The new moderns from late to neo-modernism /

Yes, The New Moderns is another book by the architectural equivalent of Tom Wolfe, Charles Jencks--in fact, a photo-college of the two is included in this volume. Jencks is one of the most prolific writers of architectural criticism (This volume includes a bibliography of his writings, 1963-1989), and in this expanded rehash of his essays from Late-Modern Architecture and Other Essays (CH, May'81) he again tries to clarify the transition from modern architecture into this month's buzzword "Neo-Modern." Marvelously illustrated, the majority of the photographs taken by Jencks himself, and including his now infamous diagrams designed to clarify and categorize designers, the book is a wonderful example of the "bourgeoisie style" at its most blatant. Essays on deconstruction, high-tech, and rationalism share space with dialogues with Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, and Fumihiko Maki. Though this is an excellent book of its type, the essays suffer from lack of distance from their subject; the only saving grace seems to be that Jencks has developed a sense of humor about himself and his writings, making it one of his most readable efforts as well as an excellent photo album. -G. F. Hisel, University of Kentucky