Books: What Makes Siam Run

SIAM MIAMI by Morris Renek. 448 pages. Macmillan. $6.95.

It is a cliché of U.S. fiction that the lust for power, fame and money destroys the integrity of anyone scrambling to the top, especially in the entertainment world. The heroine of Morris Renek's strong second novel seems, at first glance, to be formfitted to the cliché. Sexy, bright and beautiful, she is determined to make it big as a popular singer any way she can. She succeeds. What is more extraordinary, so does Renek, somehow using a sentimental and unpromising plot to explore the nature of power, the exploitation of sex and...

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