Politics and Media: Essays

Adler's scathing New Republic piece on Robert Bork's 1987 campaign for a Supreme Court seat reflects her polemical skill and fierce intelligence. ``The Perils of Pauline,'' her 1980 diatribe on New Yorker movie critic Pauline Kael, is hilarious, a masterpiece of invective. These, however, are the most recent essays in this grab-bag, and only one of the 12 piecesa profile of G. Gordon Liddyhas not been previously published. Readers will have to pick and choose, because the political articles from the 1970s have faded with time, including Adler's reportage on Biafra, Watergate, the National Guard and Nixon. The best passages give full play to her dangerous wit and trenchant observations. Her funny, precise articles on soap operas and quiz shows, written when Adler ( Speedboat , Reckless Disregard ) was the New Yorker 's TV critic, still ring true. (October)