Three Jewish plays

by David Mamet

Paperback

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

David Alan Mamet is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. His works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for his exploration of masculinity.

As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).

Mamet's recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, an acerbic commentary on the movie business.

Reviews

[Steve Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m surprised to find that these were bad. At least I thought so.

The first two were a struggle to get through, and neither impressed me. The third was downright incoherent.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid collection of David Mamet one acts. The first one in this collection was the best, but still never really understood why they were two friends sitting in a hotel room; motivation for the characters wasn't completely clear in any of these pieces either.