Awake and Sing

This was a pretty good play from Odets from the 1930's about a dysfunctional Jewish family during the depression. It shows the clash between idealism and realism in a family as one of the characters Hennie becomes pregnant and how she should consider her life from then on. The family is quite controlling when it comes to Hennie's position. The part of the play that I thought was the most interesting was Moe. He's a cripple is just enamored with Hennie. But really he comes across as a jerk and is afraid to show his real emotions. Out of the Odets plays I've read I've liked Golden Boy the most as I think it would be the best to translate to screen. I need to see the movie.

Golden Boy

This was a pretty good play by Clifford Odets. I would have loved to seen it in person as Frances Farmer played Lorna. An Italian American boy named Joe becomes a star boxer. He falls for his manager's girl who is just the other woman. Although the manager makes way for Lorna to be his wife she falls for Joe. Joe resents Lorna's commitment to the manager Moody. Then tragedy strikes in the ring. The ending was not what I expected but it also wasn't some trick surprise ending. So far this is my favorite play from Odets. It was made into a movie with Barbara Stanwyck who also would have been a good choice. I need to watch it.

Waiting for Lefty

This was a play inspired by a labor strike that had happened in 1934 among cab drivers. There are also stories of discrimination tied within the play like a Jewish doctor who is not allowed to operate on a patient who dies as a result. This play takes place during the Great Depression so desperation is at its highest. I know I said when I read The Country Girl that I thought Odets had done better. I still feel this way, that Odets wrote something better than both plays and I've yet to read it. Something about this play felt dated. I just thought it was ok.

Heartbreak House

This was an ok George Bernard Shaw about the upper class during World War I and the disguises they use.The plot involves Ellie Dunn and her love triangle with a married man and a man who it turns out isn't as rich as he pretends to be. The plot also concerns a burglar. It was more eccentric than the other Shaw plays I have read but I liked it better than Man and Superman because it didn't have an unnecessary act that came out of nowhere. I doubt I'll read it again. I would have liked to see Orson Welles as Captain Shotover. He was in a production in this play in in the 1930s.

The Country Girl

A director tries to revile the career of a drunken actor. He believes all of his problems lie with his wife, only he falls in love with the woman herself. She's pretty much the glue that holds the actor together. At the end she has to make a decision between what man to stay with. I need to watch the movie. I can see both Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly really digging into the roles. This is my first introduction to playwright Clifford Odets. It was good but I have a feeling that he's written better.

The Good Apprentice

This was one of Murdoch's later novels. I liked Under the Net and especially The Bell more. However, this was good. It deals with a young man who gives his friend a drug as a joke which results in the boy's death. He goes in search for the father he never knew. His father is a somewhat famous artist and Edward becomes friends with his sisters who are a bohemian bunch. Edward's stepbrother Stuart is looking for a deeper meaning in life. In a subplot a woman Midge falls for Stuart. This is despite the fact she is already involved with another man and her husband. It was over five hundred pages so it took me a while to read. The Kate Winslet movie Iris was a real disappointment. Someone needs to give the writer more justice. I would like a documentary.

Prizes

Janet Frame was a writer with an interesting life. She spent some of her life in mental institutions. Her writing saved her life because it got her out of a lobotomy. This is a collection of her short stories. The beginning short stories are good but the stories I like the best are the ones that make up The Reservoir . I have aspirations for writing so to me "The Triumph of Poetry" was a horror story. I don't know if I liked it. I liked "The Teacup", the story of a girl fondling over a man that her roommate is really dating. Some of the stories deal with madness such as in "How can I get in touch with Persia?" when a man can't accept his mother's death. The later stories are more depressing as we find Janet Frame thinking about death which only makes sense since she was getting older. There's a sense of humor here especially "A Relative of the Famous". I thought Wilfred was funny. I recommend this although I heard that Janet Frame's short stories weren't what she was best at.