SEAN

This book by the wife of the famous Irish playwright is more a recording of their rather quiet life (where they lived, dealings with publishers) than either a memoir or portrait of the stubborn, withdrawn, not very appealing man with whom she spent 37 years of her life. Little insight is given to O'Casey's more distinguished friends such as Shaw or the critic George Nathan, or to the author -- an actress of beauty who married a man some twenty years older. She is obviously a woman of charm and intelligence who tantalizes but never reveals herself to the reader with statements of astounding matter-of-factness as the following: ""Bill had gone to sea; certainly I would have wanted to marry him if Lee (another lover) and Scan had not entered my life."" The most moving parts of the book are those about the loss of their son (leukemia) and her realization after Sean's death that the freedom she finally has is less attractive than it seemed from within the midst of their admittedly imperfect relationship.