Michael Malone is the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he is now a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.
A play about Sir Walter Raleigh written by Theo Ryan, literature professor at a small North Carolina college, seems an unlikely vehicle to be at the heart of this very entertaining novel about campus politics, forgery, the American theater, and British aristocracy. In his meandering but pleasant style ( Time's Witness , Little, Brown, 1989; Handling Sin , LJ 4/15/86), Malone weaves a plot filled with wonderful characters, from garrulous playwright Ford Rexford, who has come to the North Carolina hills to dry out; to Ryan's parents, theater troopers to the end; to Dame Winifred Throckmorton, an eccentric Elizabethan scholar whose driving and teaching skills are legendary. The play does eventually go on, as it must, and the trip to the first curtain makes for enjoyable reading. Highly recommended for all general fiction collections.-- C. Christopher Pavek, National Economic Research Assocs. Lib., Washington, D.C.
YA-- Embarrassed by his past, Theo Ryan, professor of Renaissance drama, tries to hide the fact that he is the child of ``show-biz'' parents. He literally and figuratively pursues his own play, Foolscap , when the only copy of his script is stolen by Ford Rexford, American playwright and international scoundrel. As Theo tries to retrieve his masterpiece, he travels to England where he meets the famous and eccentric scholar, Dame Winifred Throckmorton, as well as the equally bizarre Jones Marsh. The novel satirizes the worlds of academe, the theater, and the English privileged class. It is an inviting blend of character study, intrigue, and theater lore. It's a book for those interested in writing, theater, or having a good laugh.-- Patricia Bowers, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
In top comedic form, Malone follows a North Carolina English professor's merry chase across the Atlantic after a play of his that has been purloined. (Sept.)
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