THE POLITICS OF SILENCE by Paul...

THE POLITICS OF SILENCE by Paul Monette (The Center for the Book, The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540-8200: $3.95 (tax deductible); 21 pp., illustrated). In this handsomely bound transcription of the lecture he delivered after winning the National Book Award for “Becoming a Man,” Monette asserts, “It is simply not enough to be an artist, unengaged.” He decries injustice and the policies of the Reagan-Bush administration that allowed the AIDS virus to spread: A defiant valedictory from an author who refuses to go gentle into that dark night.