Critics' Choice

BOOKS

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf; $18.95). A spurned suitor endures 50 years of solitude to win the woman he loves, in the Nobel laureate's sprawling, exuberant fable.

S. by John Updike (Knopf; $17.95). In this modern Scarlet Letter, a Massachusetts wife flees to a zany Arizona ashram, recounting her adventures in penetrating (and sometimes scarlet) letters.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS by Paul Kennedy (Random House; $24.95). Bad news. A respected historian argues that all dominant nations are fated to founder, and now it may be the U.S.'s turn.

CINEMA

MOONSTRUCK John Patrick Shanley's witty, shapely script puts an octet of New Yorkers under a lunar-tuney spell one romantic night. Cher shines brightest of all.

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS

Mundane school-day scenes build to tragedy in Louis Malle's recollection of a childhood friendship with a Jewish boy in Nazi-occupied France.

BABETTE'S FEAST From Isak Dinesen's tale of two spinsters and their mysterious French cook, Gabriel Axel has brewed a quietly delectable comedy.

MUSIC

JAMES TAYLOR: NEVER DIE YOUNG (Columbia). His best album in a decade. The music may lull, but just to ease the way for some lacerating lyrics on the ironies and intricacies of love.

THE GODFATHERS: BIRTH, SCHOOL, WORK, DEATH (Epic). Splendiferous, splenetic activist rock, like the Clash spiffed up for the '80s.

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 2 (EMI). Revivifying. Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony breathe fire into Mahler's mystical "Resurrection" Symphony.

CONCERTS

, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: THE TUNNEL OF LOVE EXPRESS TOUR This time the pacing is more deliberate, more intense. Some arrangements have been overhauled, while others (like Rosalita) are intact. It all proves the Boss is still the best.

INTO THE WOODS Composer-Lyricist Stephen Sondheim's deepest work uses fractured fairy tales for fun and musing on growing up.

THEATER

A WALK IN THE WOODS

Whoever thought arms control could be a hoot? But this two-hander, based on the Geneva stroll of Soviet and U.S. negotiators, is Broadway's funniest new comedy.

TELEVISION

MARIO PUZO'S THE FORTUNATE PILGRIM (NBC, beginning April 3, 9 p.m. EST). In a mini-series spanning nearly 30 years, Sophia Loren plays the stalwart matriarch of an Italian-immigrant family in pursuit of the American dream.

DEAR AMERICA: LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM (HBO, debuting April 3, 9 p.m. EST). Actual letters from service members, read by such actors as Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and illustrated with footage of the war.

JAPAN (PBS, debuting April 4, 9 p.m. EST on most stations). From shogun days to postwar boom, a four-week look at the country's history and culture.