Pinter at Sixty ed. by Katherine H. Burkman and John L. Kundert-Gibbs (review)

Book Reviews 429 efforts - either implicitly or explicitly 'challenge Weales's position. What results is a realization that the shifting landscape of Shepard's an deserves a willingness to accept the value of shifting perspectives, that the logic whereby artistic development means improvement is neither whoJly true nor wholly false. Another example of implicit disagreement leading almost paradoxically to greater understanding involveS two essays addressing the fonnal considerations of Shepard's later works. Lyons's essay on Shepard's ironic manipulations of realism - focusing on the traditional realist convention of the kindermord (which he very adeptly summarizes) - is impressive. But so is Grace's essay on Shepard's debt to expressionism, especially considering the fact that she focuses on Shepard's realist plays to make her case. Lest the title, Rereading Shepard, mislead, this volume is anything but a volume dedicated to readings of Shepard's canon. With very few exceptions, the essays speak to the matter of staging Shepard. Carroll's essay on "potential perfonnance texts" demonstrates the value of utilizing a director's eye when engaging in literary analysis, and the value of possessing literary skills when working to mount a production. Likewise, McCarthy argues that Shepard is "an artist concerned with ways of seeing and being within theatrical space and time" (58). and then he proceeds to demonstrate how thematics directly reflect ·upon performance strategies. Ann C. Hall, Susan Bennett, and Jane Ann Crum collectively concentrate on an issue that has become central to Shepard scholarship in the last few years: Shepard's repeated privileging of male characters at the oppressive expense of his female characters. Hall's Lacanian reading of Fool for Love, Bennett's "'Other' Audience" study, and Crum's analysis of A Lie ofthe Mind are all true to the spirit of this volume, providing at times mutually supporting points while at others taking up contradictory positions. LondrC's essay on Shepard's use of motel rooms as a metaphor for the outer edges of consciousness that his current works occupy concludes a volume that is a solid and valuable addition to Shepard scholarship·. WlL.LJAM w. DEMASrns, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BATON ROUOE KATIlERINE H. BURKMAN and JOHN L . KUNDERT-omBS, eds. Pinter at Sixty. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press 1993. Pp. xvii, 219, illustrated. $35.00; $14.95 (PB). This is a somewhat depressing book. Readin·g it all the way through - and it is difficult to imagine anyone's doing so except a reviewer who had made an incautious commitment - suggests that Pinter studies in academia are showing signs of spiritual fatigue. Of course it may fairly be argued that a substantial collection of essays on a variety of topics should not be swallowed at a gulp but dipped into and savored as the reader's tastes direct. Well and good. But for a longtime devote of Pinter to read through eighteen essays and find that they range from the downright annoying to the merely acceptable seems to tell one that picking and choosing will not help. It may be that the 430 Book Reviews circumstances that generated these essays explain something of their character. This volume is not a culling of the best published Pinier essays of recent years but is a selection of papers read by Pinterians to each other at a large-scale conference at Ohio State commemorating the playwright's sixtieth birthday. Another factor that has inevitably detennined something of the character and quality of the book is the evident decision to focus on the later, and thus as it happens lesser, work. Except in passing there are few references here to The Birthday Party, The Caretaker , or The Homecoming. Instead we get a good deal of well-intentioned commentary on subjects of secondary interest: Pint~r's work as a screenwriter, Pinter's relations to other literary figures, Pinter's politics. (It is comforting to know that Pinler disapproves of torture and brainwashing as much as the rest of us, but we do not seek out his work because he is an earnest, liberal man. His conscience is not the source of his greatness.) Of course, in my disappointment I am overstating the case. Along with...