Hot Type

Implicit in this month's books are the themes of secrets and lying. V.F. contributor Michael R. Beschloss and Time editor-at-large Strobe Talbott'sAt the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (Little, Brown) uses transcripts of secret messages, private phone calls, and personal letters between George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, James Baker, and Eduard Shevardnadze to chronicle the demise of the most costly struggle in world history. In Kathryn Harrison's novel, Exposure (Random House), we learn about the heretofore unexamined double life—Methedrine snorting, shoplifting at Bergdorf's—of a video producer. New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin provides a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a Houston hospital in First, Do No Harm (Simon & Schuster). The subtitle of Mark O'Donnell's humor collection, Vertigo Park (Knopf), is And Other Tall Tales. Ron Vaughn, a character in Larry Colton'sGoat Brothers (Doubleday), a true-life epic about five fraternity brothers who met at Berkeley in the 60s and their struggle to adjust to adult life, is riddled with doubt over a long-held secret. Steve Shagan'sA Cast of Thousands (Pocket Books) is about a mafioso who masterminds a bogus corporate takeover. The narrator of Dale Peck's first novel, Martin and John (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), flees his abusive father and runs off to New York City, where he becomes a hustler. Having outlasted the gag order that was part of her divorce agreement with David Bowie, Angela Bowie (aided by coauthor Patrick Carr) reveals all the sordid details of their turbulent 13-year relationship in Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie (Putnam). Charles Higham'sMerchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M. and the Secret Hollywood (Donald I. Fine) details the mogul's struggles to cover up studio scandals. The protagonist of Peter Gadol's novel The Mystery Roast (Crown) becomes a celebrity when he starts a downtown art fad at an eponymous cafe, named after a secret blend of coffee beans. And as for J. R. Hartley, who wrote the satirical "memoir" of English country life Fly Fishing: Memories of Angling Days (HarperCollins), the author's actual identity is unknown.

HENRY ALFORD