The Common Ground Book: A Circle of Friends

Sutton ( Remar Sutton's Body Worry ) and freelancer Waite have compiled a mildly interesting collection of conversations they held with a wide variety of people that includes writers Kurt Vonnegut and George Plimpton but that focuses chiefly on those who are neither famous people nor authors: a cook, a student, several librarians and teachers, and a few fishermen. The chapters are arranged by such subjects as ``An Early Friendship,'' ``A Moment of Loneliness,'' ``Falling,'' ``Unexpected Treats'' or just ``Serendipity.'' Sutton and Waite devote longer pieces to physician Torre Andrew's portrait of his grandmother and to Methodist minister Carolyn Abram's haunting memory of the death of her two-day-old daughter. These pieces come closer to the authors' stated plan to explore the nature of communication and self-discovery. The short chapters often read like magazine interviews. (Nov.)