Though a bit scholarly, "Private Histories: The Writings of Irish Americans, 1900 -1935" by Ron Ebest is a fascinating look at an interesting time in Irish American literary history. Ebest, assistant professor of literature and writing at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, St. Louis, Missouri, explores religion, family, marriage and more in the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald, James T. Farrell and Eugene O'Neill. It is in the work of lesser known authors (such as Anne O'Hagan, Jim Tully, Clara Laughlin and John T. McIntyre) that Ebest perhaps makes his most interesting contribution. ($25 / 319 pages / Notre Dame Press)