The Best of Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone editor Love has assembled 37 highlights from the hip magazine's first 25 years (although inexplicably the most recent entry here is Anthony DeCurtis's July 1990 essay on the waning days of communism in the Soviet Union). With prefaces by the mostly male authors (five contributors are women), the pieces are a generally absorbing and provocative skim of liberal American cultural and political interests; their impact, however, has been blunted through abridgement and some don't pass the test of time (particularly stale are Robin Green's story of the marketing of teen idol David Cassidy and David Black's expose on AIDS). Further selections include Robert Greenfield touring with the Rolling Stones in 1971, Hunter Thompson practicing ``Gonzo'' journalism, Tom Wolfe probing the psychology of astronauts, Marcelle Clements telling us why she and her friends no longer smoke pot and David Harris interviewing Ron Kovic, a paralyzed former marine who became an anti-war activist. In other essays, Joe Eszterhas tracks daredevil Evel Knievel, Howard Kohn links Karen Silkwood's death to a corrupt nuclear plant, Howard Kohn and David Weir get the inside scoop on fugitive Patty Hearst, Greil Marcus grieves for Elvis, Randall Sullivan shows how a cheerleader's murder by a less popular classmate is symptomatic of the greed-driven eighties, Tim Cahill hikes across Death Valley and P.J. O'Rourke is disgusted by Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. (Oct.)