
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 21, 1991                   TAG: 9104220266
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BOOK ON NANCY REAGAN LITERATE, DOCUMENTED

THE COLUMN by George Will April 15 about Kitty Kelley's book "Nancy Reagan," labeling it a "trip through the sewer," certainly reflects his loyalty to her and his ignorance of the book as a whole.

On David Brinkley's TV show April 14, when one panel member declined to comment because he had not yet read the book, Mr. Will did not say "I have." It is a book of nearly 600 pages. I suspect Mr. Will rebutted a few items that Mrs. Reagan asked him to mention, and that he probably had not yet read the entire book!

To date, I have read 200 pages, and it proves to be a well-written, dignified, literary presentation and a factual history of how the values of the main characters shaped their responses to the challenges and obstacles in the pursuit of their aims in life. If some of it suggested a trip in the sewer to Mr. Will, who is to say otherwise, especially since the book is so well-documented?

No one can accuse Mrs. Reagan of letting anyone or anything stand in the way of her ambitious upwardly mobile climb to fame and fortune. It takes a lifetime of paying through the nose, one way or another, for a person of common birth to reach the glitzy position in society and politics she achieved. Many would not have the determination or the endurance, nor would they sacrifice their values to achieve it. ESTHER G. FAGAN ROANOKE

by CNB