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490 BOOK REVIEWS drama as a genre. Watson's research, the culmination of over twenty years of publishing in this area, is impressive, as his extensive notes and bibliography suggest. He ranges widely, situating Southern drama in the context of other dramatists (Ibsen, Shaw, O'Neill, Odets, Miller, etc.) and American literature as a whole. His style is clear, readable and engaging. In his preface Watson writes, in his usual forthright manner, "If my readers learn new names, I will be gratified" (x). It is safe to say they will learn many new names, and more. The History ofSouthern Drama provides a much-needed overview for anyone wanting to survey the field and will doubtless serve both as a reference book and a jumping-off point for scholars in the years to come. LAURIN PORTER, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON LESLIE A. WADE. Sam Shepard and the American Theatre. Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies, Number 76. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1997ยท Pp. 208. $59.95; $22.95, paperback. STEPHEN J. BOTTOMS. The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis. Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama, Number 9. New York: Cambridge University Press 1997. Pp. 301. $59.95; $18.95, paperback. These are two very different books written for very different audiences. Originally part of the Greenwood Press series Lives of the Theatre, Wade's text is intended for "use in college and university courses." Appropriately, then, the study is introductory and has a strong biographical emphasis. The eight chapters trace Shepard's work chronologically in an attempt 10 place the "life and art" in cultural and historical context and to demonstrate how the counter-culture young playwright grew into his canonical position as "America's preeminent living dramatist" (157). Undergraduates with no knowledge of Shepard, his plays, or the culture of the United States from the sixlies through much of the nineties will find the narrative extremely easy to follow. The notes listed at the end of each chapter are quite thorough and will lead students to most of the major studies of Shepard's work to date. The Chronology, Further Reading list, and the Index all provide easy access to discussions of individual plays, significant moments in Shepard's life and the major historical events and trends that inform the plays. Much of the background information discussing the cold-war era, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the McCarthy controversy, counter-culture NYC, Off-Broadway, Julian Beck's Living Theatre and the like, is perhaps too cursory even for the target audience. More helpful are the descriptions of lesser-known early plays such as Dog and Rocking Chair. Yet even here, Wade sees these plays primarily as texts in cultural contexts, giving short shrift to theoretical issues or production values. Book Reviews 491 Wade's discussions of the plays seldom go beyond plot summary, autobiographical parallels and relation of theme to American sociopolitical trends. He recognizes Shepard's iconic standing as "American Hero" in films such as The Right Stuff and Country, but he follows Ihe lead of too many previous studies of Shepard's plays, falling into the trap of to~ closely identifying Shepard with his characters. Certainly it is too simplistic to see characters such as Rabbit in Angel City and Wesley in Curse of the Starving Class as Shepard "doppelgangers." Trying to explain Shepard's growing fame during the 1980s as heir to O'Neill, Williams and Miller, he recognizes that the playwright shows more control over his themes and develops characters further than he did in the early plays, but he suggests that a major reason for Shepard 's success in this period is "the Reagan revolution." We learn that "the same public concerns that propelled Reagan to the White House may have contributed to Shepard's success as a dramatist" (131). What he is getting at here is that both Reagan and Shepard attack the shortcomings of the present while stirring longings "for a bucolic American past, free from government intrusion and the ills of modernity." It's easy enough to agree about the shortcomings of American society, but surely Shepard recognizes in plays such as Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child...

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