Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993 TAG: 9310310208
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I've long wondered how romantic heroines managed one action: "She studied him through her lashes ..." I mean, try that sometime. I did, looking in the bathroom mirror, and I looked so silly. Another cliche of the genre pops up early in Karen Harper's novel when the main character, Abigail McQueen, has "tresses" instead of hair. One mustn't carp, however, at lash-looks or tresses, as Abigail is a brave and admirable character.
The novel begins in 1851 on the remote Scottish island of St. Kilda where young Abigail impatiently waits for Douglas Adair's coming-of-age so he can formally woo her according to island tradition. Abigail's parents both died earlier in mysterious situations, and the ever-superstitious St. Kildans look suspiciously upon the girl. These looks, as the novel progresses, turn accusing as Abigail questions the ban on educating the children of St. Kilda and, even more important to her, the reason why such a huge percentage of the babies die within eight days of birth. In these areas, the novel ceases being a romance, pure and simple, and adds, to Harper's credit, considerable historical background on social life and medical practices of the period.
After personal tragedy, Abigail leaves a hostile St. Kilda for London, where she is determined to find a doctor who can help her solve the mystery of the dead babies. Even after her progress, however, St. Kilda residents refuse her help and Abigail moves on to Sanibel Island off Florida's coast while the American Civil War rages. Throughout, Abigail proves to be a dauntless heroine who fights for her causes. -HARRIET LITTLE
\ A Dancing Matrix: Voyages Along the Viral Frontier. By Robert Marantz Henig. Knopf. $23.
Not 25 years ago, a U.S. Surgeon General offered the opinion that humankind's battle with infectious diseases had been won. How short-sighted that statement appears today in the cold, harsh light of the decade-old AIDS epidemic! Current antibiotics hold bacterial infections at bay, but barely so. The struggle shifts constantly as the microbes develop resistance to old reliable antibiotics like penicillin and streptomycin; finding new antibiotic weapons is the constant goal. Viral infections are another matter. Yes, a good vaccine and vigorous case finding seem to have wiped out smallpox, with the last case reported in Ethiopia a decade ago, but that celebration was barely underway when the AIDS epidemic had its silent start. That AIDS is equally deadly is no longer news.
Briefly mentioned in the news but brought out in fuller detail here are the stories of other deadly viruses: Ebola virus up in Reston; Lassa virus in Chicago; Hanta virus in Seoul; Mad Cows in England and so on. Robin
Marantz Henig is a journalist whose field is scientific writing. Here she turns her pen to the biology of viruses, how they live and reproduce, and how that all intersects with the lives and projects of humankind. She weaves biology in with stories of human and animal illnesses by way of explaining quite effectively the various points that this story must make. She deals effectively with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with the candidate viruses for chronic fatigue syndrome, and some some lesser known viruses that are potential mischief-makers.
This is a book that most of us ought to read but few of us will. And so, when the next round of public discussion on a scientific topic begins, the debate will be dominated by those with an ideologic or financial ax to grind. Too many of those who speak so loudly in debate are scientifically illiterate but the strength of their opinion varies inversely with the depth of their knowledge. There's good information here and it is clearly presented for the non-scientist. -SIDNEY BARRITT \
When the Grass Was Real: Unitas, Brown, Lombardi, Sayers, Butkus, Namath, and All the Rest: The Ten Best Years of Pro Football. By Bob Carroll. Simon & Schuster. $27.50.
Despite its lengthy title _ with not one but two subtitles! _ this is a fine, thoroughly readable popular history of the glory years of professional football. Writing with unembarrassed nostalgia, Bob Carroll looks back at those days when the pro game came out from under the shadow of college football and expanded into two competing leagues. For anyone who followed the sport then, it's impossible not to empathize with Carroll's nostalgia. That's when the game really was a game - not the multimillion dollar domain of overpaid celebrities and corporations.
Conventional wisdom has it that the 1958 championship between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants, with the first sudden-death overtime, was the game that brought the NFL to national prominence. But it was the changes in the leagues and the people who played in them after that game that made the difference. Carroll covers the territory well without delving deeply into any one team or player. That's not his point. He's more interested in how the game changed on a national level. Though the book is generally uncritical of its subject, it's not a whitewash. Carroll is quick to note the racism that was a part of football, as it was a part of all sports and American society in general. And he shows how the league has tried to rise above it.
Carroll also writes with a strong sense of humor, quoting some of the immortal inspirational advice from coaches - "Heads up, toes down." - and keeping the importance of the the game in clear perspective: "Pro football is not a microcosm for life any more than it's a symbol for war or peace or your Aunt Fannie's Pekinese pup ... [P]ro football is pro football and life is whatever the hell it is." -MIKE MAYO, Book page editor
\ Harriet Little teaches at James River high school.
Sidney Barritt is a Roanoke physician.
by CNB