The Book of Grace

by Suzan-Lori Parks

"Her dislocating stage devices, stark but poetic language and fiercely idiosyncratic images transform her work into something haunting and marvelous."? Time "An original whose fierce intelligence and fearless approach to craft subvert theatrical convention and produce a mature and inimitable art that is as exciting as it is fresh."?August Wilson Named one of the "100 Innovators for the Next New Wave" by Time magazine, Suzan-Lori Parks is a truly original voice of the American theater. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur "Genius" Award, Parks is renowned for her groundbreaking language, theatricality, and an aesthetic that continues to evolve in unexpected ways. Her first full-length play since her award-winning Topdog/Underdog , The Book of Grace is a scorching three-person drama in which a young man returns home to South Texas to confront his father, unearthing deep-seated passions and ambition. The play premieres this spring at the Public Theater, where Parks is in the midst of a three-year residency as the first recipient of the theater's master writer chair. Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter, songwriter, and novelist. Her plays include Topdog/Underdog (winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize), In the Blood (a 2000 Pulitzer nominee), Venus (OBIE Award winner), and Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (OBIE Award, Best New American Play).

Genres: Plays, Drama

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Suzan-Lori Parks is an award-winning American playwright and screenwriter. She was a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. She is married to blues musician Paul Oscher.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I repeatedly stand amazed at how Suzan-Lori Parks can take the topical and make it eternal. In her play about an embittered officer working for the DHS, his waitress wife (an aspiring writer), and his ex-military son hungry for revenge, the buzzy backdrop is Border Patrol -- a limbo-land in which a new-fangled "Desire Under the Elms" furiously unfolds. The intergenerational conflict is harsh; the endless wishing for something better, absurdly American. Parks may not have easy fixes but she sure knows how to expose the flaws.

[Erick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the monologues got me in my first college play production :)

[haeli · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Man, he likes to promise you something better. I’m telling you you’re a fool for wanting his better. Take his better like a trained dog, take his hand, take his handshake, live your life in the palm of his hand, and for what? So that when he makes a fist he can just crush you?”
“When a long train of abuses is designed to reduce us, it is our right, it is our duty, to throw off such.”


a beautiful play which felt so scarily relatable. i loved it.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

SLP working in allegorical mode. Doesn’t totally work, but her insights into a wall-loving character have aged well.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

It fell flat for me. I understand what she was trying to do, but it felt muddled and forced. It was okay. One of my least favorites of all the plays I’ve recently read.

[Aileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful playwriting, as expected of Parks! A little dark, but very powerful.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to this review:

https://www.theroot.com/the-clumsines...

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's such a thing as too abstract.

[Jake Van Hoorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful

[M Caesar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another Suzan Lori-parks banger! Borders and the fucked up people who maintain them will continue to be a site of immense violence until we abolish them all.

[Aidan Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this one approachable and sorta sweet.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t quite put my finger on it but I loved this. So simple and clean with a sudden, heart-stopping ending. Good stuff.