The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 74

4- Sunday, July 2, 1995 The Greenville News All the King's men PAPERBACKS Mass market 1. Debt of Honor; Tom Clancy 2. The Alienist; Caleb Carr 3. Congo; Michael Crichton 4. The Chamber; John Grisham 5.

Remember Me; Mary Higgins Clark 6. Circle of Friends; Maeve Binchy 7. Undue Influence; Steve Martini 8. Tunnel Vision; Sara Paretsky 9. First Offense; Nancy Taylor Rosenberg 10.

Star Wars: Ambush at Corellia; Roger MacBride Allen I Is. '-rtP' 1 of me six hundred, eight hundred pounds. Lifted them both up running, and told Elvis to shut 'em off. Elvis looked at me, and I looked at him. He said, 'I'll tell you, Lamar, she's as strong as an Gladys Presley's unexpected death during Elvis' Army days opened an emotional chasm.

On the night she died, "He was patting her on the stomach. I heard him say, 'Oh God, Satnin', not now. Not when I can give you everything in the Billy Smith. The three speakers may disagree on motives, but none dispute the enormous influence of "Colonel" Tom Parker, who managed Elvis for most of his life. Priscilla Presley, Elvis' wife, gets pretty thoroughly trashed.

Her parents, you may recall, let her move in with Elvis at age 16. "She's an ice-cold person, but I guess she had some real feelings for Elvis." Marty Lacker. Folks wonder how Elvis, whose soulful sound came across as black to some, really felt about black people. He hung out in black neighborhoods as a kid, and he loved black entertainers. But he never fooled around with black women.

As for the marriage of Elvis' only child, Lisa Marie, to Michael Jackson: "I think when the rumors of that marriage first came out, Elvis started doing flips in his grave. And then when it was verified, he probably tried every which way to get 'Memphis Mafia' members give new details of Elvis' life ELVIS AARON PRESLEY: REVELATIONS FROM THE MEMPHIS MAFIA Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker and Lamar Fike (HarperCollins) lvis has been dead 18 years now, but to hear these guys tell it, he's still hanging around, trying to take everybody with him. Billy Smith, Marty Lacker and Lamar Fike were among the earlier wave of the 20-odd souls who for 20-odd years drifted in and out of the famed Memphis Mafia. They came to know their boss better than they knew themselves. Out of earshot, they nicknamed him Crazy.

They worked hard for their money, and it was only a few hundred a week. But they loved being around him. And they paid dearly, with drug addiction, divorce, detachment: "The hardest thing I've had to do since he died is to develop another life. None of us was equipped for his death." Lamar Fike. Author Alanna Nash, a respected music critic, biographer and true Elvis fan, was the first reporter in line to view the body at Graceland.

She sees the three men as parts of the HARDCOVERS Fiction 1. Rose Madder; Stephen King 2. The Rainmaker; John Grisham 3. The Bridges of Madison County; Robert James Waller 4. The Celestine Prophecy; James Redfield 5.

The Apocalypse Watch; Robert Ludlum 6. Ladder of Years; Anne Tyler 7. Let Me Call You Sweetheart; Mary Higgins Clark 8. Once Upon a More Enlightened Time; James Finn Garner 9. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories; James Finn Garner 10.

Of Love and Other Demons; Gabriel Garcia Marquez Non-fiction 1. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus; John Gray 2. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success; Deepak Chopra 3. New Passages; Gail Sheehy 4. The Hot Zone; Richard Preston 5.

How to Argue and Win Every Time; Gerry Spence 6. A Good Walk Spoiled; John Felnstein 7. Dave Barry's Guide to Guys; Dave Barry 8. Sisters; Carol Saline 9. Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil; John Berendt 10.

Spontaneous Healing; Andrew Weil, M.D SOURCE: Publishers Weekly living Elvis: His cousin Smith was the heart, practical Lacker was the head and bigmouthed Fike was the soul. And that's how they come across. Their raw, revealing word pictures, poignant and horrific and hilarious, give this effort an intimacy that can't be faked. Nash's three years of research and transcript have spawned a stunning oral history. Few, if any, will go this deep again as deep as the holes Elvis gouged into his foot so he could see another doctor for more drugs.

An index and titled chapters make this a formidable book for reference as well as entertainment. Elvis really did shoot the television if he didn't like what was on. He really did wear five guns at home and one in his shoe when he was onstage. His middle name really was Aaron, not Aron. He really did want his girlfriends wearing all-white cotton underwear.

Elvis' beloved mama, Gladys Presley, was not as somber as we think, Smith says. She was a steady beer drinker and a pill popper. Elvis shared a bed with her for way too long, and they spoke a private baby talk. She's the one, the guys say, who started Elvis on prescription medication for his lifelong insomnia and nightmares. Once, Fike says, he somehow got trapped in the driveway under two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, his and Elvis.

Gladys was watching. "She came out and stepped in the middle of those motorcycles and pulled both of those damn things off the truth. The Mississippi Delta writer oozes Mississippi stories from his pores as easily as his dog Skip once did tricks to amaze Morris' Yazoo City neighbors. And old Skip is what brought Morris to the Coast recently. He autographed copies of his new book, "My Dog Skip," at a local bookstore.

The book details the escapades of the child Morris and the late Skip, whom Morris still fondly calls "my brother." The two first met in 1943, when Morris was 9 years old. Morris swears with a nod that, indeed, Skip could do everything as portrayed in the book, including steering the family car while Morris Writer Willie Morris oozes Mississippi Many of the myths about Elvis Presley were true, say his associates. back here to slap the (expletive) out of them." Marty Lacker. The death of Elvis is the most graphic and gripping part of the book. He had 14 kinds of drugs in him that morning.

When they pumped his stomach, "There were so many pills, it sounded like gravel goin' in the aluminum pan. I thought if I could just take off running, and run 'til I passed out, I'd be all right." Billy Smith. Gale Martin, KNIGHT-RIDDER fired him in an editorial dispute. Morris eventually moved back to Mississippi in 1980, first teaching at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, then moving to Jackson where his wife, JoAnn, heads up the University Press of Mississippi. Morris credits her with helping him to finish "New York Days." "She stayed after me, day after day, locking me in the basement," Morris deadpanned.

"It was like being in a dungeon every day." Morris, who also wrote critically acclaimed "North Toward Home," will return to his Rhodes-scholar days for his next book. The novel, to be titled "Chimes at Midnight," will be set at Oxford University, where Morris graduated in 1960. "I wrote a bunch of pages on that, and I just kinda put it aside," Morris said. "But the whole experience of being an American abroad at that time was wonderful for me." John Chandler Griffin will sign copies of "The Encyclopedia of Gamecock Football 1892-1994," July 8 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at The easy way to find a cash buyer for no-longer-needed household items is with a Classified Ad.

Call 298-4221 By Alice Jackson Baughn Knight-Ridder BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. Willie Morris is the consummate Missis-sippian. The minute he sits down he wants to know the birthplace of everyone at the table. Morris isn't interested in geography.

He just wants to know if he might know someone that they know. Nine times out of 10, he does. "Why, you're almost Yankeefied," he joked to someone from Alabama as he sat down at a table of Mississippi residents in a restaurant. But because of where Willie Morris came from, he's almost telling TO Trade 1. Chicken Soup for the Soul; Jack Canfield, Mark Hansen, eds.

2. The Stone Diaries; Carol Shields 3. A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul; Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen 4. Legal Pad; Henry Beard, John Boswell and Ron Barrett 5. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; Stephen R.

Covey 6. A Map of the World; Jane Hamilton 7. The Shipping News; E. Annie Proulx 8. Reviving Ophelia; Mary Pipher 9.

Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives; Laura Schlessinger 10. Motherless Daughters; Hope Edelman Barnes Noble, 735 Haywood Road. The book is a historical chronicle of football at the University of South Carolina. Call 297-5951. Over! Road 281-1301 week.

worked the gas and brake pedals. "You can go to Yazoo City, and the old-timers there will corroborate me," Morris said. "The dog could drive. He just couldn't reach the accelerator and brake." Morris admits that a Hollywood deal may be in the making, but he added that his agent doesn't want him discussing the details. The book is Morris' first since "New York Days," a 1992 rendering of his days as editor in chief of Harpers magazine, the oldest literary magazine published in America.

He was 32 when he took the helm of Harpers in 1967. Four years later, the magazine's board of directors Life. acre to owe acre. The Wait is ross Over Genteel Ntt HI There was a time, tere was a place, when one bepeyib ok certain things. Tennis on summer afternoons.

Quiet straffs through the garben. A box kite sailing on a breeze. Iceo tea on the veranba. Soft from a street lamp. One coulb bepenb on these things because they were good anb because they were prosier, lor those who miss such a time anb place, may we suggest you biscover it anew.

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