Angels in America: Parts One and Two
by Tony Kushner
published
April 12th 2007
(first published 1992)
by Nick Hern Books
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binding
Paperback, 288 pages
isbn
1854599828
(isbn13: 9781854599827)
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Read in October, 2007
Angels in America is seven hours long. You need to break the two parts up over the course of a weekend, probably. And it might be the first and it might be the only gay epic ever written. And this is why it's one of the most important books I've read. Luckily it's also one of the best.
Its project is a tough one: look at the rise of AIDS in the culture of Reagan-era New York City as experienced by three men who identify as gay, one Mormon who's oriented sexually toward other men, and R...more
Its project is a tough one: look at the rise of AIDS in the culture of Reagan-era New York City as experienced by three men who identify as gay, one Mormon who's oriented sexually toward other men, and R...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Rachel
THE BOOK: Humorous, witty, touching, beautiful play. This play explores the human side of what it means to live and cope with HIV/AIDS; the deadliest virus to hit mankind since the bubonic plague. In a touching line that portrays what it feels like to have such a stigmatized virus, Prior Walter, says, "I have dirty blood running through my veins. I feel polluted."
Kushner comments another theme of the play is the concept of collectivism. He states individualism is way over-rated in ...more
Kushner comments another theme of the play is the concept of collectivism. He states individualism is way over-rated in ...more
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Read in March, 2006
This play is freaky good. Rarely does a work of art so epic follow through so completely. If you liked Rent and want twice the profundity with none of the singing, this one's up your alley.
I don't really think of it as being a play about homosexuality, although it definitely has that slant. It's really about the 1980s. You've got your elder, greed-is-good lawyer (closet case dying of AIDS). You've got his young yuppie protege (Mormon who...more
I don't really think of it as being a play about homosexuality, although it definitely has that slant. It's really about the 1980s. You've got your elder, greed-is-good lawyer (closet case dying of AIDS). You've got his young yuppie protege (Mormon who...more
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Read in January, 2007
"Night flight to San Francisco; chase the moon across America. God, it’s been years since I was on a plane. When we hit 35,000 feet we’ll have reached the tropopause, the great belt of calm air, as close as I’ll ever get to the ozone. I dreamed we were there. The plane leapt the tropopause, the safe air, and attained the outer rim, the ozone, which was ragged and torn, patches of it threadbare as old cheesecloth, and that was frightening. But I saw something that only I could see beca...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone
This play, though sometimes uneven, is simply amazing. After watching the HBO production, I had to read this ambitious masterpiece.
Part 1: Millennium Approaches is okay. It's a little bit exposition heavy, and often the characters come off as being incredibly self-involved and more or less unlikeable. However, this almost laborious setup is more than worthwhile for the brilliant part 2.
Part 2: Perestroika is where everything from part 1 pays off. Every single character fin...more
Part 1: Millennium Approaches is okay. It's a little bit exposition heavy, and often the characters come off as being incredibly self-involved and more or less unlikeable. However, this almost laborious setup is more than worthwhile for the brilliant part 2.
Part 2: Perestroika is where everything from part 1 pays off. Every single character fin...more
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Read in September, 1996
A college English professor corralled me into taking a senior-level contemporary American drama seminar my freshman semester (way back in 1996). I actually think he needed another body so the class didn't close. It was luck playing its cards - our class spent many nights that semester in independent Twin Cities playhouses - it was a ton of fun.
This fantasia is based on gay/queer issues, and among "'Night Mother" and "M. Butterfly," was one of the best contemporary plays...more
This fantasia is based on gay/queer issues, and among "'Night Mother" and "M. Butterfly," was one of the best contemporary plays...more
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I picked this up because as I was walking past Bethesda Fountain with some friends recently one turned to it and said “this was in Angels in America,” and I had no idea what she was talking about (I know it by reputation, but that’s about it.) I guess don’t need much of a reason to pick up a book.
Angels in America is a fun and generally moving read, though I didn’t get in to certain of the more important characters (Louis and Joe, for instance – Louis because his reasons for l...more
Angels in America is a fun and generally moving read, though I didn’t get in to certain of the more important characters (Louis and Joe, for instance – Louis because his reasons for l...more
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Thanks to a very smart friend of mine, who predicted that I would love this play, I was introduced to this work back when it was still a somewhat-obscure Pulitzer-prize winning AIDS drama. I read it in one long stretch laying in the guest room at his house while everyone else chatted in the living room. I now consider it to be the best piece of literature ever written, hands down. Angels in America is better than anything. It’s in a class all it’s own. The plot is difficult to describe,...more
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Read in January, 2004
Something rare, dangerous and harrowing...a roman candle hurled into a drawing room.
Angels in America is playful and profound, extravagantly theatrical and deeply spiritual, witty, and compassionate, furious and incredibly smart....It's impossible to imagine anyone captivated by the beginning not wanting — needing — to go back for the end.
Side note: Tony Kushner's two-part masterwork is now available in a single edition to coincide with the broadcast of the epic HBO special directed by...more
Angels in America is playful and profound, extravagantly theatrical and deeply spiritual, witty, and compassionate, furious and incredibly smart....It's impossible to imagine anyone captivated by the beginning not wanting — needing — to go back for the end.
Side note: Tony Kushner's two-part masterwork is now available in a single edition to coincide with the broadcast of the epic HBO special directed by...more
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Read in July, 2007
I picked up this play and found it so enthralling that I didn’t put it down again until I finished both parts. This is a profoundly moving work that somewhat confusingly weaves through a ridiculous number of different topics, including but not limited to: American politics (particularly Neoconservatism), the burgeoning HIV/AIDS epidemic, being gay in America, religion, the plight modern man, suffering, and getting on with life despite suffering. Though beautifully written and with sharp dialo...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
Amazing. Kushner's sheer wit makes this compulsive reading. I have no words to describe how bloody GOOD this play is; all the characters are vibrant, and will undoubtedbly become etched into your mind. The way they have been written is the reason why the play is so strong. You find yourself deeply immersed in their stories. And despite the fantasmic lilt, and the clever (and hilarious) lines the characters utter, there is, of course, a serious undertone - this is, after all, a work about ...more
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This is one of the few pieces of art that deserves the description "amazing." I got to see both parts on Broadway in 1994. I laughed; I cried; I thought; I worried; I gasped; I cried some more. When I read the script, and much later, when I saw the 6-hour film, I felt the pleasures of amazement again. It was fresh each time. The beauty of the language works whether spoken or read, and the ideas that drive this piece continue to challenge me. I feel bold, wanting to write something as a...more
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Read in November, 2007
Angels was required reading for a theatre class I was taking at school. All I knew about it was that it was "the gay AIDS play." I hadn't seen the mini-series HBO did a few years ago. I liked it on first read. It didn't impress me either good or bad, it was okay. But then we started to analyze the text and look at its meaning to the world around us, and defining a throughline of action and a ruling idea for the play, and OMG, it really began to make sense and I opened up to it and...more
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This is another book club read that came as a surprise for my group. We endeavored to make our book club push members outside of their comfort zones, so every year we read a book of a different format or type (a play, prose poetry, science fiction, fantasy, etc.) This was our choice for a play one year, and not only is a great (and fast!) read, but it inspired a great discussion, covering everything from prejudice to faith to politics. If you're looking for a switch from the usual, these two...more
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Read in July, 2005
This play has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. After reading it, I can see why. Angels in America is daring in its scope, its portrayal of America, and its subject matter. I couldn't stop reading, despite several times where I did not quite "get it". This is going to take another read through on my part to fully appreciate what the play is about and its symbolism, as well as watching it played out in front of me, I think. Still, incredibly engrossing and qui...more
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Read in April, 2007
A play from the early 90's with an incredibly large scope of characters and issues including but not limited to homosexuality, AIDS, identity, guilt, politics, love, abandonment, race, Mormonism, drug addiction, and justice. Pretty real, but also fantastic. Part 1 is better than Part 2, in my opinion, because certain aspects of Part 2 (mainly the whole angels thing) are weird (in the way that it seems like the playwright was trying too hard) and pointless.
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This play examines a variety of themes by following the disintegration of a gay couple in which one partner is dying of AIDS, the disintegration of a marriage in which the husband is a closeted gay, and the rapid death of Roy Cohn. It's hard to describe, so you'll just have to read/see it.
Brilliant, brilliant. Insightful, and so creative. I will run to see it the next time it's staged in Chicago. The HBO production is on my Netflix queue.
Brilliant, brilliant. Insightful, and so creative. I will run to see it the next time it's staged in Chicago. The HBO production is on my Netflix queue.
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I think this is the best bit o lit written in my lifetime (that I have encountered so far, anyway).
Fantastic characters (Belize & Roy in particular); big beautiful speeches; a strange and very moving combination of heavy themes and a playful spirit; a clear-eyed worldview that, while tainted here and there with the author's own idealogical perspective, produces a moral ambiguity that feels very honest, bracing, and rare.
Freaking A, you know?
Fantastic characters (Belize & Roy in particular); big beautiful speeches; a strange and very moving combination of heavy themes and a playful spirit; a clear-eyed worldview that, while tainted here and there with the author's own idealogical perspective, produces a moral ambiguity that feels very honest, bracing, and rare.
Freaking A, you know?
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This rocks. It is completely worth the hype.
This two-part epic succeeds through high-octane drama, the snappiest of dialogue, unabashedly powerful symbols, terrific characters - the devil himself could alight on stage during a performance and be upstaged by Roy Cohn - and searing political and social criticism. Kushner's work has always seemed like it could change the world through sheer force of will.
This two-part epic succeeds through high-octane drama, the snappiest of dialogue, unabashedly powerful symbols, terrific characters - the devil himself could alight on stage during a performance and be upstaged by Roy Cohn - and searing political and social criticism. Kushner's work has always seemed like it could change the world through sheer force of will.
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
anybody
I went through a period of reading plays, late on in college. Many plays are well worth seeing, but not so much for the reading. This one is sheer poetry--even though the subject matter is rather serious---the beauty of the passages are almost stuck into my memory. I've seen the play--I've watched the movie--but this text is well worth it in its own right.
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.48 (842 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.26 (46 ratings) number of reviews: 73
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quote
"I hate America. I hate this country. It’s just big ideas, and stories, and people dying, and people like you. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me. You come to room 1013 over at the hospital, I'll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean. I live in America, that’s hard enough, I don’t have to love it. You do that. Everybody’s got to love something."
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