm. 1990
