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BOOK REVIEWS 465 The point of the foregoing carpings is simply that the end product, the truncated fragment of a book which is by now cruelly out of date and misleadingly subtitled, is greatly unfair to the author, who, within the context in which he was originally cOIJlmissioned and at the time he wrote his book, produced a very workmanlik,e analysis of the plays of a fascinating and important young author. There are, of course, points which one can criticize: very little is said by Hern about Handke's Austrian, apd specifically Carinthian, background which, to anyone familiar with it, shin~s through even his most abstract work, both in the colour of the language which is full of regional allusions and in the cultural assumptions about rules and regulations and respectable good manners which underlie it. For example: Hern says that the word Einsager which Handke uses for the voices that indoctrinate Kaspar in the play of that title is "a made-up word" (pp. 61-2). Anyone who has gone to school in Austria could tell him that Einsager is Austrian schoolboy slang for someone who helps his friend during an examination by whispering the correct answer under his breath. The method of taking one play after another also has its drawbacks: there are repeated references to Wittgenstein, the occasional one to Michel Foucault, but the precise position H.andke occupies in relation to modern structuralist and analytical philosophy could have been far more effectively spelt out if the ideological and philosophical background to Handke and the Vienna and Graz circles of young av~ntgardists had been more systematically sketched in at the beginning. Far from being a wilful and deviant enfant terrible Handke is an exceedingly typical representative of the thinking of his whole generation in the German-speaking world. To sum up: as a publishing enterprise this book - and not only its price, five dollars for barely more thana hundred pages! - is a monstrosity. As a work of exegesis of a difficult but important author (or rather a somewhat random selection of his most important works) it can be very useful. t • MARTIN ESSLIN British Broadcasting Corporation , CONVERSATION WITH EUGENE IONESCO LAURE RIESE (Translation: for French ·original, see page 347) LEISURED CONVERSATION WITH AN AUTHOR SUCH AS IONESCO can only be an enrichment and a rediscovery. He has brought a new light and a depth to the questions which I posed, allowing a rather different approach to his plays, and giving them so to speak a personal colouring. Many problems have been elucidated through his responses, and he has widened and deepened my vision of his theatre. One feels that his work is the result of a desperate striving 466 BOOK REVIEWS towards his truth, even though he may often dissemble it beneath a playful tone. Nevertheless, he is adept at giving all of his perceptions a finely focused attention. He likes to know what questions will be asked of him in advance in order to frame clear replies. Nicely settled in his study, under numerous sketches and sculptures of rhinoceri, we find ourselves face to face. L. R. Was it by design that you began your theatrical career with plays in one act, then in two and three? 1. I first wrote The Bald Soprano in one act because I felt that as an attack on the theatre it could extend itself no further. It was a game, a kind of parody of boulevard theatre. I wondered if it constituted a real play or quite simply a fraud. In 1948-49 I read it to one of my friends, who assured me that it was a real play. After having read Raymond Queneau's exercises in style, I too agreed it was a play. I presented it to Grasset, the editor, who is still living; he read it and told me it would never be produced. He was mistaken; it's played everywhere. It has invaded colleges and universities, and has become international. After it was produced, I wanted to write others. I have always thought and still think that a play should only have one act, short or long. Intervals are interruptions which...

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