Review by Booklist Review
Mamet has written about drama's sociological and psychological implications before (Writing in Restaurants [1986], Some Freaks [1989]), but never as well as in these eight terse, elegant essays. He writes with thrilling simplicity and authority, discussing problems all working playwrights confront (What am I trying to achieve with this play? How come things always get balled up in the second act? Why are most problem plays ultimately unsatisfying?) and connecting his craft to large social issues (violence, censorship, the abuse of public office). Previous Mamet readers and those who know his work on stage and screen will recognize such themes and personal obsessions as the search for authenticity, the yearning for a moral center, and the search--some would say romanticized--for a very masculine kind of stoicism. This time, Mamet's beliefs seem less the wisecracks of a witty, sometimes hot-headed drinking buddy and more the calm, cool, carefully measured meditations of a man passionate about the truth and determined to share his ideas as clearly and powerfully as possible. --Jack Helbig
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
One of America's leading living playwrights has crafted three short essays beginning with the premise that it is "our nature to dramatize." The belief in the centrality of drama to our daily lives and the centrality of our daily lives to good drama is the recurrent theme of his ruminations here. While he disdains the current vogue for "problem plays," he avoids attacking any of his contemporaries or their works. And without offering a how-to guide for aspiring playwrights, he provides some interesting thoughts on the inevitable difficulty in creating a convincing second act. Known and respected for his ability to create hyperrealistic dialog, Mamet ultimately reveals the theoretical justification for the sort of drama he writes so well. The text reads a bit like a lecture and never quite convinces the reader that this is a fundamental redefinition of drama. Still, it will be compelling to students of theater and serves as a good companion to Mamet's advice to actors, True and False (LJ 10/1/97). Recommended for academic and large public libraries.Douglas McClemont, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
