4000 Miles

by Amy Herzog

After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother Vera in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 Miles looks at how two outsiders find their way in today's world.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction, Read For School

72 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2011

About the author

Amy Herzog is an American playwright. Her play 4000 Miles, which ran Off-Broadway in 2011, was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her play Mary Jane, which ran Off-Broadway in 2017, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

Reviews

[Seyed Mohammad Reza Mahdavi · Rating 1 out of 5]

یک ترجمه افتضاح. اصلا نمی توانید با کتاب ارتباط بگیرید

[Clifton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so used to complex concepts and stagings and visions. Meanwhile Herzog weaves a compelling portrait of loss and healing with a single room, a grandma and a grandson. Nothing fancy or complicated: just complex characters and small moments told well. Something to strive for.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think 4000 Miles is a great acting vehicle. There are some nice moments and believable dialogue. The relationships are all convincing and interesting.

That being said, nothing really sticks with me. You know how books make you think? this one didn't really. It just reminded me of an exboyfriend. Maybe it's because I kept thinking "I dated that guy" that I didn't walk away from 4000 Miles with any thought deeper than "hmm."

[Delara H F · Rating 3 out of 5]

نمايشنامه ي خوبي بود ولي ايكاش ترجمه اينقدر افتضاح نبود وانگار اصلا ويرايشي در كار نبوده!

[Dave]

I like the ambiguity of this play. There are many unanswered questions, or, more accurately, questions the audience is left to answer for itself.

One it's surface, the play might appear to be largely the grandmother's story but that is misleading. The grandmother's character is rich and multi-layered but most of this story is laid out in the text. The grandson's character, however, is more enigmatic. An actor playing that role has to make significant decisions about the meaning of events alluded to in the text but never fulled explored. There is no right answer and the character never reveals the choices made but they will inform the rest of the performance.

Definitely worth seeing on the stage should you have the opportunity.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful heart-warming play about a relationship across two generations. Leo (21) drops in his grandmother Vera (91) in her New York apartment after a bike trip across country. Together they sort through their relationship and each other's live. 4000 Miles treats their remembered life events with humor and compassion. I wouldn't expect any less from Amy Herzog. I ordered this play because of it's casting; three women and one man. I am the director of a Professional Actor Training Program and at the end of two years each of our students performs in a play in a role in which they might be cast as professionals. This one has everything. One young man, two young women, one older woman and one set, and most important, an excellent text.

[Tiera Che · Rating 3 out of 5]

4000 Miles is a play written by Amy Herzog. In this play we follow Leo, and his grandmother Vera. Leo is a cyclist and has been doing a cross country trip from Seattle, He unexpectedly shows up at his grandmothers apartment in New York City. As the play progresses we learn that Vera is confronting old age with denial, She has an hearing aid and constantly refers to her memory loss as disgusting. We also learn that Leo is running away from his problems. Leo is a self proclaimed freeman a.k.a a hipster who cannot be tamed. He must be apart of nature and go with the flow. We learn that he was on his bike trip with his best friend Micah who gets killed while they were in Kansas. He did not attend his funeral and the relationship with everyone including his girlfriend is strained. His girlfriend also happens to go to college in New York City and that relationship is confronted with obstacles.

I enjoyed the way that Herzog wrote this play, it came off as just a normal day in which families have problems and the way in which they confront them. She allows us to wonder what decisions that Leo, Vera and other characters make as the play ends. She does not answer all the questions that arise from the situations in the play. I also enjoyed how Herzog weaved different cultures and ethnicity into the play and the implications of different social norms. Leo is just trying to find a place in this world that makes him happy and Vera is trying to discover it to after the death of her husband and old age. This play had its comedic moments, but the fundamental relationship and growth between Vera and Leo was great to see. I would recommend this play, it is different from any other play I have read so far.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting study of two sides of a two generation gap of rebels. A grandmother who was a leftist/progressive and her grandson, an "Occupy"-era, free-thinker. I kept thinking how slight the story was, even with a first-act reveal of foolish, damaging impropriety. But, it is more about behavior between and of the two characters than plot points. Ultimately, like any play, how well it will work for anyone will be in how it is realized in a theatrical setting, not how it translates for a reader.

[Taylor Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the sweetest, most unassuming, and heartfelt plays I've ever read. Leo and Vera are two extraordinary characters - very real and dynamic, and their unexpected friendship is equally adorable and hilarious. Once again Herzog writes brilliant and nuanced dialogue, and ties up just enough pieces of the story to be satisfactory but still open to interpretation.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a story so short, it covers a lot of emotion and crafts well defined characters no matter how small they are. There is one scene were a character talks about a bike ride and his camera that is one of the best monologues I've ever read. I highly recommend this play.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely look at a guy who fights growing up, living with his grandmother. Their relationship is so interesting and I love the scene between Leo and Bec, his long-time girlfriend. Bec has decided to grow up and Leo tries to reclaim her to their old lifestyle. So heart-breaking.

[Olivia Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this the day of the autumnal equinox and then it was mentioned in the play. I think relationships between grandparents and grandchildren are really sweet, so I enjoyed reading that. I dont know how to feel about the ending

[Angela Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Segunda vez que me lo leo para clase pero es precioso

[Timur Markowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible portrait of a relationship.

[Jacob Fife · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really sure what this is about, but it was sure entertaining

[zz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has Amy Herzog ever experienced an emotion

[corinne]

I don't know what turned me off more, the diet incest or the insufferable characterization of the main character. I had to read this for school... 🤷🏾‍♀️

[Macy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another day, another play. And this one wasn't anything too special, however I'm certainly heartwarmed from seeing a realistic snapshot of a dynamic intergenerational relationship.

[Ally Restrepo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to do a scene from this for my theatre final, and I had a great time performing it. It was fun and emotional and allowed me to grow a lot as an actor. However, I think that the play as a whole is missing something that makes it truly special outside of being a good vehicle for actors to improve and show off their skills. It has a good emotional core that loses its direction at some points. Some of the characters are compelling, but some are thrown to the side and only pulled out when they are needed to advance the growth of the white male protagonist.

[Jessica López-Barkl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't really put my finger on what I really thought of this play...I loved the characters and the antithesis of the leads. I'm also a sucker for old lady roles; I just have a long time until I can play them. It's a funny play, too, because I know Vera in the form of my friend Marj and I know the character Leo in the form of many of the guys I grew up with in Northern Idaho; this sort of community of people who flout the "plugged in" age and ride their bikes everywhere. Lately, my boyfriend has taken to including these people into the "hipster movement", but...when you're from Northern Idaho, where the scenery is jaw-droppingly beautiful, then that's just expected. I still feel more at home outdoors on a bike than I do anything else. Anyway, back to the play. Amy Herzog has a lovely ease with dialogue and yet I found the builds to be a bit wanting. I thought it got a little too sentimental at the end for me, but the sentimentality is buttered up with the odd couple set up. I think this would be a fun play to produce and/or direct for any small theater company.

[Mahtab Safdari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like these kinds of relationships, portrayed in plays. They seem straightforward on the surface but intricate, profound and quite revealing underneath. When people can find out the facts about themselves through talking to one another that otherwise they would hardly be able to.
Such scenes like scene seven in this play, more often than not, may sound like a cheesy melodrama, but in 4000 Miles this scene is neither too dramatic nor unbelievable, but rather disclosing, showing the wound and the suffering in a convincing way and in-character.
The quality of the narrative of being ambiguous in some parts is also helpful for the reader-slash-audience to discover more about the characters and their backstory, and to enjoy the feeling of exploring this new world.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
The world is too full to talk about."

[Michael McClain · Rating 4 out of 5]

After seeing a production of Amy Herzog's newest play, Belleville, in Chicago, I was immediately impressed by the playwright's capability to craft honest dialogue and conflict between two individuals. 4000 Miles is no different. A portrait of two lost souls on opposite ends of the generation gap still searching their purpose in life, this play certainly helped me see why Amy Herzog is a playwright to watch!

[آروین ملک · Rating 2 out of 5]

دیگه جایزه پولیتزر رو حروم نکنید! خیلی معمولی بود! فکر می‌کردم مشکل از گیرایی ضعیف منه در خصوص متون ادب نمایشی، یه بار دیگه خوندم، متوجه شدم بیشتر از قبل معمولیه! 😅
از نشر افراز توقع نمایشنامه های خیلی درجه یک دارم! معمولی بزنن عصبی میشم 😅😅
خلاصه که زیاد چشمم رو نگرفت. با تشکر، دو ستاره.
ولی خوندنش خالی از لطف نبود.

[Jeremy Martens · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO GOOD. Amy and Annie Baker are my favorite contemporary playwrights. Their stories are so simple, yet so deep. I love the way they write. Love love love.

[Thom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful play.

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love this play!!
Great scenes.
And the characters are so human.
Amy Herzog is a playwright to look out for.

[Ahmadali Shafiee · Rating 2 out of 5]

ترجمه‌ش مشکل‌دار بود و حس خوبی نسبت بهش نداشتم

[Josh Caporale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Julia O'Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really love Amy Herzog, especially her play Belleville, so I was quite disappointed by this play. It felt uninspired, unmotivated, and just plain weird at times. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so odd if the characters were more developed and allowed more time to truly develop. But it felt like a lot of plot points and tensions pushed into a short play centered around a detached, ambivalent, untrustworthy, and unlikable main character. So many plot points are presented yet barely touched on leading to each part of the play feeling incredibly unfinished. Micah cheated on Alli, Bec and Leo broke up, Leo kissed Lili, Bec kissed Lili, Leo left home and is in a bad fight with his mother, Micah died, the whole relationship with Ginny. I could keep going but I’d end up listing each plot point.

The incestuous relationship between Leo and Lili is deeply concerning as well as not important to the story. Especially as he brings Amanda home. Amanda is of the same racial background as his sister Lili, she is drunk and he is not, she is younger, he continually makes sexual advances as she resists and kindly tried to turn him down. Disgusting behavior that is never spoken on again and seems to be a bad excuse as a way to tie in where he speaks on Micah’s death. Additionally, why would he try to justify kissing his sister!?!? Just why.

Leo is a deeply unlikable character because although he has been through a tragedy (that is made to feel almost comedic, suffocating under thousands of chickens…), we never see him process his grief or deal with his hurt in any way other than being an absolute dick to his incredibly forgiving Grandma. At the end, we are supposed to feel he has grown because he took Ginny to the hospital and wrote a bad speech along with Bec seemingly forgiving him with no real reason to do so. But because Leo is so underdeveloped and lacking nuance, he along with the play, falls flat and becomes unmotivated and uninspired.

[JackWilliamRtF · Rating 3 out of 5]

ive heard praises of this play since college but haven't ever actually read it. now that i have, i think it's pretty clear that what's being praised is the first bec-leo scene because it's like Literally Perfect for any and all college acting classes: it's a guy girl duet scene, tons of History for the actors to have to know and impress their professors by having memorized, weirdly high stakes (a Must for an in-class scene), and most of all it's pretty fucking good.

the rest of the play around it doesn't really hold up. sort of interestingly, i think that this play suffers from the opposite of what a lot of plays and movies run into: instead of having an electric beginning and end with a meh middle, this play has an Excellent center cut but struggles to take off and land. the scene where leo and vera are high together, the micah death monologue (putting a pin in this), the amanda scene, and the previously mentioned bec-leo argument all absolutely sing but getting to them and eventually leaving these characters behind just feels a little undercooked.

the last thing i want to say is to amy herzog specifically: you are a good writer, girl. you don't need to have little cheeky exits out of serious scenes because you're seemingly worried that you didn't write something beautiful enough. it was! it is! have a little faith!

4000 miles is clearly an early work of someone who is a fantastically accomplished playwright. it shouldn't be rewritten because the growth it shows is beautiful to see, even just to her next published work. i'm giving it 3/5 because decimal ratings don't exist here on goodreads.