Synopses & Reviews
Author, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter, David Mamet is often referred to as the quintessential American writer. His works are known for their clever and terse dialogue and have earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross and Oscar nominations for House of Games as well as The Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, and The Verdict. This comprehensive biography uses extensive theater and film archives to reveal in detail his ideas on writing--including the genesis for many of his plays--acting, and directing. Beginning with his Chicago origins, the work goes on to cover his relationship to Judaism, his reputation for machismo, as well as discussions of and excerpts from early plays and stories that have never before been referenced in print. Also included are interviews with key actors and directors such as William H. Macy, Mike Nussbaum, Robert Brustein, and Neil Pepe.
Review
"This is compelling stuff front row seats to the life of one of America's most influential playwrights. Mamet moves me and makes me jealous like few other writers can; this little jewel of a biography helps me appreciate the man as much as the work. An essential read." Neil LaBute, Writer/Director
Review
"I worked on more than twenty of David Mamet's plays, and I still learned a lot. Ira Nadel did his #%&*$ homework." Gregory Mosher, Director, Arts Initiative, Columbia University
Review
"Nadel draws on interviews, archival resources, and anecdotes from those who knew and worked with the playwright. Recommended." Library Journal
Review
"[Nadel] generates little narrative momentum, frequently repeating facts and leaving the occasional strange gap....For all Nadel's research, his book captures little of his subject's unruly brilliance." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Relying almost exclusively on secondary sources, Nadel has constructed a very shaky edifice upon which to discuss Mamet's singular career....The result is a severely undernourished book, certainly not the biography that this giant of American art deserves." Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
Author, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter, David Mamet is often referred to as the quintessential American writer. His works are known for their clever and terse dialogue and have earned him a Pulitzer Prize for
Glengarry Glen Ross and Oscar nominations for
House of Games as well as
The Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, and
The Verdict.
This comprehensive biography details his ideas on writing including the genesis for many of his plays acting, and directing. Beginning with his Chicago origins, the work goes on to cover his relationship to Judaism, his reputation for machismo, as well as discussions of and excerpts from early plays and stories that have never before been referenced in print. Also included are interviews with key actors and directors such as William H. Macy, Mike Nussbaum, Robert Brustein, and Neil Pepe.
Synopsis
The definitive biography of David Mamet.
Synopsis
The definitive biography of David Mamet
About the Author
Ira Nadel is a well-known critic and biographer. The author of the acclaimed Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen and Tom Stoppard. He is currently a professor of English at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Table of Contents
City of Fact * South of the Northeast Kingdom * Off-Loop * South Side Gypsy * The American Way * Soldier of Fortune * A Jew in the Nineties * Book of Games * Arcade Amusement