European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 28, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I in is 111 Downing Strett Tara by Margaret Thatcher Harper Collins. During her 11v4 years As Britain s prime minister Margaret Thatcher collected a lot of Praise and a lot of abuse. George Bush hailed her As the greengrocer s daughter who shaped a nation to her  others praised her As a successor to Churchill and the great est peacetime prime minister since Gladstone. Piet Dankert a former president of the european parliament called her the Witch in the european fairy tale always clearly recognizable and always the person liable to turn everything upside  to Many members of Britain s Liberal left intelligentsia she was simply that woman the avatar of All they despised about Britain in the 1980s. In the words of the writer and director Jonathan Miller she was a despised Symbol of odious suburban gentility and sentimental Saccharine  no doubt the ability of the Iron lady to elicit highly polarized responses combined with her own fabled outspokenness contributed to the decision of Harper Collins to pay her a reported $5.4 million for the Downing Street years and a future volume that is to chronicle her youth and Rise to political Power. The most striking thing about the Downing Street years however has nothing to do with its reve lations which Aren t terribly earthshaking or its settling of scores which Are predictable and of mar Ginal interest to most american readers. What is most striking is it s such a bore to read. Throughout her residence at 10 Downing st., Thatcher radiated a domineering self Confidence a seemingly unshakeable Faith in herself and her poli cies. Indeed in this volume she writes referring to the English statesman William Pitt the first Earl of Chatham who was prime minister from 1766 to 1768 Chatham famously remarked i know that i can save this country and that no one else can it would have been presumptuous of me to have com pared myself to Chatham. But if i am honest i must admit that my exhilaration came from a similar inner  in terms of her memoirs this attitude of moral certainty results in an unreflective narrative virtually devoid of retrospective analysis. Thatcher almost never apologizes or explains or for that matter illuminates. Instead she Falls Back on her habits As a scientist before entering politics she trained As a research chemist and gives the Reader a  and minutely detailed account of what she said and did at dozens of meetings sum mits and conferences. Certainly this is an important part of the historical record but for the Lay Reader it can make for stultifying Reading. To make matters worse the Book feels hastily assembled the name of George Shultz is repeatedly misspelled As in the excellent new Secretary of state George Schultz. In the course of the Downing Street years Thatcher reveals appreciably Little about her private life save that she and her husband Denis liked to indulge in late night High cholesterol snacks of cheese and eggs and that she bought a lot of clothes from Aqua Scutum. For the most part her portraits of other people Are predictable too. She tells us that she liked Jimmy Carter though he had no Large vision of America s future that she regarded Ronald Rea Gan As the american dream in action and that she thought Bush turned his Back on the special Posi Tion i had enjoyed in the Reagan administration s counsels and Confidence As a Way of distancing him self from his predecessor. Of Mikhail Gorbachev she writes i spotted him because i was searching for someone like  for the record Thatcher expresses Only mild condescension toward her successor John major he was relatively untested and his tendency to accept the conventional Wisdom had Given me pause for  in the end Thatcher s writing makes for a fat and dreary Book As she puts it at one Point i had set my course and stuck to  Michiko Kakutani new York times a sri Luis the sex prime minister poses her Book in London. Whoredom in Al Magos Irish Wom oncoming off ago by Rosemary Mahoney Hough ton Mifflin co. The sexes Are As separate in Ireland As in Many parts of the third world. They inhabit different spaces talk mainly to their own kind. The Irish joke defining an Irish homosexual As a Man who prefers women to drink is no joke. An american of Irish descent brought up in an Irish neighbourhood of Boston Mahoney spent 1991 in Dublin and county Gare and discovered a new Breed of Irish woman far removed from Mother Mach acc. Earthy confident Independent outspoken these new women refuse marriage live openly with their boyfriends have babies out of Wedlock. Some Are lesbian Many Are feminists. One feminist is presi Dent. Mary Robinson when she was a Liberal sen Ator introduced the first legislation to legalize contraception in Ireland. She won rights for homosexuals children born out of Wedlock and the right of women to sit on juries. And speaking before she was president Robinson openly accused the whole patriarchal male dominated presence of the Catholic Church for the Down trodden status of Irish women. Mahoney a Fine reporter balances her social por trait with plenty of evidence that the traditional Irish Mother is still there and traditional family values too. In 1983, Irish voters added an absolute ban on abortion to the Irish Constitution. And the conserva Tives Are fighting the radicals hard. It was a member of the powerful society for the Protection of the unborn child who contributed the title of this Book when she referred to Ireland s feminists and a Noto rious Dublin working class area in the same breath those women encourage whoredom in Kimmage Brenda Maddox los Angeles times sacred clowns by Tony Hillerman Harper Collins. The Blessing Way introduced Joe leap Horn of the Navajo tribal police by now a lieutenant in sacred clowns his Lith appearance. He is a widower just awkwardly beginning to get social even contemplating a trip to China with Louisa a University anthropologist. There is crime at hand the brutal and seemingly unrelated murders of a Volunteer shop teacher at a Mission school and a sacred Clown dancer at a Pueblo. The link May be a missing teen Ager who leads the officers on a Dusty Chase around the reservations. Charles Champlin los Angeles times new York times list hardback fiction 1 Stow Witt i it far if by Robert James Waller last week 1 weeds enlist 4 t tit Irmam Tumlim county by Robert James Waller last week 2 wee son list. 68i of a Mim a  by Stephen King last week 3 weeks on list 7 4 walk us it Lent by Tom Clancy last week 5 weeks on list 14 i Lis fit by Anne Rice last week 4 weeks on list 9 i or. My for by Dean Koontz last week 8 weeks on list 3 t a def trim fort Mil by Ken Fol left last week 9 weeks on list 6 i Ottow by Dick Francis last week 7 weeks on list 5 i tit rom if him try Robert Jordan last week 6 weeks on list s 11 Lih mtr lit cd met by Uura Esquival last week. 11 weeks on list 33 11 Stirm Tomt try Tony Hillerman last week 10 weeks on list 9. 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