AN UNLIKELY CONSERVATIVE: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal (or How I Became the Most Hated Hispanic in America)

Nearly two years after losing her chance to be President Bush's secretary of labor, Chavez offers up a memoir cum apologia steeped in defensiveness. Although she recognizes that her failure to be candid with Bush's advisers about the illegal alien she housed for an extended period in the early 1990s cost her the cabinet position, she doesn't hesitate to pass the blame around. She lashes out at the media's coverage of her downfall and at the neighbor she asked for advice before talking to the FBI, who turned out to be the sister of ABC's White House correspondent. Her self-righteousness shapes the bulk of the narrative: all her professional setbacks, for example, were inevitably the fault of white administrators who didn't expect her kind of talent from an affirmative action minority. Then there's the constant rejection from Hispanic peers, who "viewed me not just as an opponent but as a heretic, a traitor." The story of her transition from college liberalism and union activism to various appointments in the Reagan administration has several interesting sections, like her combative experiences as a grad student teaching UCLA's first "Chicano literature" class. But many will find it hard to feel sympathy for someone who takes such glee in the opportunity, now that she apparently has nothing left to lose politically, to settle old scores. Agent, Eric Simonoff. (Oct. 1)

Forecast:Chavez has visibility with a syndicated newspaper column and appearances on Fox News Channel. A seven-city author tour and 20-city radio satellite tour will also help this reach readers of Ann Coulter's Slander and J.C. Watts's forthcoming What Color Is a Conservative (HarperCollins, Sept.).