August Wilson's twentieth-century cycle plays A reader's companion

The work of August Wilson undoubtedly stands with the most influential American drama of the past century. The present slim volume provides a succinct, informative introduction to Wilson's signature achievement, the ten-play cycle Sternlicht (emer., Syracuse Univ.) rightly apostrophizes as "an artistic monument to African American life in the twentieth century." Each chapter discusses one play, providing a fact sheet of relevant African American history; a consideration of the play's contexts, themes, and characters; and a summation. Sternlicht bookends everything with a cursory biographical essay, an introduction to the cycle, and a conclusion. However, the tone is largely adulatory rather than analytical, the book lacks footnotes, the bibliography is not up-to-date, and there are some factual errors (e.g., the play Sizwe Bansi is by Athol Fugard, not Wilson). Still Sternlicht's book is serviceable as a quick primer of Wilson's chief works or as a guide to viewing a Wilson production. Those looking for original research should consult more scholarly sources. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates; general readers. --Ralf Remshardt, University of Florida