Reviews of three new books.   Northwest Style by Ann Wall Frank (Chronicle Books, 195 pages, $40) SURPRISE! WE'RE SWANKY At its worst, "Northwest style" conjures up a design aesthetic based more on spray-on stucco, lava rocks and lawn gnomes than a regional architectural tradition of balance and organic form. But local writer, remodeler and art collector Ann Wall Frank has tastefully obliterated the aluminum siding and Street of Dreams McMansions from our landscape and given us something to be proud of. Northwest Style takes the reader on a thrillingly voyeuristic tour of architecture and design that lets us glimpse the interiors of some of the Northwest's most beautiful homes. In ultimate coffeetable-book format, the tour cruises through sections entitled "At Home in Nature," "East Meets West" and, my favorite, "Urban Dwelling," each gorgeously photographed by Astoria photographer Michael Mathers. So the next time your big-shot friends from so-called "real cities" like San Francisco and New York describe Portland as a "big small town" with boring architecture, cite the book's examples of Northwest regionalism or early modernist style. "Au contraire," you'll crow as you point out that the chief creative director for Wieden & Kennedy's Tokyo office lives (when he's not in Tokyo or New York, that is) in a Portland home designed by the king of Northwest architecture himself, Pietro Belluschi. "Touché," they'll respond, chastened. If they still aren't impressed, take them to the bench you read about in the book, the one in Forest Park with a brass plate and a quote from Belluschi that reads, "A House Can Never Be as Beautiful as a Tree." Michaela Lowthian   The Civil Wars of Jonah Moran by Marjorie Reynolds (Morrow, 288 pages, $24) LOOKS LIKE SNOW It's so unfair to compare one book to another simply because they're similar in content. But don't let that stop me. A few years ago, David Guterson wrote Snow Falling on Cedars, a compelling novel about racism and a murder trial set in Washington's rural San Juan Islands. That book captured the isolation and beauty of small-town life set against a dramatic natural background. Now comes a suspiciously similar novel from up north. The Civil Wars of Jonah Moran is set deep within the Olympic Peninsula, where logging is still king and life is still simple. People don't like change much in the small town of Misp. But Jessica, the timber baroness' daughter, returns from years in California, and things change. The story begins with a murder; Jessica's socially awkward brother is accused. Her former boyfriend reappears to investigate the crime for the federal government. She must wrestle with her memories of their forbidden love--he is a member of the Quinalt Indian Tribe--and their secret meetings deep within the woods. She must also come to grips with her dead father's ghost. Change the location, characters' genders and starring minority, and the plot line could nearly pass for Snow's. But Reynold's story tosses some unexpected twists and a disease-of-the-week into the mix. And though her style is somewhat pedestrian, The Civil Wars is quite readable, if you can see past the flakes of Snow. Maybe Guterson spoiled it for every Washington author who wants to write a novel about murder, racism and forbidden love among the huckleberry bushes. Susan Wickstrom   Portland Lights--A Poetry Anthology Edited by Barbara LaMorticella and Steve Nemirow (Nine Lights Press, 145 pages, $20) A WINDOW ON PORTLAND Surely one of the most exciting local literary events of the season has been the publication of Portland Lights. This new anthology collects poems from 79 poets, ranging from the very well-known, such as William Stafford and Vern Rutsala, to writers making their publishing debut. The collection was organized as a "literary portrait" of Portland. As the call for submissions read, "We want to sense the life, the spirit of the region breathing in the lines, or catch a glimpse of the city from the corner of the poet's eye." From a pool of more than 1,500 submissions, the editors selected a strong group of work that explores and depicts the complexities of our city as we near the end of the century. "Three-quarters of the included poets live in Portland," explained Steve Nemirow, one of the editors, in a recent interview. "The rest all have strong ties to the area in one way or another. Through the anthology, we see a critical core of perspectives on Portland and on poetry." Interestingly, Nemirow and Barbara LaMorticella published a similar poetry collection 20 years ago called Confluence. The two anthologies provide windows into the changing collective consciousness of the area. "In '79," Nemirow says, "logging was really at the center of our local population--and thus appeared prominently in Confluence. The biggest change over the past two decades has been that now we, as writers, can talk about things that we couldn't before. The impact of the past, the Vietnam War, social injustice, unresolved race issues, sexual identity and a strong concern for the environment--these are some of the preoccupations that appear in Portland Lights." Of the 1,000 copies printed, nearly half have already been sold. Portland Lights is a well-executed document on the state of this city and its poetry at the present time. Jay Sanders - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published November 23, 1999