Essays by Wallace Shawn

I got this as a Christmas present from my lovely girlfriend so I felt like I should write a review, just to show how much the gift has gotten in my head.

Wallace Shawn is a name whose face and nasally voice is likely very familiar to us to the point that whenever he shows up in some movie or TV show we all say, "Hey, its that guy, you know, [insert role and movie he was in]!" Before reading this I didn't realize that his most interesting reasons for being known were in his own writings as a playwright and essayist. This role as a New York creative type is given voice in his book Essays.

A compilation of fifteen previously published works including two interviews, dating from 1985 but mostly writing in the early part of the 2000s, the book is broken into two parts. In part one, Reality, Shawn is trying to come to terms with the end of the American century and his feelings on his own affluence. Both thoughts mingle together to the point of eventually becoming one as in the book's third essay "Morality." The second part, Dream-World, questions just how and why we access art in this day and age. While less seemingly focused compared to the first part these last few essays provide the breadcrumbs of thoughts that if reflected on will lead us into a deep thicket of the mind that Shawn seems content to frolic in.

The book is kind of a downer, overall. It would be hard for me to like Shawn if I did not already relate to him in some way. He is not afraid to bring up (albeit in a tame way) the suffering in Africa or the Middle East. It is a quick read, however, that I will likely pick up again from time to time knowing that I will likely find something new.