31 OCTOBER 1998, page 47

After Protracted Labour, A Birth

John Bowen FOR KINGS AND PLANETS by Ethan Canin Bloomsbury, £15.99, pp. 335 T he bed of a frozen creek in Missouri: `The wind has blown the snow into the ice, then blown waves......

Hitched To A Malign Star

Benjamin Yarde-Buller I MARRIED A COMMUNIST by Philip Roth Cape, f16.99, pp. 323 P hilip Roth's latest novel is a complex and many-shaded work, a reality belied by the crude......