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SUNSET AND EVENING STAR by Sean O'Casey Kirkus Star

SUNSET AND EVENING STAR

By

Pub Date: Nov. 16th, 1954
Publisher: Macmillan

A toast held high to life- the past, the present, the future. ""Bad or good; right or wrong, O'Casey's always himself"" -- and that is how this reader feels. At 70, Ireland's greatest living dramatist is vocal as ever in his sixth volume of autobiography. You may disagree with his unorthodox political and religious credos; be moved to laughter and pity; exult with him; get fighting mad or just guffaw, but you are never bored. This volume starts with leaving New York after ""Juno and the Paycock"", and settling in Battersea, London. He shows us through his microscope his respectable, middleclass neighbors and their outmoded way of life. He expresses often and vehemently his views on education. There's a good chapter on the home life of the Shaws. Then Devon-and settling down to home life, more plays, his first volume of autobiography, and a chance to blaze away at the critics, the clergy, the theatre. Through the war years -- like a reluctant lover- he can't live with Ireland or leave her alone, and with V-Day, he hotly accuses Ireland of having grown prosperous and holier-than-thou behind closed doors. In excuse he acknowledges the half-million young Irish who slipped over to the fight, the strength of new voices in Ireland's prose and poetry. Everywhere he notes changes for the better. Exciting stuff, not only for the playgoer, litterateur, student of the Irish revival, but for all who like highly personal autobiography with plenty of punch.