NON FICTION

ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE by Michael York ( Simon & Schuster : $22; 416 pp.). This road map of actor Michael York’s life is testament to a rather astonishing memory, as he dishes up one crystal-clear anecdote after another, from his childhood through the world tour that has been his film and stage career. York seems to be one of those fellows who believes that God is in the details. It is impossible not to flip directly to the chapter about a favorite film, just to see what he has to say. In my case, it was “Cabaret,” Bob Fosse’s slick, dark musical about Sally Bowles’ life as a singer in a German nightclub. York played the supporting role of Bowles’ friend and lover, the bisexual Brian Roberts, despite his agent’s warning that the character was just the sort of passive, literate Brit that York had played before, and did not want to play again. His memories of his own reaction when he arrived on location--the part, as written, confirmed his agent’s dire prediction, and had it not been for the director’s willingness to revise, York would have been miserable--are refreshingly clear and frank. What is missing, frustratingly, is an equal descriptive ability when it comes to the supporting cast in his personal drama. York was surrounded by a handful of fascinating, volatile talents, including Fosse, Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, who played the club’s master of ceremonies with sophisticated malice. They are reduced, here, to a few insufficient references; would that York had been as careful in depicting them as he was in communicating his own reaction to them.