Now hard to find complete issue of the New York Review of Books for 5 November 1998 is in very good condition. It includes:

An extended opening essay "He's the Top!" by the poet and writer Brad Leithauser on the life and work of composer Cole Porter, with some nice photos, including one of Porter with Truman Capote in 1955. This in review of William McBrien's biography of Porter. Includes a caricature of Porter by David Levine.

James Merrill's fine poem "Domestic Architecture." On the oblivious Ronald Reagan's tangled web of White House operators then immersed in the Iran/Contra Scandal, "denied at every level." Merrill hits the target: "Foul drafts and dragging feet...Haunt this house once white as a blank sheet," etc.

Hilary Mantel on new works by Alison Lurie (The Last Resort), Ann Beattie (Park City) and Anne Tyler (A Patchwork Planet).  

Robert Stone's longer essay in review of Philip Roth's I Married a Communist with a new caricature of Roth by David Levine. It's called "Waiting for Lefty."

Numerous other essays, reviews, letters, etc. Nice one. 64 pages.