Salon Books | Charles At Fifty and Charles: Victim or Villain


	Charles At Fifty Charles: Victim or Villain? Also, big savings on the 1998 National Book Award winners! Charming Billy Slaves in the Family I N T E R V I E W The Salon Interview: Andrea Barrett By Peter Kurth A conversation with Andrea Barrett, author of the National Book Award-winning "Ship Fever and Other Stories" T A B L E+T A L K Cast your vote for the worst so-called classic of the 20th century in the Books area of Table Talk B O O K C A S E A new service for book lovers R E C E N T L Y They Call Me Mad Dog! A Story for Bitter, Lonely People By Erika Lopez Fiction (12/04/98) The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition By Caroline Alexander Nonfiction (12/03/98) A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole By By Diana Preston Nonfiction (12/03/98) Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The Autobiography of Larry Sanders As told to Garry Shandling, with David Rensin Nonfiction (12/02/98) Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno By Robert Christgau Nonfiction (12/01/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SEARCH REVIEWS BY: title of book author publisher reviewer - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T H E+G A R N E R R E P O R T The Garner Report By Dwight Garner A highly subjective, monthly roundup of upcoming book titles S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.		__ C h a r l e s a t F i f t y ANTHONY HOLDEN \| RANDOM HOUSE \| NONFICTION \| 412 PAGES _____________________ CHARLES: VICTIM or VILLAIN? _____ PENNY JUNOR \| HARPERCOLLINS \| NONFICTION \| 304 PAGES BY MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS \| Perhaps the best clue as to how history will regard England's future monarch is to take a look at the opening pages of two new biographies of him. Both begin with him as a supporting player in someone else's drama -- as Charles is roused in the middle of the night to the news that his ex-wife has been in an accident in Paris. It's a defining moment in his life, to be sure, but it's also indicative of a deeper truth. Charles, his chroniclers know, is a man who will always be viewed in the context of his relationship to others, a man whose standing in the public eye depends largely upon somebody else being dead. It has only been through Diana's death that the least popular member of the royal family has enjoyed a measure of warmth and sympathy from his subjects, and it will only be with his mother's passing that he will be able to assume the role he was born to hold. It can't be easy, this perpetual second fiddling. But it does beg the question -- how much, at this stage, is there to say about a man who has lived his life overshadowed by two of the most famous and powerful women in the world? He may be middle-aged, but his life as an autonomous entity is just getting started. Both Anthony Holden's "Charles at Fifty" and Penny Junor's "Charles: Victim or Villain?" explore with intimate detail the public and private life of the vilified and misunderstood man who will be king. But while both leap to wildly different conclusions about his character, neither offers much of a case that Charles would be a very compelling figure were it not for the fact that his mom gets to wear a tiara at work. The prince is an unlikely poster boy for the boomer generation. He's not, after all, the kind of guy one imagines ever having owned a bong or a copy of "Electric Ladyland." But Anthony Holden, the author of two previous bios of Charles (as well as other works on the royals and Diana), is adept at showing both a sadly removed-from-reality figurehead and a single parent who, like it or not, must one day assume the family business. N E X T+P A G E \| Charles and Diana: Warts-and-all - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Winners are in! Read Salon's reviews of the 1998 National Book Award winners: Charming Billy by Alice McDermott [ Buy this book at barnesand noble.com ] Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball [ Buy this book at barnesand noble.com ]