The Woods, Lakeboat, Edmond

By David Mamet

Book Overview

"The Woods," described by the Chicago Daily News as a "beautifully conceived love story," is a modern dramatic parable in which a young man and woman who spend a night in his family's cabin experience passion, then disillusionment, but are in the end reconciled by mutual need.

In "Lakeboat," eight crew members aboard a merchant ship exchange their wild fantasies about sex, gambling, and violence.

In "Edmond," a man set morally adrift leaves an unfulfilling marriage to find sex, adventure, companionship, and, ultimately, the meaning of his existence.

Of The Woods, Richard Eder of The New York Times wrote that Mamet's "language has never been so precise, pure, and affecting."

Michael Feingold in The Village Voice praised "Lakeboat" for its "richly overheard talk and its loopy, funny construction."

Jack Kroll of Newsweek called "Edmond" "a riveting theatrical experience that illuminates the heart of darkness."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802151094
• ISBN13: 9780802151094
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

great book

woods is a wonderfull and exiting play, and Edmond is a facanating one. Edmond has a rythem of modern play very much lke a movie.

Edmond is Brilliant

Because of the sheer power of one of the plays contained within this book, I have given this collection 4 out of 5 possible stars. Edmond is amazingly stark and real, and offers a complete reversal in character, and the last scene seems like an epiphony. This play is easily my favorite, and I have seen it performed in London by Kenneth Branag, it was most astonishing and brilliant. I have not read or seen either of the two other plays contained within theis volume, but I will say that Edmond is definitely a great reason to buy this book.

three mamet plays who all share the weakness of modern men

the bool consists of three plays: Lakeboat- mamet's first play who tells the story of a boat crew who's one of his members is missing. throughout the play, rhe crew is exposed to its weaknesses and desperation, it's a bitter-sweet play, but it lacks the surprise element that can be seen in "glengarry glen ross" etc. The woods- a stoory of an imossible love between an educated yet emotionally cold man and his needy girlfriend, it's a play that floats steadily untill the big burst in the end, for patiant readers only! Edmond- a violent play about a buffled young man who decides to make a journey in search of maening and ends up ruining his life as well as others, it's a merciless look on urban reality