Family Secrets

By Eric Goodman University of Nebraska Press. 288 pages. $18.95. Reviewed by John Shortino Within the first few pages of Twelfth and Race , Eric Goodman introduces many of his novel's major themes: racial tension, family secrets, parental abandonment, and the loss of identity. As the book opens, Lorraine, a young mother, leaves her family and mixed-race son, driven away in part by their rejection of her Puerto Rican boyfriend. Her son, Richard, grows up to have his identity stolen.

For all its weighty political import and its power to shock and compel, the Starr report is, at its core, a book of family secrets. A squalid catalog of a husband's betrayal and a father's lies, the report, for many people, threatens their right to work out their family problems privately, in their own time, and on their own terms. "It's scary because we all have family secrets," said William R. Stayton, a Philadelphia clinical psychologist and ordained minister in the American Baptist Convention.

Tucked into a back corner of Elaine's, the chic bistro better known for its literary celebrities than for its linguine, Anna Monardo is helping to restore balance to both American literature and its prime Manhattan watering hole. On the walls surrounding her, gondolas alfresco provide the right visuals. On the plate beside her, steaming pasta sends up the right aromas. On the empty chair across from her, a heroically achieved new book - The Courtyard of Dreams (Doubleday), her just-published, 10-years-in-the-making first novel about an Italian American woman's romantic coming of age in Calabria - gives her the right to speak out. And on the table in front of her is the question rocketed into literary space last year by Italian American nonfiction writer (and occasional Elaine's habitue)

Nina Gonen's intriguing Family Secrets never quite manages to crack the secret of melding melodrama with the richness and range of themes it wants to explore. Gonen's movie, which opens the Israeli Film Festival 2001 at International House on Saturday, is an ambitious essay on how the sins of the past impinge on the present. Its flaws are easily forgiven when we encounter the fascinating and unusually enigmatic figure who is the instrument of devastation within his family. Family Secrets opens with a teenage girl emptying a bottle of lethal pills into the coffee of her great-uncle Alfred.

At 70, Francis Ford Coppola still has it. Tetro , his feverish and operatic family drama that pits father against son, brother against brother and artist against block, has palpably recharged the filmmaker. And it will electrify audiences despite a curious last act when secrets and blood are spilled promiscuously. Largely set in Buenos Aires and shot in black-and-white as moody as its characters, Tetro is both the film's title and the nickname of its central character, Angelo Tetrocini (Vincent Gallo)

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m., NBC10) - Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers perform; Star Jones. The Oprah Winfrey Show (4 p.m., 6ABC) - Shania Twain. The Biggest Loser (8 p.m., NBC10) - Style guru Tim Gunn helps the contestants pick out new outfits. Glee (8 p.m., Fox29) - Sue decides to revive the school newspaper with reports designed to stir up trouble. Hellcats (9 p.m., CW57) - Marti's bond with Deidre grows stronger as she investigates more family secrets.

Yo! Does chocolate water ice have real chocolate in it, or would it be an OK treat for someone who's cutting down on fats? What's in water ice, anyway? The fudge factor on this week's answer is going to be higher than usual, due to the guarded nature of local vendors' water ice recipes. "Without giving away any family secrets," said Jonathan Menta of Morrone's, "I'm going to have to say there is the potential (for chocolate) to be higher in calories. " Flavors other than chocolate, he explained, have exactly three ingredients: water, sugar and "secret formula.

This week's new DVD releases range from the very smart to the completely stupid. Numb3rs: The Final Season, Grade B: David Krumholtz changes the nerd image of a math wizard with his portrayal of Charlie Eppes on this canceled CBS series. The show proves smart can be cool. Not only does his character have fashion sense, he has a hot girlfriend and she's as smart - or smarter - than anyone on the show. The couple use their supersize brains to help the FBI fight crime. The show is a clever blend of police drama with mathematics.

Some kids' lives are ugly. They grow up amid dark lies or family secrets - things not discussed. The kids deal with the situation in different ways: Some act out. Some withdraw. Few talk it out. A group of about 22 students at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology are shining a light on some of those dark issues - among them date rape, alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual and physical abuse - in a performance called "A Journey of a Thousand Miles. " The program is open only to juniors and seniors.

By Eric Goodman University of Nebraska Press. 288 pages. $18.95. Reviewed by John Shortino Within the first few pages of Twelfth and Race , Eric Goodman introduces many of his novel's major themes: racial tension, family secrets, parental abandonment, and the loss of identity. As the book opens, Lorraine, a young mother, leaves her family and mixed-race son, driven away in part by their rejection of her Puerto Rican boyfriend. Her son, Richard, grows up to have his identity stolen.

By Kamala Nair Grand Central Publishing. 305 pp. $24.99 Reviewed by Karen E. Quiñones Miller For those who have wondered how old is too old to be fascinated by fairy tales, Kamala Nair has answered the question in her debut novel, The Girl in the Garden . The answer? There is no such thing as too old. This beautifully written story is filled with intriguing characters, hints of mystery, and sprinklings of magic that will touch any reader's heart as a young girl - struggling to save her parents' shaky marriage - sets out to unlock the family secret that she senses hangs over everyone's head and affects all of their lives.

Movies Bad Teacher Buck See Steven Rea's preview on H4. Cars 2 See Steven Rea's preview on H2. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop The late-night TV host is shown on his "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television" tour, which took place after he lost his job at NBC. Rejoice and Shout Documentary on the long history of gospel music. Viva Riva! A Congolese hood returns to his hometown of Kinsasha, where he becomes involved with another gangster's woman.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m., NBC10) - Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers perform; Star Jones. The Oprah Winfrey Show (4 p.m., 6ABC) - Shania Twain. The Biggest Loser (8 p.m., NBC10) - Style guru Tim Gunn helps the contestants pick out new outfits. Glee (8 p.m., Fox29) - Sue decides to revive the school newspaper with reports designed to stir up trouble. Hellcats (9 p.m., CW57) - Marti's bond with Deidre grows stronger as she investigates more family secrets.

A brother and sister, twins in Montreal, are being read their mother's last will and testament. The news is jolting: Simon (Maxim Gaudette) and Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) have a sibling in their mother's Middle East homeland they did not know existed. And their father, whom the pair believed to be long dead, is apparently alive. So begins the epic journey that is Incendies , Denis Villeneuve's extraordinary exploration of the juncture where family history, religious identity, and roiling politics collide.

'Is there something wrong with you?" the young wife asks her young husband when the subject of children is brought up, and he has said no kids, "not ever. " And in All Good Things , there does appear to be something amiss with David Marx (Ryan Gosling). Son of a New York real estate magnate, David mumbles to himself, seems lost in his own world. He can be oddly charming, and when he first meets Katie (Kirsten Dunst), a Long Island girl just moved to the big city, they are clearly taken with each other.

JOHN STREET and Michael Nutter have never found much to like about each other. But they do seem to have a common cause. They're both doing all they can to destroy Street's legacy. They go about it in different ways. Nutter is uncharacteristically bold in his repudiation of the Street years. His mayoral campaign was all about positioning himself as the un-Street. In his first year, Nutter was like a third-world dictator toppling his predecessor's statues to blot out all remaining vestiges of the last regime.

This week's new DVD releases range from the very smart to the completely stupid. Numb3rs: The Final Season, Grade B: David Krumholtz changes the nerd image of a math wizard with his portrayal of Charlie Eppes on this canceled CBS series. The show proves smart can be cool. Not only does his character have fashion sense, he has a hot girlfriend and she's as smart - or smarter - than anyone on the show. The couple use their supersize brains to help the FBI fight crime. The show is a clever blend of police drama with mathematics.

A play in props. Bigger than the junk shop in Mamet's American Buffalo, messier than the abandoned apartment in Miller's The Price, weirder than the Collier Brothers' New York hermitage, Gas & Electric Arts' set for Cabinet of Wonders is the Miss Havisham of 'em all. The venue, a huge warehouse basement filled with stuff actually for sale - clothes, lamps, pictures, jewelry, teacups - is wildly atmospheric. (Don't miss the plaster rat on the windowsill in the alley before you enter.

At 70, Francis Ford Coppola still has it. Tetro, his feverish and operatic family drama that pits father against son, brother against brother and artist against block, has palpably recharged the filmmaker. And it will electrify audiences despite a curious last act when secrets and blood are spilled promiscuously. Largely set in Buenos Aires and shot in black-and-white as moody as its characters, Tetro is both the film's title and the nickname of its central character, Angelo Tetrocini (Vincent Gallo)