"A GUARANTEED, GET-HAPPY HIT!" On The Bookshelf PAT `Total Recall' Author Sarah Paretsky keeps churning out page-turners, including her latest in the VI. Warshawski detective series. BENNY ANDERSSON & BJORN ULVAEUS' CURT SCHLEIER MAMMA Special to the Jewish News S THE SMASH HIT MUSICAL =1 0,A8BA® MASONIC TEMPLE THEATRE Cal I ticWrioster (248) 645-6666 or www.ticketmastetcom. Tickets at the Fisher Theatre Box Office & all ticscammiter outlets. Groups (20 or more) call (313) 871-1132 www.mamma-mia.com ABBA GOLD AVAILABLE ON POI} DOR / LNNERSAL MAMMA MIA! ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING AVAILABLE ON DECCA BRCHDAAV Aside,c, k/k.1.7 6t5 LINCOLN ...... Remember when Mitch was the place for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah?... It still is .1— GREAT FOOD • SUPERIOR SERVICE • FAIR PRICES Seats up. to 350 guests • Newly decorated for 2002 Separate building from restaurant Mi Ms i t I Ask for Toni Soya 6665 Highland Rd. (across from Pontiac Airport) Highland (248) 666-4440 Re4aurant & Banquet Center Still owned & aperated by The Mitchell Family UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT \mr Aw spie mik . NEW Ail WOK Chinese American Cuisine INTERNATIONAL DINING Specializing in Steamed Whitefish & Whole Fish, Peking Duck, Seafood Casserole MI ME MI I I Fiddler 6676 Orchard Lake Rd. West Bloomfield Plaza West Bloomfield TEL 248-851-8782 FAX 248-851-7685 IM 1 0 i° OFF Your total food bill Mon. - Thurs. after 3 p.m. 1 I coupon per table Dine in only exp. 12/31/02 mei am =I .1 Full Bar Open 7 Days A Week 41563 W. Ten Mile Road 12/28 2001 (corner of Meadowbrook) Novi 62 248.349.9260 FOOD AND SPIRITS BUY ONE DINNER GET 2ND DINNER 50% OFF! Daily Except Sat. • Expires 01/31/02 .1 A Difficult Childhood Ironically. Lorry was never intended to be a regular in the series. V.I. needed a physician in the first book, Indemnity Only (1982), and, Paretsky said,'"she began growing in my imagination. V.I. is my alter ego; Lotty much more rep- resents my personality." Paretsky, married ro a physicist and living in Chicago, where she is the stepmother to three sons and "a proud ara Paretsky created private investigator V I. Warshawski almost 20 years go. Warshawski is a tough b cookie who knows karate, can handle a weapon and has been known to bed a good-looking informant. Nothing unusual about that, you say? Did I mention that the "V" stands for Victoria? Warshawski was among the first fictional female P.I.s. She was introduced at a time when damsels were supposed to be in distress, not resourceful, witty — and deadly. The character quickly caught the public's fancy, and has appeared in nine best-selling novels and one dreadful movie (1991's V.I. Wirshawski, starring Kathleen Turner) since. The 10th in the series, Total Recall, (Delacorte; 525.95) is Paretsky's most ambitious and best to date. Its themes are extremely con- temporary: deteriorating relations between blacks and Jews, recov- ered memory and reparations. It is also her most personal, a Sarah Paretsky: "When I turned 30, story, Paretsky said in a recent tele- I said, 'This is it. I better do it.''' phone interview, she'd been fid- dling with for between 10 and 15 grandmother," grew up in what she years. describes as a "dysfunctional" Jewish Total Recall centers on family in the outskirts of Lawrence, Warshawski's doctor-friend, Lottv Kan. Herschel, a Kindertransport refugee Her father had emotional problems, born in Vienna, who made it out just and it became increasingly difficult to before the war and grew up and communicate with him. Her mother studied medicine in England before withdrew and began to drink. coming to the United States. "I think Lotty- became a way for me In this detective yarn, Paul to approach my family experience and Radbuka, raised a Lutheran, claims try to make it part of my life without to have recovered repressed memories having it be so overwhelming. That's indicating he is actually a Jewish why I made her come from Vienna concentration camp survivor. The rather than Eastern Europe," from furor that surrounds the announce- which Paretsky's paternal grandparents ment — and Paul's claim that he emigrated. may be connected to V.I's friend Max Like thousands before them, they — forces Lotty to deal with memo- went to work in New York City's gar- ries she's spent most of her life trying ment industry where they met on to forget. . an ILGWU picket line. 'At least, that's