"WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS FLESH THAT COVERS ME THAT MAKES IT A PART OF EVERY TRANSACTION I CONDUCT?" In this compelling novel of race, class, and integrity, three characters confront the inevitable tensions that arise from living at the margins of the elite. Latin instructor Jerome Washington is a man out of place. The lone African-American teacher at the Chelsea School, an all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, he has championed the classical virtues of rigor and discipline since he was hired nearly two decades ago. Nicknamed "Wooden Washington" by his students, he has spent his career -- and his life -- at Chelsea trying not to appear too "racial": He is reserved, controlled, seemingly content with his isolated life. Into his classroom one autumn morning steps Rashid Bryson, a promising African-American student from New York City. He sees in Washington a potential ally, a man who is sure to understand the younger man's need to find his bearings in this citadel of the white status quo. But to Bryson's surprise and dismay, Washington responds un-expectedly to him. It is up to Jana Hansen, herself a newcomer to Chelsea, to come to Bryson's aid. A middle-aged white divorcée who used to teach public school in Cleveland, she is as foreign to the sylvan self-possession of the Chelsea School as Washington and Bryson are. As the three get to know one another, and as they struggle with their individual loss, they begin their journey toward an inevitable and ultimately tragic confrontation that is both painful and life-altering. Told from three different perspectives, The Fall of Rome explores powerful and timely issues as it unfolds inexorably, like the classical tragedies that were the glory of ancient civilizations. Adult/High School-Jerome teaches Latin at the Chelsea School, an elite Eastern boarding school for boys. He describes himself as "the only Negro on the faculty," and his love for classical civilization isolates him-but it also has taught him the discipline to wrest from the world, against all odds, this life that suits him so well. He is deeply committed to the institution's "values of order, decorum, rectitude," and disdainful of what he sees as the self-defeating attitude of many young blacks. Enter Rashid, a troubled but determined young African-American city boy. His imagination is captured by a Chelsea brochure's promise to "change the future"-but when he gets there, the school's WASP culture, and Jerome's hostility, keep him seriously off-balance. Jana, a new teacher, worked for many years in Cleveland's inner-city schools, where she always was the only white woman. She wants to help Rashid, and she and Jerome have a problematic sexual liaison. By the time the headmaster asks them all to recruit more "diverse" students, their lives are woven together in a complicated dynamic that reveals each character's deepest strengths and flaws. This moving story is told from their three perspectives in a simple, elegant, and graceful style. The book is easy to read yet resonates richly with many insights and issues that most readers should readily recognize and relate to. Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Delving deeply into issues of race and class, this novel by the author of an award-winning young adult work (Another Way To Dance) is told through the voices of three characters: classics teacher Jerome Washington and new student Rashid Bryson, both African American, and Jana Hansen, a white teacher newly arrived at the predominantly white boys' school in New England. Jana's attempts to connect the two African American men ultimately fail despite their common ground. Rashid initially hopes the impenetrable and lonely Washington might become his mentor, but he quickly discovers how the devotee of Roman civilization earned his nickname, "Wooden Washington." In a painful conclusion, Rashid also confronts Washington's self-hatred and his troubling attitudes regarding his own race. As in her previous book, about a young, black ballet dancer, Southgate wrestles admirably with a thorny topic. Recommended. Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Since the civil rights era, black Americans have had to struggle with new questions of identity involving the duality of their African American heritage. That conflict is dramatized by the three central characters in YA novelist Southgate's first adult book. At one extreme is Latin teacher Jerome Washington, the only black faculty member at a prestigious New England boarding school. Jerome is fully assimilated into white culture, but he hasn't had a real friend in years. Into his life enter Rashid Bryson, an intellectually curious but undereducated scholarship student, and a new white teacher, Jana, who, after burning out at inner-city schools, has returned to the affluence of her youth. The three change one another's lives forever, and Jerome is forced