Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Guare, John (Vol. 14) - Brendan Gill

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BRENDAN GILL

Much as we may enjoy [Guare's] plays from one line to the next, we almost always end by wondering what on earth they are intended to be about. Specifically, what is his latest work, "Bosoms and Neglect," about?… [Both] the ravaged bosom and the two species of neglect remain more like stated topics than developed themes…. Although the author is very good indeed at writing funny one-liners, and from time to time gives us one-liners that are, by calculation, not at all funny, the lines have a tendency to remain attached to him, and not to his characters. They are the exclamations of a mischievously self-delighting artist, and behind them we seem to hear, to our unease, a whispered "What a bright boy am I!"…

In the last few minutes of the play, something true and touching emerges: Why had Henny provided Scooper with such a miserable, unloving childhood? And just then the curtain falls. Horseman, pass by! (p. 83)

Brendan...

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1. Introduction
2. Edith Oliver
3. Harold Clurman
4. Stanley Kauffmann
5. Edith Oliver
6. Brendan Gill
7. Terry Curtis Fox
8. John Simon
9. Martin Gottfried
10. Copyright