The Book of Grace

by Suzan-Lori Parks

“ The Book of Grace offers further evidence that Suzan-Lori Parks thinks big even when she thinks small… The family portrait she paints here is nothing less than a map of a nation that is divided within itself and poised to fall… This play is infused with an exciting emotional ambiguity that transforms its characters into people of splendidly confused humanity.” –Ben Brantley, New York Times

“Suzan-Lori Parks has laid out the conflicts among these characters with such economy and clarity that they run like a taut steel cord throughout the play; it’s as lean and direct a drama as she’s written.” –Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

Encouraged by his stepmother to return home to South Texas, a young man reunites with his abusive father, unearthing an explosive combination of deep-seated passion and ambition. Described by Suzan-Lori Parks as a companion piece to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog , this fierce and intimate three-person drama premiered in 2010 at New York’s Public Theater, and is published here with the playwright’s final, revised text.

In 2002 Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog . Her other plays include Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, &3), In the Blood, Venus, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom and The America Play . In 2007 her 365 Days/365 Plays was produced in more than seven hundred theaters worldwide. Ms. Parks is a MacArthur Fellow and Master Writer Chair at The Public Theater.

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.