olli3harris's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
domcarino's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
zoet's review against another edition
5.0
Rose: I been standing with you! I been right here with you Troy. I got a life too. I gave you 18 years of my life to stand in the same spot with you. Don't you think I ever wanted other things? Don't you think I had dreams and hopes? What about my life? What about me? Don't you think it ever crossed my mind to want to know other men? That I wanted someone to make me life so I could feel good? You not the only one who's got wants and needs. But I held on to you, Troy. I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams... and I buried them inside you. I planted a seed and watered and prayed over it. I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom. And it didn't take me no 18 years to find out the soil was hard and rocky and it was never gonna bloom. But I held onto you, Troy. I held you tighter. You was my husband. I owed you everything I had. Every part of me I could find to give you. And upstairs in that room... with the darkness falling in on me... I gave everything I had to try and erase the doubt that you wasn't the finest man in the world. And wherever you going... I wanted to be there with you cause you was my husband. Cause that's the only way I was gonna survive as your wife. You always talking about what you give ... and what you don't have to I've. But you take too. You take and don't even know nobody's giving.!
...
Rose: From right now... this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.
...
Rose: From right now... this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.
noragoudie's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
One of the best plays I've read in a long time! The way that August Wilson writes dialogue is so lyrical yet natural and truthful to the human experience. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
seeceeread's review against another edition
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
💠"I can laugh out loud . . . and it feels good. It reaches all the way down to the bottom of my shoes."
Troy Maxson's life is circumscribed to bills paid, routines of distraction and tall tales of his vibrant, if painful, youth. For his wife and sons, he is stolid, if brittle; dependable, yet depressive. When he glimpses a joy that "reaches," he pretends he hasn't let go of anything to hold tightly to the new. But the fantasy doesn't cling back, and everyone else in the family is forced to consider what they can bear to fence in . . . and what they'll bar.
In 1995, April Austin at the Christian Science Monitor explained, "Wilson's method of writing, as he described it, is to start with bits of dialogue, with street anecdotes and banter, and build characters out of the homespun of their own speech." Voice is instrumental here, creating fascinating syncopation as characters layer. The playwright developed full personalities, from the veteran who convenes daily with angels in preparation for the day he will trumpet his brother into heaven . . . to the aspiring football player-turned-Marine desperate to self-actualize in negation of his father's fearsome exactitude. Still, I'm more impressed by Wilson's sonorous silences. Bereavement, bewilderment, betrayal — complex emotions! — reverberate in the unspoken, the hushed, below repeated stories and glancing observations.
Like a poem, Wilson distilled to the strictly necessary to impart a beautiful narrative.
Troy Maxson's life is circumscribed to bills paid, routines of distraction and tall tales of his vibrant, if painful, youth. For his wife and sons, he is stolid, if brittle; dependable, yet depressive. When he glimpses a joy that "reaches," he pretends he hasn't let go of anything to hold tightly to the new. But the fantasy doesn't cling back, and everyone else in the family is forced to consider what they can bear to fence in . . . and what they'll bar.
In 1995, April Austin at the Christian Science Monitor explained, "Wilson's method of writing, as he described it, is to start with bits of dialogue, with street anecdotes and banter, and build characters out of the homespun of their own speech." Voice is instrumental here, creating fascinating syncopation as characters layer. The playwright developed full personalities, from the veteran who convenes daily with angels in preparation for the day he will trumpet his brother into heaven . . . to the aspiring football player-turned-Marine desperate to self-actualize in negation of his father's fearsome exactitude. Still, I'm more impressed by Wilson's sonorous silences. Bereavement, bewilderment, betrayal — complex emotions! — reverberate in the unspoken, the hushed, below repeated stories and glancing observations.
Like a poem, Wilson distilled to the strictly necessary to impart a beautiful narrative.
maggiebreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mamakiwi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
bbraun's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0