Bookends

ON MODERN MARRIAGE

by Isak Dinesen

St. Martin's; 134 pages; $12.95

It is a double irony that Isak Dinesen, who hid behind pseudonyms and coveted the Nobel Prize, is currently better known for her life than for her art. For the film of Out of Africa was itself a masque. The romantic figure played by Meryl Streep was a woman of action. In fact, the writer was a great solitary who tried to work out every moral conflict at her desk, in tales, letters or learned analyses. In 1923-24, for example, she made her famous and tortured marriage to Bror Blixen and her doomed affair with Denys Finch Hatton the subjects of a brief, piercing look at Eros from the inside. Scrutinizing the relation of morality to marriage, she concluded that the two are parallel but rarely converge, and that George Bernard Shaw was right when he said that confusing them had done "more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error." Dinesen adds, "Even these old champions of marriage, who think they are on secure moral ground, must, if they would for once ransack their own hearts and brains, admit that they are confusing the eternal rights that work for the benefit of humanity with their own personal taste -- a confusion that is still to be found even in the most honorable people . . ." The subject is likely to be debated as long as there are readers (and marriages). But there can be no argument about the author's restive, analytical mind and style. For Dinesenites, On Modern Marriage is indispensable.

LEARNED PIGS AND FIREPROOF WOMEN by Ricky Jay

Villard; 340 pages; $29.95

The year is young, but it is unlikely that any title in 1987 will top this one for mystification and intrigue. Fair enough: its subjects are the oddest achievers in the history of show business. Here is Blind Tom, born to slave parents in 1849. Sightless and retarded, this exemplary idiot savant could play most pieces on the piano, classical or popular, after a single hearing. Here is Harry Kahne, who could write five words on a blackboard simultaneously, holding chalk in his feet, hands and mouth. Here is Matthew Buchinger, who was a marksman, conjurer, artist and musician. Not exactly headline making -- except that Matthew was 29 in. high and had neither arms nor feet.

The author, a professional magician, has carefully researched his performers and their claims. All are authentic wonders, especially Max Malini, who could remain at a dinner table for hours, then lift his hat to reveal a large chunk of unmelted ice. A difficult act to follow, one would think, but Jay has scores of others just as weird and irresistible.

ONE MORE TIME

by Carol Burnett

Random House; 361 pages; $18.95

Carol Burnett's childhood might have produced a tragedian instead of a comedian. In this autobiography disguised as a letter to her three daughters, she runs through a series of blackout sketches that are by turns sad, hilarious and grotesque. Burnett grew up in a shabby Hollywood apartment with her beloved maternal grandmother. Nanny used to tie a rolled Christian Science Monitor around her waist so her "insides wouldn't fall out." She took Carol to the movies; then, "when it was time to go home, we'd go to the bathroom, and she'd empty all the toilet paper dispensers, sheet by sheet. And we'd be set for another few weeks." Burnett's parents were both alcoholics. Their half resentful, half forgiving daughter recalls them in memorable images: her mother passed out with their pet parakeet Tweetie passed out on top of her. ( Such scenes show that to a comic mind even the darkest of childhood memories can be assuaged with laughter.

"LOVE AND ADMIRATION

AND RESPECT" Edited by Dorothy Commins; Duke University

248 pages; $32.50

When Eugene O'Neill got a toothache he turned to Saxe Commins, a dentist known for his light touch. But the playwright's ailing tooth was so stubborn, O'Neill noted, that the dentist "had almost to call in the derrick squad." Nevertheless, extractions proved to be the basis of their relationship for the next 30 years. After Commins left dentistry for publishing, including a quarter-century at Random House, he gently but forcefully drew from O'Neill some of his greatest plays. "Love and Admiration and Respect" is a record in letters and commentary of a remarkably creative friendship. Only one problem proves insoluble: O'Neill's third wife Carlotta. Commins takes careful note of her offenses: after O'Neill breaks a knee and lies helpless in the cold, she crows, "How the mighty have fallen!" and abandons him. These scenes of marital melodrama almost rival the works from the master himself.

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DESCRIPTION: Color reproductions: Four book jackets: ON MODERN MARRIAGE, LEARNED PIGS AND FIREPROOF WOMEN, ONE MORE TIME, "LOVE AND ADMIRATION AND RESPECT"