December 23, 1996 Issue, THE NEW YORKER

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- Comment: Today's Special
  Bill Buford
  , p. 5
  Can fiction be nourishing?
- In the Mail, pp. 6-7
- Goings On About Town, pp. 8-48
- The Talk of the Town, pp. 49-53
  Jose Donoso's death; Grendel's dad; after-dinner Tom Wolfe; etc.
- Personal History: Fidelity
  Tim Parks
  , pp. 54-59
  What is the cost of commitment?
- Profile: Becoming Japanese
  Ian Buruma
  , pp. 60-71
  Haruki Murakami---the icy voice of Japan's generation X---had a revelation. Did he have...
- Food: Leavened bread
  Salman Rushdie
  , pp. 72-73
- Fiction: Dog
  Richard Russo
  , pp. 74-79
  What's life without one?
- Fiction: The Black-and-White Ball
  Don DeLillo
  , pp. 80-84
  J. Edgar Hoover attends Truman Capote's party
- Food: Beans
  Chang-rae Lee
  , pp. 85-88
- Food: Grits souffle
  Elizabeth Hardwick
  , p. 89
- Lief and Letters: The Life and Early Death of Bruce Chatwin
  Susannah Clapp
  , pp. 90-92
  With one book, he beame one of the most imitated authors of his generation. Why was he ...
- Food: Indigestion
  Anton Chekhov
  , pp. 93-96
  A first translation of a piece on the perils of feasting, written when the author was a...
- Food: Whale pie
  Jonathan Meades
  , pp. 97-101
- Fiction: The Love of a Good Woman
  Alice Munro
  , pp. 102-107
  How much is too much? A story of murder, an appalling secret, and a perversion of the r...
- "Hemingway's Hat"
  Vicki Feaver
  , pp. 108-128
- Food: Plum pudding
  John Lanchester
  , pp. 129-141
- [+]
  Fine Points (Review)
  John Updike
  , pp. 142-145
  The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, by R.W. Burchfield and Henry Watson Fowler
  1. The New Fowler's Modern English Usage by R.W. Burchfield and Henry Watson Fowler
- [+]
  Briefly Noted (8 Reviews) , pp. 146-149
  First novels
  1. The Other Family by Jacqueline Carey
  2. Memories of My Ghost Brother by Heinz Insu Fenkl
  3. The Vipers' Club by John H. Richardson
  4. Pig by Andrew Cowan
  5. I Never Came to You in White by Judith Farr
  6. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  7. In the Hold by Vladimir Arsenijevic
  8. Into the Great Wide Open by Kevin Canty
- Greetings, Friends!
  Roger Angell
  , pp. 150-152
- Cover: Bedside Stories
  Owen Smith