One of the larger ironies of the renewed interest in the American expatriate movement of the twenties and thirties is the relative obscurity of one of the period's most important and prolific contributors: Kay Boyle. Boyle went to France in 1923 as the wife of a French citizen, intending to remain only long enough to meet her husband's family. But she stayed until World War II forced her to return to the United States in 1941, becoming a master of the short story and a protean member of the "Revolution of the Word" movement signaled by Eugene Jolas and the group of writers whose work appeared in Jolas's transition magazine. Perhaps her significance and greatness lie in the very fact that she has been so busy writing and acting upon her beliefs, already formed in the twenties, that she has had little time to cultivate a following. Indeed, seeking literary...