Karen Joy Fowler

James Thurber's cartoons on the war between men and women, large dog inserted, are a cycle that elicits continual redrawing. Thurber drew it as a man, and no cartoonist as good has done it as a woman, though Cathy Guisewite does a fair job. The best women's versions have come, rather, in the form of short stories. (We wait to hear from the dog.) Karen Joy Fowler's "Black Glass" is a variegated collection of short stories, shards from the battlefield.

It's an irony Jane Austen would surely appreciate. Karen Joy Fowler writes a novel called "The Jane Austen Book Club," about a half-dozen people who form a reading group dedicated to the appreciation of works by you-know-who. Fowler, a 54-year-old Californian, does this in part because of her own love for the 19th century novelist, whom she describes as "a very flexible kind of writer.

It's an irony Jane Austen would surely appreciate. Karen Joy Fowler writes a novel called "The Jane Austen Book Club," about a half-dozen people who form a reading group dedicated to the appreciation of works by you-know-who. Fowler, a 54-year-old Californian, does this in part because of her own love for the 19th century novelist, whom she describes as "a very flexible kind of writer.

"What is all this about Jane Austen? What is there in her? What is it all about?" Unlike Joseph Conrad, who posed these frenzied questions to his fellow novelist H.G. Wells in 1901, most readers do see the point of Jane Austen. Her admirers include exigent literary critics, ordinary readers and everyone in between. It's no wonder her novels have been made into movies (with varying success) or inspired less gifted novelists to attempt sequels.

Except in the speeches of conservative politicians and a lingering twinge among some of us born before World War II, little but tatters remains of the bucolic image of the United States at mid-century: a squeaky clean car and house, the wife in fresh lipstick and blouse serving a homemade dinner to the husband and their two children, neighborly neighborhoods, long summer evenings, dependable jobs, patriotic celebrations and faith in our leaders, our present and our future.

History once was written in the past tense and allowed us to rest peaceably in our forebears' images; good or bad, but largely undisturbed. Marx shot history up, for a while, into the future. Ineluctably, though after various indignities, it would carry us into a workers' utopia. Freud and others relocated it into the present, as the nightmare from which we struggle to awaken but are forced, meanwhile, to relive.

"What is all this about Jane Austen? What is there in her? What is it all about?" Unlike Joseph Conrad, who posed these frenzied questions to his fellow novelist H.G. Wells in 1901, most readers do see the point of Jane Austen. Her admirers include exigent literary critics, ordinary readers and everyone in between. It's no wonder her novels have been made into movies (with varying success) or inspired less gifted novelists to attempt sequels.

Winners of the 34th annual Samuel Goldwyn/UCLA Writing Awards picked up their prizes Monday afternoon at a ceremony at UCLA. Jeffrey Bell won the $5,000 first prize for his script "Radio Inside." Karen Joy Fowler received the $2,500 second prize for "920 China Street" and the $1,000 third prize went to Scott Rosenberg for "Five O'Clock Shadow." Judges were producer-director James Brooks, producer Sherry Lansing and Dawn Steel, president of Columbia Pictures.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores. *--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction 1 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend. 2 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage: $12) An autistic teen seeks out a killer. 3 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin: $14) A teenage girl is haunted by her mother's death. 4 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.

James Thurber's cartoons on the war between men and women, large dog inserted, are a cycle that elicits continual redrawing. Thurber drew it as a man, and no cartoonist as good has done it as a woman, though Cathy Guisewite does a fair job. The best women's versions have come, rather, in the form of short stories. (We wait to hear from the dog.) Karen Joy Fowler's "Black Glass" is a variegated collection of short stories, shards from the battlefield.

Except in the speeches of conservative politicians and a lingering twinge among some of us born before World War II, little but tatters remains of the bucolic image of the United States at mid-century: a squeaky clean car and house, the wife in fresh lipstick and blouse serving a homemade dinner to the husband and their two children, neighborly neighborhoods, long summer evenings, dependable jobs, patriotic celebrations and faith in our leaders, our present and our future.

History once was written in the past tense and allowed us to rest peaceably in our forebears' images; good or bad, but largely undisturbed. Marx shot history up, for a while, into the future. Ineluctably, though after various indignities, it would carry us into a workers' utopia. Freud and others relocated it into the present, as the nightmare from which we struggle to awaken but are forced, meanwhile, to relive.