DATE: Wednesday, November 19, 1997          TAG: 9711180055

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: BOOK REVIEW 

SOURCE: BY MARJORIE VALBRUN, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER 

                                            LENGTH:   93 lines

HILL'S LONG-AWAITED ACCOUNT OFFERS INSIGHT INTO CONFIRMATION HEARING

THE FIRST TIME we heard from Anita Hill, on Oct. 11, 1991, the unassuming law professor from Oklahoma captivated the nation with the shocking accusations that a Supreme Court nominee had sexually harassed her.

Her accusations against Clarence Thomas, now a Supreme Court justice, ignited a controversy that brought into full view what until then was a relatively obscure though widespread problem.

The reaction to Hill's charges by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose job was to determine Thomas' fitness for a seat on the court, revealed, by her account, the ugly side of race and sexual politics at high levels of government, the manipulation of power by the Washington establishment, and the perversion of the committee-hearing process.

The question asked then in conversations at bars, barber shops, on Sunday-morning talk shows, in family living rooms and college auditoriums was, ``Why?''

Why did Hill wait 10 years to go public about Thomas' actions? Why did she follow him from one federal government job to another, despite his behavior? Why did she never seek official redress or demand he stop? Why was she willing to place herself in such an unenviable position by testifying?

In ``Speaking Truth to Power,'' a smart and thoughtful if sometimes tediously slow attempt to address these questions and many others, Anita Hill finally gives content and perspective to what has now become known simply as the Hill-Thomas hearing.

``My world has been forever changed by the events that culminated in the Hill-Thomas hearing,'' she writes in the introduction. ``I am no longer an anonymous, private individual . . . To my supporters I represent the courage to come forward and disclose a painful truth - a courage which thousands of others have found since the hearing. To my detractors, I represent the debasement of a public forum, at best, a pawn, at worst a perjurer. . . . But I am no longer content to leave the assessment to others. . . . ''

Today with sexual harassment claims so common as to almost be cliched (if not for the seriousness of the accusations), ``Speaking Truth to Power'' is timely.

Part memoir, part historical journal and part introductory law class, the book recounts every detail about the hearing, including how Hill became involved, how the hearing was run without following accepted procedures, and how back-room political maneuverings undermined the process.

We learn about Hill's life before her name became synonymous with sexual harassment, when she was little Anita Faye Hill, a bright, studious child whose life, like that of her 12 siblings, revolved around home and church. She was part of a poor but loving farm family in Lone Tree, Okla., living on a dirt road in an unpainted shack covered with tar paper.

As the youngest child, Hill was spoiled and nurtured by her older siblings and her parents, Erma and Albert, whose belief in the importance of education was not lost on Anita. She ended up at the top of her high school class and eventually graduated from Yale law school.

She explains her relationship with Thomas, how they met and eventually worked together, and without glossing over the ugly details, the extent of the harassment - which, she maintains, included graphic descriptions by Thomas of pornographic movies he watched. She tells how she put up with Thomas' behavior, never filing a formal complaint or lawsuit and following him, as his legal assistant from the Department of Education to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - thereby unwittingly damaging the credibility of the account she would give the Judiciary Committee years later.

She admits her naivete as a young lawyer working for Thomas at age 25 and also when, at age 35, she agreed to testify at the hearing, not fully grasping that she would be at the center of a whirlwind of heated debate across the country.

The book moves slowly until the fifth chapter, which details the drama of the nomination.

Throughout, Hill explains - sometimes in boring but always insightful fashion - matters of law, citing cases and putting them into context within the framework of the hearing. Some of the stuff is repetitive but most of it is interesting.

Hill ends the book with an ``Open Letter to the 1991 Senate Judiciary Committee,'' which is part legal primer, part lawyerly tongue lashing. In the nine-page missive, she runs down for the committee members, in excruciating legalistic detail, how her hearing should have been held in a manner that befitted a congressional hearing and not a political circus aimed at discrediting her, trivializing sexual harassment claims, misinforming the American public and masking racist, sexist attitudes.

But in the end, we learn that her letter is not about legal procedure, but about the emotional and professional hurt she suffered in the aftermath of the hearings. It is in essence her need to be acknowledged by the men whose innuendo-laced questioning seven years ago almost robbed her of her dignity.

Perhaps, Hill has not completely gotten over her political naivete after all. ILLUSTRATION: BOOK REVIEW

``Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned''

Author: Brian Moynahan

Publisher: Random House. 400 pp.

Price: $30

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