Spare Days

During seven months in 1983-84, following diagnosis of his cancer, 63-year-old Columbia School of Journalism lecturer Barrett, author of The Jazz Age, etc., recorded not only the physical ordeal but major crises in his mental and spiritual life and his feeling of rebirth after ``clinical death'' during a heart attack. The prospect of imminent death changed his perspectives and priorities. A trip to Italya quest for serenity in Assisi and the Umbrian hillsundertaken just before committing himself to surgery, provides an affecting episode in this account of his journey between tormenting childhood memories and the uncertain future. Restored to health, at least temporarily after a brush with death, Barrett concludes his musings on a note of renewed faith and expectations. (June)