monday, dscember 1, 1975
page 8
daily nebraskan
QftS &
up& coming ' W'
, , ,
W.J
William 's memoirs add
insight dramas omitted
On Campus
Art
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery- 12th & R- Water
colon by W.M. Dickerson through Dec. 8;
Christmas Fair through JDac. 24.
Film
Sheldon Film Theater- 12th & R- (Classic Silent
Films) General, Copt and One Week- Fri. and
Sat.-3, 7 and 9 p.m.
Student Union- 14th & R- (Foreign Films) Mid
dle of the World- Tues., Wed. and Thurs.-
7 and 9:15 p.m.
Music
Kimball Recital- 11th & R- Karl Ravnan cello
recital- Mon.- 8 p.m.; Faculty String Quartet-
Tues.- 8 p.m.; Marching Band- Thurs.-
8 p.m.; Student Chamber Music- Fri.- 8 p.m.
Student Union- 14th & R- Keith Jarrett Quartet-Sat.-
8 p.m.; Coliseum- 12th & Vine- Messiah-Sun.-8
p.m.
Theater
Howell Memorial Theater- 12th & R- The Cru-clble-
Fri. end Sat- 8 p.m.
Book review by Bill Roberts
Memoirs, by Tennessee WilliamsDouble
day & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York
,$8.95
When one of America's literary giants
writes his memoirs, it's bound to be of
some interest. The peculiar worth of Ten
nessee Williams' Memoirs is that it is a dem
onstration of the great dramatist's artistic
methods.
Memoirs is lengthy, uneven in style and
tone, and jumps back and forth from past
to present. It is the entire body of his full
life, with all the extra skin and hair intact.
This is in contrast to his plays, where
Williams sliced away the unnecessary flesh
of life and works with the muscles and
bones of emotions. The plays, after reading
Memoirs, seem like a distillation, a rewrite
job, of his passionate life.
For example, he drew on his close rela
tionship with his mentally ill sister, Miss
Rose, for the character of Laura in The
Glass Menagerie. But he did it as a dramatic
artist, not a biographer.
' v "Laura of Menagerie, n he explains, "was
like Miss Rose only in her inescapable 'dif
ference,' which that old female bobcat
Amanda would not believe existed."
As the story of a famous person's life,
Memoirs, with help from 144 photographs,
is satisfactory. Williams was ence intro
duced, by Ernest Hemingway, to Cuban
Premier Fidel Castro, and there are anec
dotes about Tallulah Bankhead, Gore
Art gallery
offers films
of Keaton
Vidal, Elia Kazan and others.
Williams tells about his drug and alcohol
bouts in the 60s, which he lost and which
eventually caused him to be hsopitalized.
He writes that he changes his name from
Thomas Lanier Williams in honor of his
paternal grandfather, who tried and failed
to be elected governor of Tennessee.
Williams is frank to the point of boring
the reader about his homosexual love life.
Except for one 14-year affair, the play
wright was promiscuous, and just to give
his significant encounters fair mention
takes up considerable space.
With all the evidence of his sexual pref
erences, the strong heterosexuality in his
early plays becomes even more remarkable.
Of course, to some extent the social cli
mate of the 40s and 50s made the more
conventional treatment of sexuality
necessary.
But one cannot say that the author of
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof sold out. In all his
work he was dedicated to honesty.
Memoirs rounds out the truth of his plays
and fiction, and helps the reader appreciate
Williams accomplishments.
"What is in these memoirs,'' Williams
writes, "is mostly the barest periphery of
that which is my intense life, for my in
tense life is my work."
Photo courtesy of Sheldon Film
The Foreign Film Series will present the
1974 Swiss production, The Middle of the
World, Tuesday-Thursday at 7 and 9:15
pjn. in the Nebraska Union Auditorium.
The Middle of the World charts the day-by-day
progress of a summertime affair be
tween a free-spirited Italian waitress and a
regimented Swiss politician.
Sheldon's Classic Silent Film Series this
week features the films of comedianactor,
Buster Keaton: The General, Cops and One
Tfvtatre
Week.
The General spoofs the espionage tactics
during the Civil War. As both director and
actor, Keaton's efforts are considered class
ical by many film histrians.
The Cops finds Keaton the innocent
perpetrator of mass chaos within a police
department.
The General, Cops and One Week wUl
be screened on Friday and Saturday at 3,
7and9pjn.
Ragtime
still selling
Below are best sellers this week in
Lincoln.
Fiction:
1. The Greek Treasure, Stone
2. Ragtime, Doctorow
3. Beyond the Bedroom Wall,
Woiwode
4. Choirboys, Wambaugh
5. The Eagle Has Landed, Higgins
Non-fiction:
1. Vie Relaxation Response, Benson
2. The Peoples Almanac, Wallen
chinsky 3. The Doonesbury Chronicles,
Trudeau
4. Angels, Graham
5. Money, Galbraith
List compiled from the five best
selling books at B. Dal ton, The Neb
raska Bookstore and Miller and Paine.
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