You Can Go Home Again: The Focus on Family in the Works of Horton Foote by Rebecca Luttrell Briley (review)

370 Book Reviews make up Part Four on canonical issues. Gerhard Bach's essay centrally critiques the ideology of canon formation and, in particular, theatre history's mythologisation of the beginnings of American drama, deconstructing, for example, the cherished myth of Eugene O'Neill, Glaspell's contemporary, as the man who was "single·handedly" responsible forlhose beginnings (243). The companion essay in this section by Judith E. Barlow offers a wealth of detail concerning GJaspell's "sister" playwrights at the Provincetown Players. The final two essays concerned with Glaspell's fiction look at her collection of short stories. Lifted Masks, and a representative range of her novels from different phases .of her writing career. The volume brings together a cross-section of contributors, coming from a range of disciplines and representing both beginning and established scholars. The study is likely to appeal to a wide-ranging readership, including those interested in theatre studies,American studies, and women's studies. What the collection leaves out, or perhaps what it cannot hope to cover in one volume, is more detail regarding Glaspell's contributions 10 theatre other than her playwriting - her work, for example, as a perfonner and director , or her ideas for design, and so on. Moreover, I was struck by the way in which a number of the essays use Christine Dymkowski's 1988 essay ("On the Edge") as a seminal reference point. which at flrst made me wonder at it not being included in this volume, and, in consequence, raised the question of a transatlantic, cross-fertilisation of ideas that might further Glaspell scholarship. As Ben-Zvi argues in the editorial to her volume, the "book is a beginning" that should "ftrmly establish the signiftcance of Susan Glaspell in American letters," at the same time indexing "the need for more studies of her writings" (10-1 I). By the time this review appears in print, the international Glaspell conference scheduled for May 1996 at the University of Glasgow (UK), which promises to bring together American and British scholars and to offer a theory/practice focus for the plays, will have taken place. Perhaps, as Ben-Zvi advocates, this conference may occasion further publishing of international scholarship on Glaspell. ELAINE ASTON, U" NIVERSITY OF LOUGH BOROUGH, UK REBECCA LUTTRELL BRILEY. You Can Go Home Again: The Focus on Family in the Works ofHorton Foote. New York: Peter Lang, 1993· Pp. 205· $43.95. This critical study is the Erst published volume on the works of Horton Foote, winner of the PulitZer Prize for Drama in 1995 for his play The Young Man from Atlanta (1995). Known as the recipient of Academy Awards for The Trip 10 Bountiful (1985), To Kill a Mockingbir.d (1962), and Tender Mercies (1983), he has not been adequately recognized for his long career as an important writer of works for theatre, television, and film. This thematic study, drawing on most of Foote's published works, the available but skimpy criticism, and a few personal contacts, is the first to be published of three dissertations on Foote. It should make the academic and theatrical worlds sit up and take due notice of Horton Foote, a name to be reckoned with. Book Reviews 371 This book proves convincingly some important interpretations, not previously articulated . Foote's main purpose, Briley argues, unabashedly has been to present the record of his own family. but, it becomes evident, that aim broadens to include all families and thus becomes universal in implication. The Orphnns' Home Cycle (wriuen 1974-1977. published 1987-1989) highlights not only the semi-orphan state or Horace Robedaux, but that of many olhers aisp who are either semi-orphaned in this era of single parent families or emotionally orphaned by the effective absence of a neglectful father. According to Briley's thesis, the predominant theme in Foote's works is the centrality of the father-son relationship - the effect of a loving father-son bond on the future happiness of a child. Though Briley covers father-daughter relationships as well, the fanner prevails according to this critic's cogent argument. Briley's viewpoint enables her to shed much light on works not su~ficiently understood by critics...