European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 02, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Reviews the abuse excuse and other cop outs sob stories and evasions off responsible to by Alan Dershowitz Little Brown & co. Erik and Lyle Menendez admit they gunned Down their parents As they watched television but say they acted in self defense after suffering years of sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of their father. After a six month trial the juries for both Brothers deadlock unable to reach a verdict. Lorena Bobbitt slices off her husband s Penis while he is sleeping. Her defense argues she was suf Fering from temporary insanity brought on by her husband s abuse and the jury acquits her of charges of malicious wounding. Colin Ferguson kills six people and wounds 19others on a Long Island Railroad train. His lawyers announce they plan to argue that he was suffering from a psychiatric condition they Call Black  they contend he was driven insane by racial prejudice and cannot be held accountable for his actions. Such abuse excuses As the High visibility lawyer Alan Dershowitz argues in his provocative new Book have proliferated wildly in recent years. There is talk in courtrooms these Days not Only of battered persons syndrome and parental abuse syndrome but also of chronic lateness syndrome fan obsession syndrome Meek mate syndrome and Urban survival  people have tried to blame television books and Rock music for their actions they have also tried to blame their parents their lovers often the very peo ple they be killed. Certainly this phenomenon in both its strictly Legal sense and its broader cultural manifestations has already been written about widely. Indeed Dershowitz s Book frequently echoes Charles Sykes 1992 Book a nation of victims St. Martin s pres which in turn echoes lengthy articles that appeared in new York and time magazines the previous year. Michiko Kakutani new York times in defense of elitism by William a. Henry Iii Doubleday. Essentially what Henry is arguing in his posthumous Book is that in the United states Equality of Opportunity has come increasingly to be confused with Equality of outcome and that the consequent Triumph of egalitarianism Over elitism is costing the country dearly. In a wide ranging free swinging commentary that will raise the hackles of nearly everyone Henry argues that ome cultures Are Superior to others and that what they produce is not All of equal value. He writes provocatively it is scarcely the same thing to put a Man on the Moon As to put a Bone in your  he asserts that some people Are better than others smarter harder working More Learned More productive harder to  and if we Are ready to Call a handicapped person differently tabled then we should be willing to Label the Dull witted differently  insists that what made the United states the T envy of the world was the rewarding of winners in competitions judged by objective standards. Ours is a Superior culture he writes and it is so precisely because of its  Henry s modest proposal for amelioration is Sim ply to reduce Over perhaps a five year Span the number of High school graduates who go on to col lege from nearly 60 percent to a still generous 33  v Henry who was a culture critic for time Magazine when he died of a heart attack in june at the age of 44, May sound from the foregoing like a Cranky right Wing reactionary but in fact As he protests in in de sense of elitism he was a registered Democrat and l opposed to such ideologues As Jesse Helms and Pat Robertson. His dust jacket biography identifies him also As having been a card carrying member of the american civil liberties Union. What impresses you is not so much that he is shocking in his snobbery but that he has the courage and Perspicuity to defend and explain it. -. Christopher Lehmann Haupt not baseball an illustrated history by Geof Frey c. Ward and Ken Burns Knopf. Best Sellers Alan Dershowitz author of the abuse excuse. Historian Ward and producer Burns the civil War collaborate to write a definitive history of base Ball. They cram the Book full of photos and first hand accounts of people and events and make it a companion to Burns nine part pcs documentary. Tom Zucco St. Petersburg times stranger to the game by Bob Gibson Viking. -. During his 17 mostly successful years As a Pitcher for the St. Louis cardinals Gibson was known to be angry intimidating arrogant and Nasty. As an author he proves to be much of the same. Gibson makes several mentions of his Battle for respect with dodgers Pitcher Sandy Koufax. He writes that he considers Juan Marichal to be the Best _ Pitcher of his time and that Koufax had the Best five year run of any Pitcher. But then he writes that since Koufax put together nothing More to speak of than those five years i m unwilling to take a backseat to him As a Pitcher. Throughout the Book Gibson laments the fact that he can t get a Job i baseball and it seems especially. To bother him that the cardinals Don t want to hire him even though he is Good friends with Joje Torre their current manager. Only toward the end does he seem to acknowledge that the very reputation he forged As a player May be what is working against him now As he seeks a Job As _ a coach or manager or front office executive. Mar Topkin St. Petersburg times the Good husband by Gail Godwin Ballan _ Tine Godwin surpasses even her finest work in a Mother and two daughters and the Odd woman with this gracefully told tale of four decent intelligent people struggling to come to terms with the relation ships they have forged. Without contrivance Godwin opens a window on two unions one Happy one foundering and in a single Cycle of the seasons brings both to their Natu ral conclusions Betsy Kline Pittsburgh Post Gazette Down in the Zero by Andrew Vachss Knopf. Whatever else one might say about Vachss novels Abou Burke the Hustle with a heart of Gilt that they re juvenile sexist preachy and phony at least they conveyed the thrill of coherent action leading to an exciting and often murderous Climax. This is  Burke s seventh Outing. About two thirds of the Way through the Book Burke says maybe i m getting  maybe Vachss is too. His name rhymes with  r author and hero exhibit serious signs of tiredness. For whatever bizarre plot convolutions it used tour solve Burke in Vachss fevered imagination at test inspired a kind of outraged interest from his readers. In this Book Vachss seems to be scraping the Bottom of his imagination s  Koeppel commercial Appeal new York times list hardback fiction 1 debt of Honor by Tom Clancy last week 1 weeks on list 5 t nothing in Forwar by Sidney Sheldon last week. 5 weeks on list 1 3 in body farm by Patricia Cromwell last Weete 2i weeks on list 3 4 tha be tenant prophecy by James Redfield last week 3 weeks on list 31 i for carry Comet bedtime a Lortt by James finn Garner last week 6weeks on list 15 to 6m by Danielle steel last week 4 weeks on list 10 7 tin by Watt to Madison county by Robert James Waller last week 8we�ksonlist112 i a son of Tea Drew by John Irving last week 7 weeks on list 5 i the a camber by John Grisham last week 9 weeks on list 17 10 dam Ayaton us nog adapted by Don Ferguson last week 10 weeks on list 9 11 har moot to Frog pts thu by Tom bobbins last week 14 weeks on list 3 12 brother and Suttera by Bebe Moore Campbell last week 15 weeks on list 2 13 mutant Mesa Aga Sooim under by Mario Morgan last week 12 weeks enlist 4 14 Hett Vood kit by Jackie Collins first week on list 15 on Twa tent by Anna Quindlen Hist week on list nonfiction 1 Barton loth a Mamorl by Barbara Bush last week 3 weeks on list 3 2 Cap Lehard by Paul Reiser last week 1 weeks on list 4 3 no raced by it Light by Betty j. Eadle with Curtis Taylor last week 2 weeks on list 73 4 Ita la of hmm by William j. Bennett last week 4 weeks on list 41 8 old Bloir in to Garten it Good and Al by Jofin Berendt last week 5 weeks on list 30 i Lastar an Root rated he Story by Geoffrey a Ward and Ken Burns last week 13 weeks on list 2 7 Mon Artora Waugman by Hope Edelman last week 7 weeks on list 10 i Alt s fair by Mary Matalyn and James Carville first week on list _ i Jamaa Harriott cat Scortea by James Herriot first week on list 10 tha Kennedy woman by Laurence learner last week 7 weeks on list 7 ii tru Oliotti by Jill Ker Conway list week 12 weeks on list 3 12 twite Sanga my  Marlon Brando with Robert Lindsey last week 8 weeks on list 2 13 better than Sei by Hunters Thompson last week 15 weeks on list 2. 14 Tea last Bui to Albuquerque by Lewis or Laird first week on list 15 october 1m4 by David Halberstam last week 9 weeks on list 7 miscellaneous 1 Man Are from Mara woman Are from venue by John Gray last week 1 weeks on 1st 71 _ i a time Miro Lobyron Leadley la5jwee r2wcevjonli3l 23 i Matte Lye m by re thing enterprises first week on list 4 matk Eye i by , thing enterprises last week 3 weeks on list 22 paperback fiction 1 Oia Cloat by Michael Crichton weeks on list 3 2 part i Tow my by  last week 2 weeks on list 2 3  Las tweak 3week3onllst 2 4 in Zayiona of the Force by Kevin j. Anderson weeks on list 2 5 fort to dump by Winston Groom weeks on list 11 i the shipping Nam by e. Annie Proulx weeks on list 16 i a thoth he hot by Tom Clancy weeks on list 14 i vanished by Danielle steel Firsti Weck on list. _ _ i Uka water for chocolate by Laura Esquivel weeks on list 7 10 gone but not forgotten by Philip Margolin weeks on list 6 ii Smilla a Sanaa of Snow by Peter Hoeg weeks on list 5 12 Nightmare a and  by Stephen King weeks on list 7 " 13 hidden Flea by Sandra Brown first week on list 14 a Caia of need by Michael Crichton writing As Jeffrey Hudson weeks on list 15 15 born i for any Nora Roberts weeks on list 2 nonfiction 1 embraced a the Light by belly  with Curtis Taylor weeks on list 2 2 private Parta by Howard Stern weeks on list 3 3 can Olla soul by Thomas Moore weeks on list 38 _ 4 a Hli tory of Sod by Karen Armstrong weeks on list 5  travelled by  Peck weeks on list 569 i  corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy weeks on list 19 7 wharf Angela waft by Joan Wester Anderson weeks on list 38. I you Salon it a by Ann Rule weeks on list 5 Al i knew Why the caged Bird Slenga by Maya Angelou weeks on list 85 10 Girt it minted by Susanna Kaysen weeks on list 21 11 mama Makaa up Harmm by Bailey White weeks on list 22 12 a Wanheta prom by Peter  weeks on list 19 ,-13 Dakota by Kathleen Morris first week on list 14 having our say by Sara Delany first week on list _ 15 a Book Al Anglia by Sophy Burnham weeks on list 11 miscellaneous 1 own Miami tha wit and Wisdom of Forrest Gump by Winston Groom weeks on list 6 2 tha seven Hablett of highly effective people by Stephen r. Covey weeks on list 185 3 what to expect when you re expecting by Arlene Osenberg Heidi e Murkoff and Sandee �. Hathaway weeks on list 47 4 Chicken soup for the soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hon can. Weeks on list 3 october 2,1994 sunday. Page 25