TOPDOG/UNDERDOG -- Suzan-Lori Parks

Theatre Communication Group -- tpb
New York -- 1999 -- 109pp
ISBN: 1-55936-201-4

The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future. [from Amazon.com]


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Generally I've been surprisingly impressed with the Pulitzer Prize winning dramas. Often I find major award winning writing to be over-hype crap. The Pulizter's for drama that I have read have been pleasant gems. Until now.

This 2002 award winner, is the story of two African-American brothers (Lincoln and Booth), sorting out their lives. They hustle, steal, con, and try to work legitimate-but-low-paying jobs. Their past is nearly as amorphous as their future.

One of the ways in which I rate plays is by thinking on how much I would like to see it staged. As a play, it is meant to be seen, rather than read. This play, I have absolutely no desire to see. I can't imagine it being done somwhere and my thinking, "Oh, I'd like to see that." There is nothing about these characters or their situation that I can relate to, find appealing or even interesting, or desire to learn more about.

As a printed work, it's difficult to completely review this as something 'to be staged' and I can't help but review this as a written work. And here I have an even greater problem. As with so many big prize winning writers, this author has decided that she doesn't need to follow convention. "The" is "thuh" and "your" is "yr" and a contraction apostrophe...!?...forget it. And of course, why bother to write "(Pause.)" or "(Beat.)" as every other playwright is taught to do? Instead she lists the character's name, followed by no dialogue ... to suggest that they aren't saying anything.

I have decided that breaking convention/being unconventional is a sure way to get noticed by awards committees. Still, it would only bother me slightly if there was a story worth reading/seeing.

I am not familiar with either of the other two plays that were nominated for the Pulitzer in 2002, but I am much more curious now to compare them to the winner.

REPLAY -- Sharon Creech

Scholastic -- hc
New York -- 2005 --180pp
ISBN: 0-439-85861-5


A young boy feels invisible in his large, expressive family and hopes that his life on stage will bring him fame and fortune (or at least attention).

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I enjoy reading children's books. I have a lot of respect for most Newbery Award-Winning authors. I love the theatre. This should all combine to high marks for Sharon Creech's Replay, but it doesn't.

Creech does an admirable job combining the elements, but she forgot to focus on what the book is about.

Leo feels invisible in his family. Leo fantasizes about himself as hero in nearly every situation imaginable. Leo learns about his father as a boy. Leo learns about a lost family member. Leo learns that there is more to a person than just what he sees on the surface.

This last is probably the over-riding element in the book, but it gets lost amid too much other 'stuff.'

The switching in and out of the fantasy-Leo certainly adds something to the character ... what youngster doesn't imagine him/herself as the hero of any moment? ... but it really isn't important to the story. The main element is carried through as Leo discovers and reads his father's biography, written at the age of 13. It is underscored by his (Leo's) creating a back-story for his stage character, and it is punctuated by the discovery of a missing family member.

Unfortunately, none of these elements are built upon properly and instead of wonderful discoveries, the book peters out to a whimper.

Not a great showing by Sharon Creech

GYPSY WORLD (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE #7) -- Ted Pedersen

A Minstrel Book -- tpb
New York -- ©1996 -- 114pp
ISBN: 0-671-51115-7
illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton

The Fjori star trader Orak is strictly off-limits as it docks at the repair bay on Deep Space Nine, but Jake and Nog can't resist the challenge of stealing a look at the Fjori star maps and trying to find the secret Fjori home planet, Eden. They find themselves trapped in the starship, hurtling though uncharted space. If they set foot on the forbidden planet, they'll be forced to stay for life. Their only hope is Vija, a Fjorian girl who asks the Council of Elders to let Jake and Nog attempt the perilous Rite of Passage in order to win their freedom.

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I totally understand trying to capitalize on a popular franchise, such as Star Trek (and all it's incarnations), but the problem with a book like this is that it necessarily features two incredibly dull characters from the series.

A knowledge of these characters is necessary as there is no character building/description in the book. This prevents the random reader from picking up and enjoying this kind of book.

The other problem with a book such as this is that it requires a moral ... a lesson learned for that young reader. In the better books I've read that lesson is well woven into the story. Here it is worn on the shirt-sleeve. The reader is practically hit over the head with the good-deeds-win-out lesson, and the sudden switch from jerk to friend by the guest villian du jour.

Not a recommended book by any means.

DOGG'S HAMLET, CAHOOT'S MACBETH -- Tom Stoppard

Samuel French, Inc -- playscript
New York -- ©1979 -- 83pp
ISBN: 0-573-60046-5
Full-length play; two one-act plays

This clever romp is two short plays. In the first, a troupe of English schoolboys (played by adults) speak in a mock language called "Dogg." This hilarious language babbles along until the schoolboys, who are studying Shakespeare's "foreign" language, present an incredibly funny 15 minute version of Hamlet and then encore with a two minute version! The second play, dedicated to dissident Czech dramatist Pavel Kohout, is about a performance of Macbeth he and his friends once staged in a living room since the government banned public performances. The action shifts between the bare stage and the police inquiry. The murder and intrigue of Shakespeare's play are juxtaposed with the Czech political harassment.

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I thought I knew this (these?) play(s), but having now read them, I realize that I've only seen a popular cutting from the Dogg's Hamlet section.

This play (actually two one acts, but they really do rely on one another to create a full play) is really rather unique and complicated. It is both hysterically funny and frighteningly intense. It is witty and clever, it incorporates two great Shakespeare plays quite well.

Of course I laughed through the beginning section of Dogg's Hamlet, but I didn't quite 'get' the transition to the Hamlet rehearsal/performance.

The "Cahoot" section was intriquingly intense, which let's up with the return of a "Dogg's" character.

I give this only three stars because, as literature to read, it is difficult and perhaps confusing. As theatre, this could be a really fun production in the hands of a director who has really explored it. I'd love to see this staged, fully....

SMILES TO GO -- Jerry Spinelli

Joanna Cotler Books -- hc
New York -- ©2008 -- 248pp
ISBN: 978-0-06-028133-5

A high school freshman and science geek struggles with all the normal trials for his age (mainly, girls [one in particular] and friends who are more popular) but everything is more complicated when he learns that nothing ... NOTHING ... lasts forever.

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Jerry Spinelli has an uncanny knack for capturing me in his books.

Okay, perhaps that's a bit extreme, and certainly quite self-indulgent, but the truth is, I recognized traits in the main character that I most certainly displayed when I was that age. Chances are that boys that age today recognize themselves too.

I was able to read this book in one sitting. Not because it was an easy read (it wasn't too difficult, though), but because it held my interest ... I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to see what happened next. It's definitely well written and it would be easy for a reader to get caught up in it.

But even with that ringing endorsement, I can't quite give it five stars.

I don't mind leaving a book with questions unanswered. But I don't like getting to the end of a book to discover that the direction the author was going in is suddenly changed. Deviating from the path is okay, but changing the rules of a game is not. The ending comes quite suddenly, with a curveball at the reader so severe that we couldn't possibly see it coming -- and it changes what the book is about.

This boys' exploration of love, death, friendship, eternity, and the discovery that what he thought he knew to be true, wasn't, suddenly becomes a book about family. It turns the outside, inside, and really, what we spent 150 pages reading, doesn't matter anymore. But it should. Even a new discovery about something personal, something famil-iar, should still have it's connections with what's gone before.

Yes, there are hints at this throughout. I realize that. But the hints aren't strong enough to be taken seriously, and at least one part of the discovery, which is rather important, is TOLD to us, by another character (I'm trying very hard not to create spoilers) -- there is no way that our character, or we, could have discovered it without being directly informed. It's kind of a cheap way out (and the drama of the near-ending is a bit over-done), and for that, I take away one star. ...a four-star book.

THE BLACK THRONE -- Roger Zelazny and Fred Saberhagen

Baen Books -- hc (book club edition)
New York -- ©1990 -- 278pp
no ISBN - book club edition

An alternate history story, featuring Edgar Allen Poe ... possibly explaining why he was so tormented (he was living in the wrong dimension, having been switched with Edgar Allen Perry). Perry takes up the story, trying to right the dimensional discrepencies with the help of Annie, the powerful woman who created the rift though was duped into doing so by men seeking the secrets of alchemy.

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I admit that I struggled some with this book at the beginning, but I believe that this is because Zelazny tends to start a story right in the middle, forcing the reader to catch up to him.

I am not at all familiar with Fred Saberhagen, so I'm not sure what his influences are with this book.

Once I was caught up with the story, this was the type of read that is difficult to put down. I always wanted to read 'just one more chapter.'

Although the book managed to hold my interest through to the end, the last quarter or so seemed to get bogged down. I actually wondered if perhaps the authors traded off chapters and each wanted to add his own mark to the tale, although they both lacked necessity in telling the tale.

Some chapters spanned a few minutes ... the action being 'real time' and some chapters took place over several months. The inconsistency was always jarring.

I liked it well enough... reading Zelazny is like luscious, literary fruit ...but it failed to tell the story cohesively for me.