Rozewicz is not only a wonderful writer, he has a quality so precious that you are astonished when you sense its presence: he possesses a beautiful mind. So did Anton Chekhov, so did Heinrich von Kleist—it is a quality that adds grace to truth, that makes you love truth no matter how sobering or dark it is. "White Marriage" is about mortality, about youth and age and families and love and sex and human flesh and human spirit and the awakening of young people to the exquisite, erotic joy and sadness of life. It weds celebration and satire in a luminous theatricality….

The thirteen movements of this theatrical tone poem are brilliant in their effect and variety. You've never seen a play at once more sexy or more spiritual. Almost every moment is irradiated by earthy humor and a sweet wisdom: Grandfather bewailing his unaging horniness; Pauline...