The Day Room (Plays, Penguin) [Paperback]

Don DeLillo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Plays, Penguin | Publication Date: February 7, 1989

"The Day Room", Don DeLillo's first play, is a black comedy that explores the chaos caused when the onlooker is unsure of the status of a team of medics in a psychiatric unit. Are they really bona fide staff or patients just pretending to be?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

DeLillo ( The Names, White Noise) is a well known novelist with a loyal following; this is his first play. As one would expect, it is a fractured view of reality, a black comedy. For those who thought absurdism was finished as a stage language, here it is, full blown, still able to puzzle, shock, and amuse. Set in a hospital, the play rapidly destroys the distinctions between patients and staff until it is impossible to tell who is ill and who is not. Our fears of hospitals, death, and insanity are allowed full reign. Language breaks down, and finally, the perception of reality dissolves into questions about personal identity and the possibility of meaningful communication. This is not for everyone, but it plays well. A new turn in DeLillo's career. Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 7, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140482296
• ISBN-13: 978-0140482294
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,338,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Don DeLillo is the author of fourteen novels, including Falling Man, Libra and White Noise, and three plays. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Jerusalem Prize. In 2006, Underworld was named one of the three best novels of the last twenty-five years by The New York Times Book Review, and in 2000 it won the William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the most distinguished work of fiction of the past five years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DeLillo never disappoints, December 22, 2009

By 

Big DeLillo Fan (Fredonia, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Day Room (Hardcover)

Don DeLillo is a consumate master of the written word, be it novel or play. "THe Day Room" is an hilarious exploration of an existential dilemma: What is real and who can I trust? What determines the normal and sane? The health care setting is particularly apt. I recommend this and everything DeLillo has written.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Read, But, May 23, 2010

By 

Vance "Klaatu" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day Room. (Paperback)

This was an enjoyable, quick read, and as always with plays, is better left to watch the stage version. Though I was initially pleased with the ending, and the story stayed with me, I still wonder about the point of it, what the message way.

Still, I enjoyed the writing and reading the play.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Day Room has it's good moments, but ultimately is a bit random, February 10, 2007

By 

Z. Freeman "Zach" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day Room (Plays, Penguin) (Paperback)

This play is definitely an interesting read, but I can't see how it would play out on the stage when the audience can't read the stage instructions (like letting you know that a guy in a straight-jacket is the TV, and other such low-rent "quirks" that this script has).

The Day Room definitely raises interesting questions about what is real and what is an illusion. The circular ending really saves the entire play, but it can't make up for 111 pages of confusion before that. While trying to build up to the shocking and consciousness-raising ending, the play sputters for a while in pseudo-intellectualism and leaves the reader wanting at least a little clarification to hang their hat on. Some randomness is beautiful, too much leaves nothing solid to hold the randomness up, and throws the reader off.

Delillo's style is reminiscient of Beckett and other experimental minimalists. There's not a typical plot, with a character arc to follow. There are hospital patients, and hospital workers, and the audience never really knows who's who or what's going to happen next. At times this is exciting, but at other times it separates the reader from the story.

There are some very good monologues sprinkled throughout the play, both in Act I and Act II, but sometimes long-winded monologues can get boring and slow a show down on stage. And if you're looking for good monologues, look somewhere besides a long-winded production set in a psychiatric ward.