Books: Irving Said No

FIVE PLAYS (473 pp.)—John O'Hara—Random House ($5).

George Bernard Shaw's splendid custom of appending argumentative prefaces to his plays—and, in a few instances, of dangling a play from an especially grand preface—has been taken up by John O'Hara, who between novels and short stories has had a largely unrequited hankering for the theater. True, O'Hara has written only one preface for five plays, but that one rings with large-spirited ill will. Some of his plays, says the author, might have reached Broadway "if I had been willing to take writing lessons from directors, but I know of no director whose writing talent...