Books -- Review: A Manual for Left-Wing Living
The Nation Guide to the Nation</br></br>By Richard Lingeman and the editors of The Nation</br></br>Vintage, 384 pages, $19.95</br></br>FOR 143 YEARS, The Nation magazine has maintained, in its adorable way, the blue-faced scowl of an angry toddler shaking its fist at the grown-ups. But while you could go to The Nation in recent years for instruction on how to think about the latest perfidy of the Bush administration, the magazine was no help when it came to advice on, say, how to find a really good lesbian knitting cooperative within easy bicycling distance or where to buy anti-globalization comic books printed on recycled hemp.</br></br>The long wait is over. Now comes "The Nation Guide to the Nation," a travelog/catalog/almanac (whatever you do, don't call it a bible) "for and about a community of committed, passionate people who have active consciences and a lively sense of social justice." In keeping with the spirit of the undertaking, here's what might be called The Guide to "The Nation Guide to the Nation":