JENNIE'S STORY AND UNDER THE SKIN. Lambert, Betty. Toronto, Playwrights Union of Canada. 1987. 194pp. paper. $9.95. ISBN 0-88754-462-2. CIP Adult Reviewed by Louise Griffith Volume 16 Number 4 1988 July Both Jennie's Story and Under the Skin are set in the west and both are marked by strong, unpleasant characters. Jennie's Story, set on the prairies in 1938-39, tells of a recent bride, Jennie McGrane, who is distressed by her inability to bear children. She discovers that her mother plotted with her former employer, a Roman Catholic priest, to have Jennie sterilized without her knowledge. The priest was then able to be intimate with her. Jennie is so upset that she suffers a mental breakdown and then commits suicide so that her husband will be free to marry the hired girl. The highly emotional plot, language, and social criticism make this play suitable for an advanced modern drama course or a little theatre production rather than classroom study at the elementary or secondary level. Under the Skin depicts eight stages in the changing relationships between Maggie Benton, a divorced English professor whose daughter has just disappeared, and her next-door neighbours. John and Renee Gifford, There are many books that would be more suitable for elementary or secondary pupils than this one, yet Betty Lambert's untimely death in 1983 robbed Canada of a playwright of great promise. Louise Griffith, Agincourt, Ont.