Before I Forget: '50s Reflections Through a Jaded Eye

Toomer, who writes for Texas Monthly , grew up in the Lone Star State in the 1950s, an era noted for ``nationalism, bigotry, the Red scare, and . . . censorship of anything that didn't support the fraudulent self-image of the times.'' The book also incidentally reminds us that this was the period as well when Elvis and rockabilly pointed the way to rock 'n' roll, when Lenny Bruce and Mad mgazine cried rebellion, and when Jack Kerouac tried to convince the unconverted that Beat writing was literature. But, dealing primarily with subjects like teenage acne, sexual fantasies and concern with getting a ``cool'' car--and offering little leavening humor--Toomer has produced a book every bit as dull as the '50s were for some of us. (Feb.)