LV

I am not writing this review from the perspective of a 22 year old college student. I am writing this from the perspective of the 12 year old I was when I first came across "Tracy Harmon: Love Specialist" in my middle school library during lunch. The twelve year old me read the entire book in one sitting, and promptly stole the libraries' copy , which I still have to this day. (The theft was wildly out of character for this Miss Goodie Two-Shoes, as I never even take pencils from work, and I'm still planning to mail the book back to my old school someday. Really.)
The cover of my (or King Middle School's) copy says it all: A pretty brunette in a Red Sweater sits at a typewriter while a handsome , clean cut guy watches her with interest. Right away we know we're in for goofy romance.
The story concerns a formally chubby teenager who has lost weight responsibly after trying many crash diets and quick fix cures (The saga of Tracy's weight loss is told in the book's prequel, "The Girl Within". I haven't read it.). Now, at a healthy weight with the proper self-confidence, Tracy is beautiful and wildly popular. All the guys at her school would kill to go out with her, and she can have any one she wants, except Brent Haywood. He's different. New at the school, Brent is aloof to the point of rudeness, and shows a particular dislike for Tracy, for reasons she cannot understand. On the other hand, as one chracter puts it , "he, uh, stares at you a lot" and is forever showing up in Tracy's vicinity, to her annoyance. Thus we begin a decidedly cheesy romance, full of misunderstandings, dark secret pasts (G-Rated of course) and plenty of fun. I adored this book as a young girl; I read it until I had entire sections memorized. If you can get a copy, it will make a great gift for the right day-dreaming girl. As for me, you can be sure when I have kids they will be reading it too. And then I really do have to give it back to the library.

This book raises the issue yet again of a possible conspiracy regarding the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy. The authors, to their credit treat the late Senator with respect; they do a good job of providing information about the Senator's professional and political career. In reading this particular work one comes away with a sense of the man who was killed in 1968; Robert Kennedy was considered by many to be Everyman's Advocate. He certainly was a man of strong convictions who appeared to be quite committed to his visions of a "more gentle" world; he was a man with whom many, particularly the disenfranchised could identify with.

The issue this work is concentrated on is the identity and motives of the assassin or assassins. The authors present a very strong and convincing argument of why they feel Sirhan did not act alone nor did he fire the fatal shot; the mysterious "girl in the polka dot dress" allegedly seen with Sirhan, and later allegedly seen fleeing the hotel minutes after the assassination, shouting "We shot him!" Did such a girl exist? If so, who was she and what was her involvement? As for Sirhan, there appears to be little doubt that he was involved to a certain extent in the death of Robert Kennedy; just how great that extent was and who else was involved remain open questions.

The biggest open question of all never knowing what Robert Kennedy would have accomplished had he not died. His untimely death in 1968 has left a painful void in history.

Turner and Christian present a well documented, convincing story of why the RFK assassination needed independent review in 1970s or 80s. This book places a lot of questions at the feet of the LAPD, and perhaps also with the CIA. But the major question is why there was not more public outcry for a review of the investigation back in 1968 and the following ten years.

One wonders, now in 2003, what relevance is left to this book. After reading it, any reader should better understand how too blind a faith in our government and its agencies might lead to a loss of control over these agencies, with disasterous results. Will we allow history to repeat itself? At a time when significant diminishing of our individual freedoms is occurring, the histories of RFK and JFK might make us rethink how far we might want to go to battle terrorism. Even if you don't really buy-in to any of the conspiracy theories, the clumsiness of the investigations should provide plenty of reasons to want _more_ oversight of these agencies, not less.

With all the "JFK Killed by Elvis" books on the market, one might overlook this wonderful book by Christiann and Turner. Like "All The President's Men", the book tells the story of a politician and journalist who dared to search for the truth in a maze of cover-ups and bold-faced lies. The authors provide convincing, simple evidence that RFK could not have been shot by only one man, let alone the feeble Sirhan Sirhan. Anyone interested in the RFK assassination, or in the political turmoil of the late '60's, doesn't know the whole story until they've read this fine book.

Vollmer obviously loves Pittsburgh, and readers familiar with the city will probably enjoy this good-natured book. It works best as a set of sociological, journalistic and personal sketches. It's less successful, though, as book of poetry; the artlessness of her approach, the shapelessness of many of the poems, the frequent clumsiness of line, the congested diction and the predictability of the language, together with an overbeholdenness to several unconcealed and imperfectly assimilated influences, give much of the book a disappointingly slapdash quality. Many of the pieces read like works in progress rather than finished poems. It will be interesting to see whether Vollmer will explore similar material again, but with much more artistic control and without as much overdependence on her models, which puts her at a remove from her subject matter. Overall, VOllmer is a promising writer who may emerge with a voice uniquely her own. The blurb comparing the book to O'Hara is unfortunate and irresponsible; any lover of "The Day Lady Died" or "Second Avenue" is going to be disappointed by this book.

Judith Vollmer is perhaps the greatest Pittsburgh poet that ever lived. Like a character, the city is both memorable within moments and devestatingly ugly at its worse. As a Pittsburgher, I know these places Vollmer writes about, and more importantly, understand what it's like to be surrounded by city. She also touches on many of the things that shaves so close to most Pittsburghers: ethnicicity(perhaps not the safest subject to write about by a white woman in todays academy). Her family and her history rolls along the book like so many of the city's hills. The narrative poetry stretches, swings and challenges readers with its dark music the same way Marina Tsvetaeva managed to do. Vollmer can take me on a tour any day -- I know I will come out both exhausted and revived in the end.