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BOOK REVIEWS A shortcoming in Williams's bibliography is her neglect of material in certain major sources such as Black Masks and American Theatre, a puzzling oversight, especially because she lists these journals in her appendix. Both journals have highlighted works by such playwrights as Cheryl West, Anna Deavere Smith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Adrienne Kennedy and Regina Taylor. American Theatre has published plays by both Cleage and Parks. I was also disappointed by the omission of published works by such writers as West and Taylor. West's Before it Hits Home (1993 and 1996) and Jar the Floor (1992) are missing from the list, as are Taylor's Watermelon Rinds and In the Belly of the Beast (both 1995). Another exciting playwright, Shay Youngblood, who published two works prior to 1997 through Dramatists Publishers , Shaking the Mess Out of Misery and Talking Bones, is also absent from the collection. While most of the play descriptions are good, some are rather vague and warrant a stronger sense of content. For Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, of all the plays, Williams provides only a brief sentence. For Alice Childress's Wine in the Wilderness, Williams describes the character Tommy as a "streelwoman ," which is a rather misleading label for this admirdble chardcter. Perhaps the tenn "working-class woman" would have been more appropriate. Tommy is the spiritual catalyst and heroine in the play. Nevertheless, Contemporary African American Female Playwrights is an invaluable addition to the annals of theatre history resources. Despite the shortcomings, Williams has made a major contribution that will prove valuable to theatre scholars and those interested in African American women playwrights . Dana Williams, currently a PhD student, clearly has a bright future as a theatre scholar. KATHY A. PERKINS, UN IVERSITY OF ILLINOIS (URBANA) EDWARD L. SHAUGHNESSY. Down the Nights and Down rhe Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press 1996. Pp. 226. $28.95. The title of this book is a line from "The Hound of Heaven," Francis Thompson 's "profoundly Catholic poem" (30) often recited to friends by the young Eugene O'Neill in his cups, and taken by the author of this study as emblematic of an abiding Catholic sensibility in the apostate playwright. This might seem a bit stretched on Shaughnessy's part, leading one to expect the book to strive chauvinistically to establish O'Neill 's Catholicism as central to all he wrote. But Shaughnessy avoids that. In fact, one of his strong points is his objective stance towards Catholicism, the Catholic Church, and early twentieth -century Catholic intellectual thought as it applied to O'Neill's work and Book Reviews career. This is a mixed blessing, however, for in Shaughnessy's strength as an independent thinker - declining to argue a Catholic entity in O'Neill plays where little or none exists - lies a necessary limitation of this excellent book. More of that later. Pan One, "The Reluctant Apostate," deals with the young Eugene, his family , his Catholic upbringing and education - in a period when, Shaughnessy reminds us, the American Catholic church was to its followers"the very center and focus of life" (I) - and O'Neill's subsequent rejection of his religion. Shaughnessy here differentiates between Catholic sensibility - one's "personal response" - and Catholic ethos - "the spirit of an entire community" - in order to situate O'Neill, the individual anist, within Catholic tradition. In doing so, he introduces his main themes of sin, guilt and redemption in Catholicism, in O'Neill, and in O'Neill's work. The author then touches on O'Neill's lifelong adverse reception by most of the Catholic press, especially the leading Catholic newspapers and journals. Part One concludes with a brief consideration of The Great God Brown, Lazarus Laughed and Strange Interlude. Pan Two, "Catholic Sensibility and Thematic Development," takes the reader into the thematic heart of the book, dealing in lum with a dozen major O'Neill plays, including what Shaughnessy calls his lone "Catholic play," the seldom if ever produced Days Without End. Throughout, Shaughnessy's analyses of the plays are thoughtful, intelligent and convincing, although - a crucial point- quite often not in tenns of...

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