MID-LIFE CONFIDENTIAL

It's not a frat party. It's not Spinal Tap. It's Amy Tan in thigh-high leather boots; Barbara Kingsolver on keyboards; Stephen King worried that he ``might become the first best-selling novelist ever to have an accident of the shit variety while on stage in Nashville.'' A group of authors and critics (including editor Marsh) formed a rock 'n' roll band and thrashed for literacy at the 1992 ABA convention. They liked it so much they decided to take their show on the road. Band members and assorted groupies and hangers-on included Dave Barry, Roy Blount, Matt Groening, and some real musicians like Al Kooper. The book is funny—not as funny as their playing apparently was, but funny. They got together and proved that book people, like all people, want to be rock 'n' roll stars. They gave it a try, and being book people, they ended up with a book.