Don't Look Back: A Memoir

This collection of vignettes rings with the joie de vivre of someone who finds life the ultimate adventure. The 66-year-old O'Connor, who has had a career as an editor at Washington Square Press, Pinnacle and Popular Library, and as a cultural critic for Variety and on radio and TV (he's now a ski instructor in Vermont), originally broadcast these essays on WBAI Radio in New York City. We witness the 16-year-old O'Connor, from Braddock, Pa., on his first trip to Manhattan and how he defied the Legion of Decency (and his family) to see Gypsy Rose Lee on Broadway. We learn how Robert Patrick O'Connor was turned into plain Patrick O'Connor by that ``magnificent contraption'' known as Marlene Dietrich. We also meet his boss, William S. Paley, head of CBS which owned Popular Library, who instantly transforms him from an alledged pornographer into an erudite art critic. In a hilarious episode, O'Connor explains how this came about: Paley disarmed his executives at a meeting called to criticize O'Connor for publishing a collection of ``dirty'' paintings by asking: ``Mr. O'Connor, do you suppose you could meet me for lunch in SoHo and we could go to the gallery and buy some of those originals for the Museum of Modern Art?'' Along the way, we come across an unlikely cast featuring the likes of Ayn Rand, Boris Karloff, Ray Charles, Noel Coward, Evelyn Waugh and Andy Warhol in this spicy read that captures the astonishment of a small-town boy who wanted to make it in the big city, and did. (Oct.)