KLEIN IS `ALL TOO' FOCUSED ON KENNEDYS' BODILY WOES.

Byline: Dick Lochte and Tom Nolan Special to the Daily News

As one of several current nook-and-cranny explorations of the lives of Mr. and Mrs. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Edward Klein's ``All Too Human'' seems the juiciest, at least in its audio adaptation (Simon & Schuster, three hours, abridged; $18). As read with professional decorum by the author, a former editor of The New York Times Magazine, it tells us of Jackie's defloration in a Paris elevator, Jack's well-publicized liaison with Marilyn Monroe, and both Jack and Jackie shooting speed in the White House, among other indiscretions. Evidence also is presented suggesting that, while Jackie may have been infatuated by Jack, at least at the outset of their romance, to him their marriage was mainly one of political necessity.

Though these often intriguing vignettes seem to lend credence to F. Scott Fitzgerald's thesis about the rich being different, they don't exactly support the book's title. Possibly this is why the author spends so much time delineating the couple's physical (i.e., human) problems.

Klein indicates that one of the purposes of his book is to give the Kennedy children an idea of what their parents were really like. By depicting a vain, spoiled, rather avaricious Jackie and a womanizing, cold-hearted, selfish Jack, he didn't do them any favors.

Unlike Klein, who had no acknowledged axes to grind with the Kennedys, political consultant Ed Rollins has written, with the assistance of Tom DeFrank, ``Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms,'' a memoir of his life in politics that is an almost pristine example of payback time. The audio abridgment (BDD Audio, six hours; $27.50), read by Rollins, gleefully roughs up a number of the folks who have paid for his services in the past. At the top of the list are Michael and Arianna Huffington and Ross Perot.

According to his musings, what really riles Rollins is when his advice goes unheeded. If only the Huffingtons had made a quick confession about their illegal nanny like he'd suggested, instead of trying to stonewall the press, the Republicans might have one more senator in Washington. If Perot had green-lighted his TV spots, maybe Clinton would be back home in Arkansas.

Rollins admits his own big failing is his fondness for opening his mouth at the wrong time. His slips of the lip have annoyed at least two presidents from his own party and probably have led to his decision to retire from politics. Of course, if he'd been the soul of discretion, we'd never have known it, for he wouldn't have written this entertaining book.

Joseph Wambaugh's novels may be getting funnier and funnier, but there is always enough bracing reality to remind us that we're not reading P.G. Wodehouse. In his latest, ``Floaters,'' a yarn built around a loony aristocrat's plan to fix the America's Cup races in this country's favor, there are truly hilarious accounts of the night-life attendant to the heralded event. But there are also grim descriptions of murder in its aftermath. In this long audio abridgment (BDD Audio, six hours; $22.95), read by the eminently capable Ron McLarty (``The Championship Season'' on Broadway, ``Spenser: For Hire'' on TV), the emphasis is on a nice hooker who makes a few mistakes, a scruffy vice cop with more heart than anyone supposes and the typical Wambaugh heroes, a couple of boozy lawmen, who tie the whole thing together, sort of.

If it's been awhile since you've read ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'' or even if it's not, by all means settle down with Garrison Keillor's adaptation and rendering of the Mark Twain classic (Penguin, three hours; $17.95). Keillor notes that in shortening the tale he kept ``the parts he loved as a boy - Huck's story, the big river at night, the boating of the raftsmen, the Duke and the Dauphin, the lynching and the feud.'' It all works wonderfully well due in no small part to Keilor's charming low-key way with a microphone.

``The West'' (Random House Audiobooks, four hours abridged; $24), written and read by Geoffrey C. Ward, is the audio abridgment of the companion book to the forthcoming PBS TV series, from the team that produced that network's ``The Civil War'' and ``Baseball.'' Judging from this tape, Ken Burns and company have another winner with their look at the settling of the American frontier. The four-hour audiobook, written and read by historian Ward, the series co-scriptwriter, whets the appetite for the video version to come. You can almost see the old faded photographs filling the screen and hear the plink of the banjo. But Ward's audio is impressive in its own right.

The Lewis and Clark expedition, the Texas revolution, the Gold Rush, the coming of the railroads, the cattle drives and the Indian wars are all touched upon; and famous figures such as Wild Bill Hickock, Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill are presented in fresh and realistic fashion. Ward proves a more than capable reader of his own involving text.

Deputy U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco made her audio debut a while back in the Otto Penzler collection ``Murder for Love: Murder for Men'' (Dove, six hours; $24.95). Elmore Leonard's ``Karen Makes Out'' was both a short story and a work in progress. It described the marshal's brief, benighted affair with a felon. The event is referenced in the audio adaptation of ``Out of Sight'' (BDD), six hours; $22.99), Leonard's newest novel, which finds the hapless Karen once again falling for the wrong guy. He's Jack Foley, a surprisingly honorable bank robber who, in this presentation at least, dominates the story. Much of his omnipresence comes from the narrator, Joe Mantegna, who is perfect casting for his role.

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Photo: In ``All Too Human,'' evidence suggests that, in the Kennedy relationship, while Jackie may have been infatuated by Jack, to him their marriage was mainly one of political necessity.