HOW WE GOT HERE The 1970s: The Decade That Brought You Modern Life (For Better or Worse).

• Author: Fallows, James
• Position: Review

HOW WE GOT HERE The 1970s: The Decade That Brought You Modern Life (For Better or Worse) By David Frum Basic Books, $25

DAVID FRUM IS A TALENTED WRITER WHO has produced good books before and presumably will do so again. I don't think much of this current book, but out of respect for Frum, let's treat it as a specimen of a general problem in non-fiction book writing rather than a particular lapse on his part.

The problem I'm thinking of is the prevalence of the "op-ed book." These are books that exist principally as vehicles for introducing a specific point into current political discussion, rather than as works designed actually to be read. The publisher of such a book hopes that attention to its argument will persuade lots of people to buy it. The author hopes that, by presenting his ideas in book form instead of merely in an article, he will gain leverage for his argument. This is usually a reasonable expectation. When the book comes out, the author puts out a round of op-ed pieces explaining his point; the book-reviewing apparatus further examines, defends, or criticizes the idea; and the syndicated columnists take it from there. ("In his provocative new book Saints in the Sand, Joe Blow argues that Mormons now constitute an American majority. But in fact the most interesting religious trend in this campaign year is ...") It is easy to think of countless such "op-ed" books published in the last decade--on political trends, male-female relations, racial issues, you name it. One handy indicator is William Safire's annual "which books will make news?" quiz in his New York Times column, which touts a handful of upcoming books with one-sentence summaries of their arguments.

The most important trait of the op-ed book is that the heart of the normal book "experience"--namely, someone voluntarily spending hours reading what the author has created--is at best incidental to the op-ed book's success. The point is not that, in modern America, few people take the time to read whole books. I am regularly impressed on train or (especially) airline trips to see more people reading books than looking at magazines or newspapers. Rather it is that books designed to be read--short ones like business how-to books, fat ones like the typical biography or Tom Wolfe novel--must offer the reader some payoff for the hours invested. That is, there must be some difference between knowing about the book, and having absorbed what's on the pages your self. The payoff is most often that timeless standby: narrative (novels, mysteries, romance). It can be the enjoyment of a particular writer's tone or sensibility (the inexplicable-to-me success of the Peter Mayle Provence...