Writing Wrongs
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Overview
Writing Wrongs: The Work of Wallace Shawn is a close and personal look into the life and literary work of the man whom Joseph Papp called "a dangerous writer." As the son of the late William Shawn, renowned editor of the New Yorker, Wallace Shawn was born into privilege and trained to thoroughly liberal values, but his plays relentlessly question the liberal faith in individualism and common decency. W. D. King's incisive critiques of the plays and inquiry into the life and times of their author develop a portrait of Shawn as a major figure in contemporary theater.Synopsis
Writing Wrongs: The Work of Wallace Shawn is a close and personal look into the life and literary work of the man whom Joseph Papp called "a dangerous writer." As the son of the late William Shawn, renowned editor of the New Yorker, Wallace Shawn was born into privilege and trained to thoroughly liberal values, but his plays relentlessly question the liberal faith in individualism and common decency. W. D. King's incisive critiques of the plays and inquiry into the life and times of their author develop a portrait of Shawn as a major figure in contemporary theater.
Library Journal
Many know Shawn's face from annual appearances on Murphy Brown, but theater and film aficionados know Shawn as the creator of some of the most thought-provoking works of the last two decades, particularly the plays Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Designated Mourner and the films My Dinner with Andr and Vanya on 42nd Street. In this incisive and absorbing study of a fascinating man and his work, King incorporates a perceptive and full analysis of each of Shawn's works with interviews with Shawn and those who know him and extraordinarily revealing telephone answering-machine tapes. The reader can see why King won the Joe D. Callaway Prize for the best book on theater for Henry Irving's "Waterloo" (Univ. of California, 1993), and one may be seized by the burning desire to rent My Dinner with Andr after reading this engaging work. Recommended for all large public and academic libraries, especially those with theater holdings.Susan L. Peters, Emory Univ. Lib., Atlanta, Ga.