Sidney Blumenthal, BenitornMussolini, Matt Drudge, DavidrnBrock, Bill Clinton, JohnniernCochran, Monica Lewinsky, PatrnRobertson, Anita Hill, MichaelrnLind, Bill Gates, Huey Newton,rnNewt Gingrich, Philip Roth . . .rn$11.95 160 pp.rnREAD ABOUT THEM IN DAVID HOROWITZ’S NEWrnCOLLECTION FROM THE CULTURAL WAR ZONE.rnTo order call (800) 752-6562 ext. 209 or go to www.frontpagemag.comrnA magazine of the netrnFRONTPAGErnEdited by Peter Collier & David HorowitzrnwwwJrontpagemag.comrn0ver55,000cop|essoWrn$15.00 468pprnNow in paperbackrnAvailable in booi(stores.rnTo order callrn(800) 752-6562 or go tornwww.frontpagemag.comrn^^Radical Son is thernmost remarkable testamentrnof its kind sincernWhittaker Chambers’rnWitness. 99rn—THE AMEfjiCAX SPECTATORrn44 The single mostrnimportant book Irnhave ever read aboutrnmodern Americanrnpolitics. 99rn—BUSH CAMPAIGN ADVISORrnMAKY MAI^LINrnand illuminating, are often tinged withrnthe melancholy of the loss of some ofrnthem to divergent beliefs, to circumstances,rnand to death.rnIndeed, a bittersweet sense of loss pervadesrn(and perhaps justifies) the entirernvolume. Miss Spencer displays her narrativernskills to great advantage as, timernand again, she recreates dramatic historicalrnbackgrounds as contexts for intimaterndescriptions of the old families and theirrnold homes in and around Carrollton, oftenrnconcluding with news of the death orrndispersement of the members of thosernfamilies and the destruction of theirrnhomes. The loss through arson of Malmaison,rnthe grand plantation house nearrnCarrollton that very likely served asrnFaulkner’s model for Contalmaison inrnhis story “Mountain Victory,” is particularlyrnpainful, for author and reader alike.rnThus Carrollton, though on the nationalrnhistoric register, is today but a specter ofrnits former self; one resident’s musingsrnthat “Carrollton is not so much a place asrna state of mind” is born out in devastatingrndetail by Spencer. Even so, these narrativesrnsometimes end with ironic twistsrnthat are decidedly comic, as in the casernof “Miss Beaurie,” Carrollton’s grand inquisitorrnin matters of abstinence and propriet}’,rnafter whose death it was discoveredrnthat she had unwittingly allowedrnher car (while she was in it!) to be usedrnfor bootlegging and that she was herselfrnsecretly addicted to opium, as an entirerncloset of empty bottles of paregoric (arnderivative of opium) revealed. Landscapesrnof the Heart, in presenting an historicalrnrecord of a particular community,rnshows it to have been a microcosm of arnregion as well as, in a larger sense, of anrnentire era.rnRecalling Thomas Wolfe’s title YournCan’t Go Home Again, Spencer comments;rn”It’s not that you can’t go home.rnRather, there isn’t any home to go to.”rnNevertheless, after 33 years away, ElizabethrnSpencer does in fact return to thernSouth. Though Teoc has been lost, herrnfamily home in Carrollton sold and cutrnup into apartments and the furnishingsrndispersed to cousins. Miss Spencer’srnodyssey comes full circle when, in 1986,rnshe and her husband John Rusher leaverntheir home in Quebec and move tornChapel Hill, North Carolina, where theyrncontinue to make their home today.rnLoxley F. Nichols teaches in the Enghshrnand Writing departments at LoyolarnCollege in Baltimore, Maryland.rn36/CHRONICLESrnrnrn