Word: barich
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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NONFICTION: China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston ∙ Heartsounds, Martha Weinman Lear ∙ Laughing in the Hills, Bill Barich ∙ Philosophy and Public Policy, Sidney Hook The Oak and the Calf, Alexander Solzhenitsyn ∙ Thirty Seconds, MichaelJ. Arlen ∙ War Within and Without, Anne Morrow Lindbergh
NONFICTION: China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston •Heartsounds, Martha Weinman Lear •Laughing in the Hills, Bill Barich •Philosophy and Public Policy, Sidney Hook The Oak and the Calf, Alexander Solzhenitsyn •Thirty Seconds, Michael J. Arlen •War Within and Without, Anne Morrow Lindbergh
...Bill Barich...
...nonfiction standard. It would take a work of striking originality to break from the pack of aging hippies and victims of mid-life's critical list. This is the work. Nearing 40, with a mother dying of cancer and a marriage "childless and knee-deep in ruin," Bill Barich attempted an "escape into orderliness." He was to find an idea of order at New York and California race tracks, where winners and losers are clearly labeled and bloodlines still count. If Laughing in the Hills were only about horses, it could still be entered as best of breed...
...touchstones of art seemed as close as the walls. The magic returns in unlikely spots-when, for example, horses "recede into space like the figures reflected in the background bulbs and mirrors of Flemish paintings," or the moralistic voice of Savonarola echoes between sessions at the $2 window. Barich reports that during his six-week betting binge he never lost more than $128-or made more than $192. In fact, he gained far more. He wrote an enchanted book and found a soul-sustaining insight: "What was any renaissance but a sudden bias in favor of hope?" Readers can only...