The Cabin: Reminiscences and Diversions [Hardcover]

David Mamet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1992

In a series of autobiographical essays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright reminisces about his Chicago youth, his early years in New York, the actors with whom he has worked, and his many travels.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an amalgam of travel and reminiscence, playwright Mamet ( Glengarry Glen Ross ) recalls salient points about growing up in Chicago: his physically abusive stepfather, a YMCA summer camp, riding the El and a popular radio station that filtered the city's heady mix of populist and intellectual cultural strands. In other essays he waxes nostalgic about Manhattan's Chelsea district, where he struggled as a writer in his late 20s, and contrasts "playing proletariat" in 1960s Greenwich Village with his placid life in a renovated row house in Boston's South End where he and his wife enjoy "our own two-person Bloomsbury salon." Other pieces deal with Mamet's Vermont cabin, rifle practice, taking golf lessons in Scotland, a bemused trip to the Cannes Film Festival, inhaling asbestos on a factory job and a hop through various London districts by way of their tea shoppes. If Mamet's clean, spare prose here lacks the vernacular bite of his previous essay collections, it is nonetheless pleasurable.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Enormous powers of observation...he has an ear for language."

-- LA Weekly



"A very worthwhile collection...Mamet walks a line between provocation and enticement, and its precariousness almost always compels attention."

-- Newsday

"A delight...there is a lean, masculine quality to his essays."

-- Baltimore Sun


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 157 pages
• Publisher: Turtle Bay Books: imprint of Random House, Inc.; 1st edition (November 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679415580
• ISBN-13: 978-0679415589
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,290,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mamet-plus, February 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cabin: Reminiscence and Diversions (Paperback)

Mamet's mere name has become shorthand for so much - a style, a voice, violence, woman-hating - that it's hard to just read a book of his, and it's hard to disassociate oneself from the stereotyping of his work, even if one doesn't agree with the stereotypes. This is especially true when reading another of his essay books. But the violence of the opening story truly jolted me out of my preconceptions & made me wonder if I could read on. I did, and I'm glad. The matzo ball/bearskin rug story brought a wan smile to my face, & the title essay is a tremendously evocative piece of writing that really sticks with you.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful stories from the youth of an aspiring artist, May 21, 1999

By 

HeiLau ([e-mail] (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cabin: Reminiscence and Diversions (Paperback)

As a young aspiring artist of sorts, I found reading Mr.Mamet's stories and reactions to his life at once turbulent, inspiring, and nostalgic. The honest care the author takes in describing the places and people of his long life is so comforting, it is a struggle to believe that one person can live the 'scenes' in his life in such peace. Mamet's occasional extremist opinions give the stories meaningful dynamics, and the stories are recommended to anyone who likes to think about the little things in life, especially those from Chicago, Vermont, or New York. Consumes only a little time but a lot of imagination.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Wishes Begotten, August 25, 2006

By 

Aco - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cabin: Reminiscence and Diversions (Paperback)

I propose that a poor to mediocre writer insights me to write because I believe I can do the same or better. But an exceptional writer insights me to write because I believe I must try to be as good or better. While being as good or better than David Mamet is not a necessary objective in itself, a hell of a task at that, bringing to the page the smooth articulate thoughts, observations and understanding he does in a piece like The Cabin is.
Most of these pieces, which are less essays and more pops, or a pastiche of his past/family/history, portraits of Chicago, New York, London, France and Vermont, gun culture, radio voices, golf, jobs and hobbies.
In many respects these are lite fare. Mostly short snips, they illuminate his person with fascile writing, are very likeable and (mostly) calming.
Being a Mamet lover, I would very much recommend these. They seem to be written if not in joy, then in peace....