Briefly noted.(four books)(Brief Article)

Tests of Time, by William H. Gass (Knopf; $25). In this collection of fourteen essays, Gass ranges widely across the cultural landscape, offering appreciations of Italo Calvino and Peter Handke, a keen interrogation of the idea of the masterpiece, and a whimsical look at the virtues and vices of lists. Throughout, he keeps returning to what has always been his main theme: the primacy of aesthetic experience. For him, literature matters not because it may be socially or politically valuable but because a well-made fiction is a good in and of itself: "Even a wasted bit of life is priceless when composed properly or hymned aright." The collection goes astray during its middle third, which is devoted to political essays featuring warmed-over tirades against the vulgarities of modern culture and the oppressiveness of censorship. Gass is more convincing when he writes about the things he loves, and shows us the way fiction fashions a realm where we recognize that "our longings are real, if what they long for isn't."

The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America, by Gus Russo (Bloomsbury; $35). Despite the grandiose subtitle, this thick volume is a valuable addition to accounts of organized crime in America. Russo, an investigative reporter, pries open the history of the Mob in Chicago, led by Tony Accardo (known as Joe Batters) and his lieutenants Murray Humphreys (known variously as Curly and the Camel), Paul Ricca (the Waiter), and Johnny Rosselli. Showing a corporate mind-set designed to preserve the legacy of more famous gangsters like Al Capone and Frank Nitti, the foursome reigned over Chicago crime for decades. The tales of corruption and violence have a familiar scent -- a political payoff here, a midnight hit there -- but Russo manages his plots and subplots admirably, and he isn't shy about letting readers know ...