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Conversations With My Father
Dramatizes the relationship between an immigrant Jewish father and his son as they try to come to terms with the traditions of their culture and the new demands of being an American
- GenresPlays
155 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 11, 2018
Yet another Pulitzer-nominee featuring a dysfunctional father-son relationship. Sigh. The play has entirely too much chaff, and it follows a fairly paint-by-numbers formula. The play starts in the “present day” and moves back in time, and I’ll admit I stopped focusing in a few places because my brain kept listing other plays that mined the exact same vein.
I’ve seen more than one article about how every single person thinks their life in worthy of a memoir and how the result is that it’s a saturated market. Well, that’s also the case about dysfunctional families, to say nothing of yet another play featuring a man (likely a Baby Boomer) who had a troubled relationship with his (likely gruff, working class, and possibly an immigrant) father. Please stop.
This particular play takes place in a bar in the 1930s and ’40s and features a father who wants to shed his Jewish background in the name of acclimating to America. I guess the unique part is that it’s the father and not the children who is desperate to become white-bread American.
Look, if a superhero franchise makes a dysfunctional father-son relationship one of the major calling cards of one of its most prominent characters, let’s all go ahead and agree the genre has been done, it’s very unlikely that anything new can be said on the subject for the time being, and maybe the Pulitzer committee should stop rewarding the same tired plots. Not recommended.
I’ve seen more than one article about how every single person thinks their life in worthy of a memoir and how the result is that it’s a saturated market. Well, that’s also the case about dysfunctional families, to say nothing of yet another play featuring a man (likely a Baby Boomer) who had a troubled relationship with his (likely gruff, working class, and possibly an immigrant) father. Please stop.
This particular play takes place in a bar in the 1930s and ’40s and features a father who wants to shed his Jewish background in the name of acclimating to America. I guess the unique part is that it’s the father and not the children who is desperate to become white-bread American.
Look, if a superhero franchise makes a dysfunctional father-son relationship one of the major calling cards of one of its most prominent characters, let’s all go ahead and agree the genre has been done, it’s very unlikely that anything new can be said on the subject for the time being, and maybe the Pulitzer committee should stop rewarding the same tired plots. Not recommended.
January 25, 2020
Pretty good, mainly because of two scenes: when Eddie faces down the two Italian hood demanding protection money, and when Eddie gets really angry and loses it on Charlie. You get a very good sense of the dangerous world Eddie has grown up in.
June 29, 2017
2017: Highly enjoyable. After reading it, I wish I saw its Broadway production.
2025: I concur with my 2017 reading. Well-crafted.
2025: I concur with my 2017 reading. Well-crafted.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews