NONFICTION - Oct. 6, 1991

LUCY & DESI by Warren G. Harris (Simon & Schuster: $22; 321 pp.). The author of “Gable & Lombard” and “Natalie & RJ” has this time bracketed his ampersand with two of the most beloved names in television situation comedy--Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, whose small-screen life together, as manic as it was, was nothing compared to their tumultuous off-screen marriage. They were an odd couple, a tough-minded girl from Upstate New York who’d been reared by one relative after another, and a young musician from a wealthy Cuban family, but when they were cast in a feature film together it was infatuation at first sight. Arguably, their career together made them more successful than either might have become alone: Ball had appeared in dozens of pictures before she graduated to B-movie leads, and Arnaz was still something of a novelty item, albeit a well-paid one. But as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo they captured a generation of TV viewers. Unfortunately, Harris is a better tidbit gatherer than he is a portrait painter. There is more sheer information packed into these pages than one could ask for, but he fails to shape it: He describes the lingering consequence of Lucy’s 1988 stroke in the same tone he uses to describe her youthful romantic flings.