ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601300120
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY DABNEY STUART
JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE: A Biography. David M. Kiely. St. Martin's Press. $23.95.
David M. Kiely's biography of Irish playwright J.M. Synge (1879-1909) is, according to the jacket notes, intended to "re-establish Synge in the hearts of a new generation." As such, the volume is a knitting together of previous biographies and studies of Synge. Kiely accomplishes this with skill and perspective, nicely balancing discussions of both Synge's life and his work.
Kiely assumes a certain familiarity with the period of the institution of the Irish National Theater, with its other two primary supports, W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, and with the general context of Irish nationalism. Some of the more notorious aspects of Synge's career - most notably the riots that surrounded the early performances of "The Playboy of the Western World" - are only sketchily referred to. Any reader not conversant with these matters can, one assumes, find them thoroughly presented in the previous studies on which Kiely's research depends. A bibliography follows the text.
The advantage of such a book is its focus, economy and perspective. The irony that develops alongside this strength is that Synge becomes a more distant figure, partly because of his own tendency toward self disguise. The volume, in fact, dramatizes other ironies. Synge sought to bring Irish speech, and the Irish peasantry, into the foreground through his plays; he was, however, castigated by most critics of his time for his European sophistication. Many called him a traitor of the Nationalistic cause. Further, Synge is usually identified by his connection to the Aran Islands and, less frequently, County Mayo. Kiely reminds us how widely traveled Synge was, spending more time in Paris and Koblenze than he did in any of the Irish localities where he set his plays.
Perhaps the oddest outcome of this book is the questionable effectiveness of the whole project of the Abbey Theater. Because of the detailed presentation of its difficulties and severely qualified successes, one feels how insular and tentative its activities were. Time has performed its shrinking act once again. The limited part of himself Synge showed to the participants also contributes to this impression of enclosure. Finally, for all its gemlike, intense radiance, Synge's output was relatively small.
I consider these facets of the book as positive achievements. They are embodied, much as a novelist might embody them, before Kiely articulates the idea that has informed them: "Synge's peasant communities were already an anachronism when he celebrated them in his drama. Now they are history, folklore."
Some of the details of Synge's life, however, remain in Kiely's hands, very much alive, and contemporary. Synge's paradoxical relationship to his mother receives marvelous, concentrated attention. So do his attraction to women and the generally frustrating relationships with all of them except the last, Molly Allgood, itself no smooth sail. One recognizes again how short Synge's life was, and, more poignantly, how brief his career as a writer - 10 years, roughly, with only the last three of them bringing him acclaim. Perhaps the saddest sentence in the biography refers to his mother and brothers: "None of the Synges ever visited a theater."
What distinguishes this interesting book is its final chapter, in which Kiely brings his perspective up to date, including some data about the current state of tourism on the Aran Islands, brought on, of course, by Synge's fame. He also sets Synge's work in the larger continuity of Irish drama, seeing Synge's modern characteristics passed on in the work of Sean O'Casey and Samuel Beckett. Most importantly, he presents Synge himself as a many-faceted, complex person, not the silent, morose figure he has become through the lenses of W.B. Yeats' memory.
Synge died of Hodgkin's disease, which had plagued him undiagnosed for many years, at the age of 38.
Dabney Stuart's most recent book is "Light Years: New and Selected Poems."
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Irish playwright John Millington Synge.|by CNB