Also in the Book Review

Biographies of Hedy Lamarr

By STEPHEN MICHAEL SHEARER and RUTH BARTON
Reviewed by MOLLY HASKELL

Stephen Michael Shearer and Ruth Barton argue that Hedy Lamarr was more interesting than her lackluster place in film history would suggest.

'Fraser's Penguins'

By FEN MONTAIGNE
Reviewed by ELIZABETH ROYTE

An account of an Antarctic penguin colony, and how climate change is destroying it.

'The Sixties: Diaries, Volume Two: 1960-1969'

By CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD
Reviewed by EDMUND WHITE

The dominant theme of Christopher Isherwood's diaries from the 1960s is his relationship with a much younger man.

'The Petting Zoo'

By JIM CARROLL
Reviewed by RICHARD HELL

Jim Carroll's posthumous novel of the 1980s New York art scene suggests a poet's shift to prose, in passionate, often elegiac, quasi autobiography.

'The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires'

By TIM WU
Reviewed by DAVID LEONHARDT

Tim Wu's ambitious history of modern communications posits that information technologies move through a cycle from open to closed systems.

'Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War'

By THOMAS B. ALLEN
Reviewed by DAVID WALDSTREICHER

A Revolutionary War history emphasizes the strangely neglected topic of the Americans who opposed the Revolutionary War.

'Sunset Park'

By PAUL AUSTER
Reviewed by MALENA WATROUS

In this tale of an Ivy League dropout and his underage girlfriend, Paul Auster's goal seems to be a conventionally satisfying novel that bucks many conventions of fiction.

'Atlantic'

By SIMON WINCHESTER
Reviewed by BRUCE BARCOTT

Simon Winchester tells the story of the Atlantic Ocean.

'Why The West Rules - For Now'

By IAN MORRIS
Reviewed by ORVILLE SCHELL

A Stanford historian views the clash between East and West from a long perspective, and argues that we face an immediate choice - East-West cooperation or catastrophe.

'Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe'

By KATE BUFORD
Reviewed by JAY JENNINGS

A diligently researched, blow-by-blow chronicle of the athlete Jim Thorpe's life of high triumph and bitter despair.

Books About Louisa May Alcott

By SUSAN CHEEVER and RICHARD FRANCIS
Reviewed by LEAH PRICE

Susan Cheever and Richard Francis examine the lives of Louisa May Alcott and her (at times) eccentric family.

'Pirates of Barbary'

By ADRIAN TINNISWOOD
Reviewed by IAN W. TOLL

A history of the Barbary pirates who menaced the Mediterranean for three centuries.

'Under Fishbone Clouds'

By SAM MEEKINGS
Reviewed by LESLEY DOWNER

In Sam Meekings's fable-like first novel, a couple's devotion is tested during Mao's Cultural Revolution and beyond.

Fiction Chronicle

By CAMERON MARTIN

Novels by Douglas Coupland, Ron Cooper, Eric Gansworth, Robert Steiner and Benjamin Percy.