The Language Archive

 

I liked this play. It wasn't pretentious and it gets its message through clearly. A man who works in languages knows little about human relationships. His own marriage is falling apart from a wife who suddenly has a need for independence. His lab assistant has a crush on him but is afraid to tell him about it. What I liked most about this play was the plot containing unrequited love because I've had a few. The play takes a different direction on that. I was glad about it because Hollywood's treatment of it is always boring and trite.  

The House on Parchment Street

 

I love giving chances on out-of-print children's books. This one is by Patricia McKillip who later became a fantasy writer. Apparently from the reviews I've read she got a billion times better later on, so I'll have to give her fantasy work a chance. This didn't change my life, but it was ok. It concerns a girl who moves to England to live with family. She and two boys there meet a ghost in the cellar and solve the mystery of the house. I put this on interlibrary loan which is usually the way to go with out-of-print children's books. Sure, you may get denied from time to time but it's better than taking a chance on a book that is worth more than $50. 

No Exit

 

This play was better when I read it when I was 11. This is where the quotation "Hell is other people" comes from. I felt that way when I was being bullied in elementary school, so it was more prominent then. It's still a good play though, three people are trapped in hell together and being with each other is their punishment. One is a tough guy who is really a coward, and one of the women killed a child. This one act play is riveting and depressing as they come. I've started reading another play of his The Flies this week.

A Loss of Roses

 

This was a disappointing William Inge play. It's not a classic like Picnic not even as good as The Dark at the Top of the Stairs although there were some things about it that I liked. It's about a gas station attendant still living with his mother during the depression. He is too close to his mother and it's not surprising that he starts a relationship with his mother's friend Lila who is rooming with them. Lila has dreams that he'll be the hero who will save her in the end. Things don't quite work out that way. I liked Lila's vulnerability. Warren Beatty was cast as the son and that really is perfect casting. It's too bad I couldn't have seen that production. He would have done a good job. 

Volpone

 

Ben Jonson was one of William Shakespeare's rivals at the time. Although this play is good there is just something about Shakespeare that is untimely. But then he just wasn't the best playwright of his time period, he is arguably the finest playwright in general. I guess it's an unfair comparison. In Volpone there is no likable character. It's about a rich man Volpone who sets out to dupe three men into thinking that they will be his heirs through deceitful means. Only he is cheated in the end by his servant Mosca who has been helping him all along. This would have made an awesome silent movie with someone like Conrad Veidt in the lead. It's a shame that no one envisioned this. 

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

 

I loved William Inge's Picnic. I read it a few times when I was 11 and 12. I was thinking about that and decided to read another play from Inge. This one deals with the marriage of a salesman and his wife. After the salesman leaves after a fight, she is left with the possibility that it might have been for good. This leads to the wife begging her sister to let her family move in with them. In the family also their teenaged daughter has a tragedy happen with a friend and the lonely son is preoccupied with movies. It's too bad that the movie of this isn't available on amazon or YouTube. It didn't blow my mind like Picnic but this was a good play. I just interlibrary loaned a lesser-known William Inge play. We shall see if it is also good. 

Washington Square

 

This was a pretty good Henry James novel. I like the ending but the movie The Heiress gave it more of a dramatic justice. The book concerns a plain woman named Catherine and a charming handsome man who goes after her solely for the inheritance. But her father sees right through the man and warns that he was leave his daughter with nothing should they marry. All the characters have major flaws. The girl is too naive, the father is too much of a bully, but the most annoying character of all is the aunt who keeps correspondence with the dashing man and meddles in everyone's affairs. For me the most brutal thing in the book is when the daughter realizes her father doesn't even like her. It's heartbreaking. He just sees her as an inferior version of his late wife, no intelligence or beauty. This isn't an enjoyable read but it does live up to its reputation as a classic.