Bellow's Ideas are Great, but His Characters are Underdeveloped.

Record producer Arthur Baker. The eclectic Baker has produced or mixed for musicians as diverse as Bob Dylan, Jimmy Cliff, Cyndi Lauper, U2, and Bruce Springsteen. Now he's come out with his own album, "Merge." He's chief songwriter and plays keyboards as well as producing.

Rock and roll historian Ed Ward traces the development of the band "New Order." In 1977, a 21-year-old in Manchester, England saw the Sex Pistols and decided to form his own band. He called it "Joy Division." In the decade since, the band, now called "New Order," evolved to become one of the most influential of their time, with such hits as "True Faith" and "Bizarre Love Triangle."

Poet and essayist June Jordan. In her poems and political essays, she addresses issues of racism, oppression and dispossession. She was born in Harlem and grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. She currently teaches English at the University of California at Berkeley.