Extra Innings: A Memoir

When novelist and literary critic Grumbach published her memoir Coming into the End Zone in 1991, it was cause for celebration--for her and for readers educated and inspired by her year of reflections on turning 70 and the process of what she here calls ``coming into old age.'' Now a few years older, Grumbach, who still lives on the coast of Maine, uses the same month-by-month format to record another year of musings and considerations. Often sublime, sometimes mundane, rarely boring, these reflections will appeal especially to readers who live in the world of books. Grumbach writes with grace and precision about her anxiety while waiting for reviews of End Zone ; about what books she is moved to take from her shelves and reread; about conversations with colleagues, friends and her daughters; about friendship, love and loss. PW gets its mention, decribed as ``the Bible of the book trade (sometimes Job, sometimes Revelations, perhaps Exodus?).'' Norton is reissuing Grumbach's novels, The Ladies and The Magician's Girl , in conjunction with this memoir. (Nov.)