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Title: From the Left Bank: Reflections on the Modern French Theater and Novel by Tom Bishop ISBN: 0-8147-1260-6 Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: February, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: Totally entertaining
Comment: For the most part, I sincerely liked this book for its clear style of writing -- meaning the author took time to carefully explain like a long-time professor, experienced with the amount required to impart knowledge to learners. This technique of saying something in different ways (of mixing an unknown term with familiar language in a sentence) enabled one to easily glean the meaning.

Besides the writing style the content on modern French theater and the 'new novel' derived from the author's published essays and interviews, which presented a genial introduction to the topic, interpreting the plots of modern French writings. In actuality, this seeming ease sometimes seemed like a person with a lot to say culling the best highlights for a general reader. Scholars might find this book too fundamental, but for the public reader with less access to these plays, in particular to their staging, these essays provided an expanded 'Cliff's notes' with a more friendly tone. Several photographs from the author's personal collection show the writers whose writings provide the focus in the book.

The book's largest portion went to the modern French theater beginning with Pirandello, Giraudoux, Cocteau, Anouilh, Barrault, Ionesco, Genet, Tilly, Sartre, and Beckett. The 'New Novelists' included Simon, Pinget, Sollers, and Robbe-Grillet. Besides the author's essays, for some writers the author presents an interview. Many of the writers receive specially written introductory pages, and a 'Beginnings' chapter tells the author's biography, which begins in Austria, moving to Paris and to America in time to flee from the occupation of France with delightful childhood stories forming the sweet nougat with those facts.

Of the many memorable chapters Sartre's NO EXIT (HUIS CLOS)highlighted the author's ability to clarify that example of experimental theatre for me. An interpretation of Robbe-Grillet's geography also interested me. The author included so many good highlights, choosing one would take considerable time.