RUR 486: The Pill That Could End...

RUR 486: The Pill That Could End the Abortion Wars and Why American Women Don’t Have It by Lawrence Lader (Addison-Wesley: $9.95). As Lader is the founding chair of the National Abortion Rights Action League, it’s hardly surprising that this book has a distinctly partisan tone. But despite his rhetorical flourishes, Lader presents disturbing evidence that the religious right has blocked the access of American women to an important medical advance. RUR 486 is already widely used in France, Britain and China, and has proved safer than surgical abortions: Of the first 50,000 Frenchwomen who used it, only two developed complications. Early tests indicate that the drug may also be useful in treating Cushing’s syndrome, meningioma and a variety of pregnancy-related conditions. But despite the increasing demand from feminist and medical groups (including the California and American Medical Assns.), the Reagan and Bush Administrations have refused to allow clinical trials in the United States. The use of RUR cannot be detected (it can be administered in the course of an office visit), which Lader feels has increased the opposition of anti-abortion groups because it precludes the possibility of on-site protests, as every medical facility in the country would become a potential target. Like the drug itself, Lader’s book is certain to become the object of controversy: It will infuriate anyone who believes that health care should take precedence over political expediency.

WIFE, by Bharati Mukherjee (Fawcett: $5.99). Like the heroines of Mukherjee’s other novels, Dimple Dasgupta must choose between her family’s traditional Indian values and contemporary Western mores. But “Wife” has a much darker tone than “Jasmine” or “The Tiger’s Daughter”: Dimple agonizes as she struggles to come to terms with the often incompatible demands of her new position as a young Indian bride and an American immigrant. Her predicament recalls the 16th-Century prints of St. Anthony being pulled in all directions by demons: How can she be simultaneously Punjabi and American, modern and traditional, modest and “upfront about her feelings”? As Dimple’s sanity crumbles, reality grows increasingly nebulous, and fuses with the ephemeral images of her television soap operas.

A THOUSAND MILE WALK TO THE GULF, by John Muir (Sierra Club: $10., illustrated). In early 1867, 28-year-old John Muir spent two weeks in bed after an industrial accident damaged his sight. When he recovered, he resolved to spend the rest of his life studying nature, and began by walking from Jeffersonville, Ind., to Cedar Keys, Fla., sketching and describing the plants he saw along the way. (He originally intended to sail to South America and walk through the Amazon rain forest, but an attack of malaria prevented him from carrying out this ill-conceived plan.) The journal from this 1,000-mile trek records Muir’s unabashed wonder at the changes he observed in the native flora as he moved into the warmer, wetter Southern environment: “How little we know as yet of the life of plants--their hopes and fears, pains and enjoyments!” It also provides an intriguing, informal portrait of the United States immediately after the Civil War. Muir lodged with black and white Southerners on his trip--with no apparent qualms, as he describes both races with equal, patronizing affection.

O BEAUTIFUL, by Jesse Green (Ballantine: $9.). The theme of an asexual but supportive relationship between a socially maladroit gay man and a heterosexual woman who fails to realize she’s attractive is rapidly attaining the status of a genre. In “O Beautiful,” the chaste partners are Martin--tall, rich, talented and a complete schlemiel--and Stella, the “happy-go-crisis” owner of a fiercely avant-garde art gallery, who clings to an outdated image of herself as fat and frowzy. The entry of Matt, a handsome, mysterious, charming and apparently straight man shatters their overcivilized idyll. Martin and Matt quickly establish an improbable, sexless menage that apparently represents Green’s perverse concept of bliss in the era of AIDS. Although he displays a flair for vivid descriptions, it’s difficult to imagine anyone caring very much about Green’s dreary characters: Martin comes across as a gullible cluck, rather than the innocent victim of the expectations of others, and Stella would have to be more savvy to run such a high-powered gallery, even in the mercenary world of contemporary art.

WINGS FOR MY FLIGHT: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock by Marcy Cottrell Houle (Addison-Wesley: $10.). This chatty, informal book is based on the journal the author kept while observing wild falcons in Colorado during the late ‘70s. Houle celebrates the beauty of these endangered birds, cheering when the pair she’s watching successfully fledges two chicks and mourning when the female falcon is killed. But she also documents the human problems that plague biological field research: boredom, sunburn, insect bites, accidents. A more serious threat to her research was posed by local residents, who saw her as a crackpot environmentalist blocking the potentially lucrative development of the San Juan mountains. But at least some of Houle’s attempts to explain the importance of biodiversity and the birds’ role as an indicator of local environmental conditions succeeded: By the end of her study, she noticed people had begun to take pride in living near some of the last wild peregrine falcons in America.

WALKS IN OSCAR WILDE’S LONDON, by Choral Pepper and WALKS IN PICASSO’S BARCELONA, by Mary Ellen Jordan Haight and James Jordan Haight (Gibbs-Smith: $12.95, each, illustrated). The religious pilgrimage may have fallen out of favor, but secular journeys to sites associated with favorite artists, musicians and writers are enjoying an enormous vogue. Choral Pepper argues that the key figures in turn-of-the-century London were Oscar Wilde, Lillie Langtry, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and James McNeill Whistler. She uses this debatable but interesting hypothesis to organize eight walking tours of London’s West End (Wilde once remarked, “A gentleman never goes east of Temple Bar”). Her entertaining guide offers some interesting historical notes ( Bloomsbury is a corruption of Blemonde, the name of the 11th-Century baron who received the land from William the Conqueror). However, she overlooks some significant contemporary points: The description of Harrod’s, the famous department store, omits any mention of the changes that have occurred since the emporium was sold in the late ‘80s. The Haights’ guide to Barcelona fails to overcome a major sticking point: Although Pablo Picasso remained a loyal Catalan, he spent most of his life and did his most important work in France. As a result, most of the entries in the book are devoted to other artists, particularly Antonio Gaudi, whose buildings, they concede, “provide the city with its strongest images.” Picasso is one of the most written-about figures in Western art, and “Walks” contributes precious little to an already extensive literature.

LEWIS AND CLARK: Leading America West by Steven Otfinoski (Fawcett: $4., illustrated). In the beginning of this double biography, Otfinoski notes, “We grow up learning to say their names in one breath, as if they were two sides of the same person,” then explains that Merriweather Lewis and William Clark were radically different men from different backgrounds. The cheerful, gregarious Lewis had grown up in a large family on a small farm; scion of a well-to-do Virginia family, the moody, taciturn Lewis was a protege of the future President Thomas Jefferson. Otfinoski traces their heroic expedition of 1804-1806, emphasizing their respectful treatment of the Amerindians they met: During their 3,000-mile trek to the Pacific coast and back, the “Corps of Discovery” had only one violent encounter with an Indian tribe (the Yankton Sioux). Although intended for juvenile readers, adults will also enjoy this concise, informative book. Other titles in Fawcett’s “Great Lives” series include “Lech Walesa: The Road to Democracy” by Rebecca Stefoff and “The Wright Brothers: Conquering the Sky” by Becky Welch.