THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday, January 27, 1974
TH1IHGNDIYSnaJnay2,17
BOOKS
'I LOVE KIDS'
The frigi
KILLER by Joey with Dave
Fisher. New York: Pocket
Books, 313 pages, $1.50.
By Charlie Stein'
JOEY, the author and narrator
of Killer, is the kind of guy
you could get' attracted to if
you're not careful.
Like a character plucked from
a Jimmy Breslin column, he has
a certain earthy charm about
him. He is the barroom philoso-
pher - spouting out pearls of
wisdom in his gravelly N e w
York cab driver's brand of Eng-
lish.
Joey's three most important
loves - his wife, the sound of
laughing children and the TV
program jeopardy - make him
even more endearing.
Unfortunately Joey also hap-
pens to be a murderer for hire.
In his 25 years as a Mafia hit-
man he has, by his own admis-
sion, gunned down 38 men, near-
ly all in cold blood.
Killer is Joey's account of that
career and it is fascinating in the
way only an insider's view can
htening story of a Mafia hit man
be. We are taken on a private
tour of the world of organized
crime, where we meet such le-
gendary characters as Meyer
Lansky, Joe Colombo and t h e
late Crazy Joe Gallo.
We are also presented w it h
something of a how-to-guide for
a wide assortment of mob op-
erations ranging from innocuous
neighborhood numbers rackets to
Joey's murder speciality.
MURDER for Joey came as the
natural culmination in a
progression of crimes. He stuck
with it not out of any great love
for violence, but simply because
it was the easiest way to make
lots of money - four million dol-
lars according to his best esti-
mate.
Killer is written in the first-.
person plain-folks style of most-
as-told-to books.
Devotees of low-brow culture
will immediately recognize its
striking similarity to Robin
Moore's The Happy Hooker. In
fact, if genitals were substituted
for guns, the reader would be
hard pressed to tell the two apart.
The plain-folks delivery al-
lows us to get inside Joey's head
and see the Mafia through h i s
eyes. But at the same time, the
technique represents an import-
ant stylistic weakness because it
inhibits any real eloquence or
powerful description. Murders
and card games are treated with
equal amoutns of dispassion.,
Still in his own homespun way,
Joey manages to chance upon
some literary gems. For exam-
ple:
Joey on the 1972 elections: "I
figured one candidate was a
crook and one was a jerk, so
naturally I'm going to vote for
the crook."
Joey on fences, the middle men
in a stolen good deal: "Good
fences make good neighbors."
Joey on the Godfather: "The
Godfather did for the organiza-
tion what silicone did for tits.
They both mare their respective
subjects stand out."
IF JOEY were content to im-
press and entertain us, his
book would be an unqualified
success. But that's not enough.
He wants our approval. In fact
he almost demands it by mak-
ing us bear the brunt of the
guilt for the Mafia's existence.
The Mafia, Joey argues, didn't
make people turn to gambling
or drugs. It merely supplies con-
sumers with the tools they need
to indulge in their own particular
brand of vice. It is capitalism
in its purest form - free from
the moral judgments imposed by
society.
As for himself, Joey is quick
to point out that not one of his
victims has been an honest man.
All 38 have been mob members
who have violated one of the or-
ganization's rules and hence
must die.
Joey is not a common crim-
inal. He doesn't swipe purses,
rob stores or mug old ladies on
the street. He won't bother you
and me unless we come looking
for him.
N KEEPING WITH his -whole
style of operation, Joey's de-
fense is both skillful and clever,
an once again we can almost be
taken in if we're not careful.
Yet when we step back f o r
one moment, out of the reach
of Joey's charm, we realize that
his argument just doesn't work.
While the mob did not create
vice, there is nothing passive
about the way it cruelly exploits
the weak link in the human con-
dition. Selling heroin on a large
scale is no less destructive than
wholesale murder,, and the bil-
lions of dollars organized crime
takes out of the ghetto each year
helps insure the continued pov-
erty of thousands.
And Joey, for all his wit and
down- to-earth appeal, can't con-
vince us that he is just a regular
guy. 'there is clearbyr something
frighLenmgly sick about a man
who can kill with no feeling.
In one particularly revealing
pasage Joey writes about one of
his victims: "We just sat there.
We didn't say a word. He began
to beg. He even went so far
as to tell us where he had stash-
ed the money. Finally he realized
there was nothing he could do.
He sat there quietly. Then he
started crying. 1 didn't feel a
thing for him."
No Joey, we have to hate you.
Even if you do watch Jeopardy.
FROM A TO Z ciated with the women's move- ly militant attitude toward the
ment. The result is a huge re- treatment of rape victims by the
ference guide to the movement. police and courts has led to the
organization of rape crisis cent-
I IIe vv iiUM!eLLJI III
Catalog for women
UqfJ*~iki Cub6
MEETING
January 31-Assembly Hall
Union-9: p.m.
* MANDATORY meeting for all persons
signed up for Banff, Alberta trip.
s Absolute deadline for Banff deposits-
none returned or accepted after meet-
ing.
9 Banff trip is filled-however cancella- I
tions may open some spaces.
* Infoon trip to Collingwood, Ontario on
Feb. 8, 9, 10. Skiing at Blue Mountain
and Georgian Peaks. Two nights lodg-
ing, 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner: $21.
Lifts are $8 per day.
Trip leader: Roger Palm, 668-7225.
0 Info on later weekend trips and possibil-
ity of local trips.
THE NEW WOMAN'S SUR-
VIVAL CATALOG: A WO-
MAN-MADE BOOK. Edited by
Kirsten Grimstad and Susan
Rennie.. New York: Coward,
McCann and Geoghegan, 223
pages, $5.00.
By Judy Ruskin
THIS LATEST of a seemingly
never ending string of "cat-
alogs" is called The New Wo-
man's Survival Catalog. But con-
trary to the title, this is not a
book exclusively for the "new
woman", the feminist, or the
movement member.
Rather, it is a book for all
women, liberated or not. "Af-
ter all," the authors say in
their introduction, "You don't
have to be a feminist to want to
prevent yourself from getting
raped, to know whether that vag-
inal itch is worth a trip to the
specialist, to get a bank loan, to
have access to'child care facil-
ities, to avoid car repair rip-
off."
The book's scope is enormous,
as is focuses on hundreds of
women-related concerns. There
is bound to be some items of in-
terest to every woman, whether
her fancy be the fine arts or the
martial arts.
There are nine categories with-
in the book - Communications,
Art, Self-Health, Children, Learn-
ing, Self-Defense, Work and
Money, Getting Justice and Build-
ing the Movement.
Within each division there are
descriptions, lists, names a n d
addresses of organizations asso-
INCLUDED ARE lists of wo-
men's newspapers (including
Ann Arbor's own Her-Self, books,
articles, speaker's bureaus, cri-
sis centers (including, again,
the Ann Arbor women's crisis
center), and organizations across
the country.
But The New Woman's Surviv-
al Catalog provides more than
just a quick, handy reference to
services provided for w o m e n
by women. It is a reflection of
what is currently happening in
the women's movement.
It is a study of the problems
and issues foremost in women's
minds - and the means by which
they are confronting and solving
those problems.
The rising concern of women
over inadequate health care is
reflected in the section on self-
health. Examples of research
done on women's health care are
provided, along with addresses
for further information.
The same concern over contem-
porary issues is reflected in the
self-defense section. Here t h e
emphasis is on rape. The out-
rage women feel over outdated
rape laws, and their increasing-
ers across the country.
APPROACHES differ from city
to city, but most notable is
the Philadelphia-based W o m e n
Organized Against Rape. T h e
organization is located in t h e
hospital to which all area rape
victims are brought. These wo-
men work within the system,
counseling and supporting victims
from the time they enter the
hspital totthe time their case
goes to court.
The list goes on and on - sex-
isri in children's literature, wo-
men and the arts, job discrim-
ination, women's studies.
The book isn't meant to be read
cover-to-cover, but rather leis-
urely explored. Discover what
other women are doing and what
you yourself can do.
The drawback to this catalog,
as in all catalogs, is that it is so
easily o'ntdated. A d d r e 5ss e s
change, publications fold, n e w
ones appear. But a second edi-
tion is already in the works. And
in the meantime, 20 per cent of
all profits on this first edition
will be placed in a movement
trust fund.
TRIPLE ;FEATURE
TEENAGE FANTASIES
1 '
DOUBLE FEATURE
0 -
HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUTS
POWER of L UE
arUA&CI NEM A
STARTS WED, Jan, 30
"BEIN GE
WOMEN'S INSTRUCTIONAL
POOL LEAGUE
Improve your game or learn it from scratch with
other women. Free instruction in the techniques
and tactics of the game. First meeting Wed., Jan.
30, 6:00 p.m.
MICHIGAN UNION BILLIARD ROOM
TEN VIEWS
Photogs: Is there a woman's art?
Are you still
reading'
the way your
parents read?
4 .
9..
University Activities Center
present~s
ii 15
''SKIUH''"
SpeciaI S*4 i# Week
K :
icludes
" Round trip air transportation from Detroit on *
American Airlines +
. Accommodations at the Temple Square Hotel-
Lake city
. Round-trip transfers from airport to hotel .
. Daily lift passes at 6 resort areas - Alta, Brighton,
Park city, Park West, Snowbird, and Solitude.
For further details and reservations, contact:
U.A.C. Travel Office
Second Floor-- Michigan Union
783.2147
A~i
THE WOMAN'S EYE. Edited
by Ann Tucker. New York: Al-
fred A. Knopf, 169 pages, $5.95.
By Karen Kasmauski
FOR THE MOST part when a
woman e n t e r s the field of
photography, she is handicapped
by her sex. She is consistently
faced with the problem of inter-
action with her subjects and with
male photographers. She will in-
evitably be looked upon as first,
a female, and then a photog-
rapher. The use of discretion will
be one of her major concerns;
when should she usewher sex to
her advantage and when should
she be sexless? A woman who
takes o nthe traditional female
characteristics may be more
trusted by her subjects, while a
woman who appears more mas-
culine and aggressive might be
taken more seriously.
The W o m a n' s Eye centers
around a series of questions: Is
there a woman's art? Is there a
man's art? Or is art the product
of an era and not of a particular
sex? Ann Tucker shows us that
the creation of art, like the crea-
tion of human being, is not done
best by man or woman, but by
an equal participation of both.
The difference in art styles re-
sults from a difference in the
times and not in the sex. The
struggle women face in the field
of art is only one of the many
satellite problems spinning off
the core-like economic and so-
cial bond placed on women by
society.
It is interesting that of the
ten- photographers Ms. Tucker
chose, six were married or had
intimate relationships with the
men they were working with on
long term periods. Most of the
relationships did not last. Per-
haps, the intensity of creating art
is like the intensity of creating a
child.
TqS: TUCKER'S clear presenta-
tion of the problems con-
fronting any f e m a 1 e creator
saves The Woman's Eye from
becoming just another pretty
picture book. Yet the weakness
of this book comes in her use of
the ten photographers to illu-
strate her points. She summar-
izes the lives and works of such
well-knowns as Margaret Bourke-
White and Dorothea Lange and
such relative unknowns as Alisa
Wells and Bea Nettles. Unfor-
tunately, the summaries were
often tooshort and too shallow.
Too, the photographs Ms. Tucker
uses did not always typify the
photographer's style. With her
attempt to explore the relation-
ship between the photographer's
sex and her art, she comes right
up to the edge, but does not take
that one step which might have
explained why she chose these
ten female photographers.
The topics and complaints pre-
sented are legitimate and well
stated, but she has given us
nothing which has not already
been stated elsewhere, by num-
erous other women writers since
the beginning of the woman's
movement.
MAYBE MY environment and
career choice has put a
streak of cyncism in me to avoid
becoming weighted down. But
when I finished r e a d i n g this
book, I, like Berenice Abbott,
asked, "Why bother?"
W=WU U=E *t=UW'
In the first grade, when you were taught
to read "Run Spot Run," you had to read it
out loud. Word-by-word. Later, in the second
grade, you were asked to read silently. But
you couldn't do it.
You stopped reading out loud, but you
continued to say every word to yourself.
Chances are, you're doing it right now.
This means that you read only as fast
as you talk. About 250 to 300 words per
minute. (Guiness' Book of World Records
lists John F. Kennedy as delivering the fast-
est speech on record: 327 words per
minute.)
The Evelyn Wood Course teaches you
to read without mentally saying each word
to yourself. Instead of reading one word at
a time, you'll learn to read groups of words.
ro see how natural this is, look at the
dot over the line in bold type.
grass is green
You immediately see all three words.
Now look at the dot between the next two
lines of type.
and it grows
when it rains
With training, you'll learn to use your
innate ability to see groups of words.
As an Evelyn Wood graduate, you'll be
able to read between 1,000 and 3,000
words per minute . . . depending on the
difficulty of the material.
At 1,000 words per minute, you'll be
able to read a text book like Hofstadtler's
American Political Tradition and finish
each chapter in 11 minutes. j
At 2,000 words per minute, you'l'
Vable to read a magazine like Time or 1,
week and finish each page in 31 seconds.
At 3,000 words per minute, you'll be
able to read the 447 page novel The God-
father in 1 hour and 4 minutes.
These are documented statistics based
on the results of the 450,000 people who
have enrolled in. the Evelyn Wood course
since its inception in 1959.
'The course isn't complicated. There'
are no machines. There are no notes to
take. And you don't have to memorize any-
thing.
95% of our graduates have improved
their reading ability by an average of 4.7
times. On rare occasions, a graduate's read-
ing ability isn't improved by at least 3 times.
In these instances, the tuition is completely
refunded.
Take a free
Mini-Lesson
on Evelyn Wood.
Do you want to see how the course
works?
Then take a free Mini-Lesson.- The
Mini-Lesson is an hour long peek at what
the Evelyn Wood course offers.
We'll show you how it's possible to
accelerate your speed without skipping a
single word. You'll have a chance to try your
hand at it, and before it's over, you'll actually
increase your reading speed. (You'll only
increase it a little, but it's a start.)
We'll show you how we can extend your
memory. And we'll show you how we make
chapter outlining obsolete.
Ta:;e a Mini-Lesson this week. It's a
'ur. And it's free.
SIGN UP DEADLINE JAN. 30!
DID YOU KNOW?
m onday
night is......
ATTENTION
LS&A STUDENTS
Are you interested in justice and in becoming in-
volved Then sign up now to interview for appoint-
ment to the
LS&A STUDENT JUDICIARY
Just sign the list at Room 3M, Michigan Union or
call Chuck Redman, 761-1597, by Tuesday morn-
ing, January 29. Interviews that afternoon.
( ~? FUTURE WORLDS
LECTURE SERIES PRESENTS
RALPH NADER
JAN. 29-3 p.m.-Adm. $1.00
HILL AUDITORIUM}
STUDENTS NIGHT
ALL Students -
NO Cover Charge
Pitcher of Beer
Half-Price! !
ALL MINI-LESSONS HELD AT: U-M STUDENT UNION (Dining Room No. 1)
Based on the controversial book
that shattered conventional
thenres of histnrvnariheolowy
OF THE
UODS?11
TECHNIOoLOR 0
RbySue idmalWlo ae
MONDAY, Jan. 28: 3 p.m. & 7 p.m.
TUESDAY. Jan. 29: 3 m. & 7 nm.
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30: 3 p.m. & 7 p.m.
THIRSDAY_ Jn. 31 : n m &7 nm.
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