America Hurrah and Other Plays: Eat Cake, the Hunter and the Bird, the Serpent, Bad Lady, the Traveler, the Tibetan Book of the Dead

by Jean-Claude van Itallie

Book Overview

Jean-Claude van Itallie is one of the most distinguished playwrights of the American avant-garde. A keen deconstruction of American popular culture, the America Hurrah triptych served notice that here was a major new dramatic voice. America Hurrah and Other Plays is a definitive collection of the work of a major American playwright, with such works as Bag Lady, written in the voice of a deceptively insightful homeless woman; The Serpent, a fanciful interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve; The Traveller, which depicts a charismatic and brilliant artist recovering from a stroke; and van Itallie's dazzling play based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080213761X
• ISBN13: 9780802137616
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Great stuff - Good Doctor with pace

I had read The Good Doctor and enjoyed it plenty for great characters, great writing and a slow-building, relentless tension. The Quarry has the same great characterization and prose, but nothing at all slow about it. The beginning of the story is enthralling, both the introduction to the main character and the first incident at the quarry (best not read liner notes etc more max effect). What continues seems a combination of Greene's "Power and Glory" (in terms of "feel") and Coetzee's "Waiting for the Barbarians" (in terms of suspense and pace). A fantastic aspect is the power of the not explicitly stated (e.g. main character's real name never revealed, ). And the construction and build-up to the denoument is something Tolstoy - like. The Quarry is clearly another example of the spectacular literature of South Africa.

The hearts and minds of South Africans haven't changed

In this stunning novel, Mr Galgut tells the story of a fugitive from justice hitchhiking in the desolate backdrop of South Africa and who is picked up by a driver, a minister on his way to a remote parish. When the minister discovers that the hitchhiker is a fugitive and confronts him in a disused quarry, the response is lethal. This novel is a masterpiece featuring a story and characters utterly compelling. The author shows that even the quietest spots on earth can seethe with repressed violence. A blunt and tense read about guilt and evasion of truth. Justly enough, Mr Galgut has been compared to the greatest South African writers like Andr? Brink, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee and Achmat Dangor.