Sam Shepard and the American Theatre

Everyone seems to understand a piece of Sam Shepard--macho movie actor, off-Broadway revolutionary, reclusive horse breeder, Dean of American Playwrights--but assembling these personas into a coherent individual would daunt the bravest of biographers. Leslie A. Wade, a University of Louisiana associate theater professor, strives to chart Shepard's obsessions and writing phases and to put them in context, both with Shepard's personal life and with the America he supposedly embodies. Wade's dry style sometimes poorly serves the passionate subject matter, but he provides new Shepard fans with perspective and plot summaries that are superior to all previous efforts. The full-blooded Shepard biography is still waiting to be written, but this vigorous attempt may well serve as its outline.