Books: Memory's Screen THE MAGIC LANTERN

by Ingmar Bergman Translated by Joan Tate Viking; 308 pages; $19.95

Click. A son sits alone for hours at his mother's deathbed after she has died. What he later recalls most poignantly is the Band-Aid on her finger.

Click. A little boy, hating his older brother, lies in wait behind their bedroom door and strikes him so hard with a water carafe that it breaks. A gush of blood mingles with shattered glass.

Click. A world-famous director rehearses one of Strindberg's plays. Suddenly policemen appear in his theater to arrest him on charges of tax evasion. His bowels weaken and he must make a lengthy, humiliating trip to the water closet, with...

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