Mr. Universe: And Other Plays [Hardcover]

Jim Grimsley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 1998

George Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Playwright; Bryan Prize for Drama by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. In this collection, critically acclaimed novelist Jim Grimsley reveals his great gifts as a playwright in four powerful, award-winning plays presenting different worlds in collision and convergence. In "Mr. Universe," the rescue of a mute bodybuilder from the gritty streets of New Orleans by a couple of drag queens brings out the best and worst in them. In "The Lizard of Tarsus," an imprisoned Jesus (called J.) is interrogated by an ambitious follower, Paul of Tarsus. In "The Borderland," neighboring families representing two very different social classes are brought together during a storm. And in "Math and Aftermath," the two worlds of pornography and nuclear testing collide during a film shoot in the Marshall Islands. These plays (introduced by Romulus Linney, Reynolds Price, Kaye Gibbons, and Craig Lucas) demonstrate the differences that are matters of perception; together they establish Grimsley as a dramatist with imagination and nerve. A STAGE AND SCREEN BOOK CLUB selection.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jim Grimsley is a dark, witty Southern writer. Making no apologies for being tough, Grimsley dives headlong into heated contemporary issues such as religion, family, and same-gender sex. His powers are dialogue and description, which are always free of judgment. In his debut collection of plays, Mr. Universe & Other Plays, he mixes fire and ice in varying doses like a mad literary alchemist....Introduced by the likes of a Reynolds Price or a Kaye Gibbons, each play presents an often surreal but searing allegory for the tepid and shallow flow of status quo America. Grimsley began writing plays while waiting for his debut novel to sell. Turned down by every major house in the U.S.,Winter Birds was finally published in Europe to critical acclaim, and when eventually published here, raked in the esteemed Sue Kaufman Prize awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Although Grimsley insists he is a novelist first (he's published three now) and a playwright second, there's no denying that he's a force to be reckoned with on both fronts. -- Nelson Taylor, Bomb, Fall 1998

About the Author

Jim Grimsley is the author of four previous novels, among them Winter Birds, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; Dream Boy, winner of the GLBTF Book Award for literature; My Drowning, a Lila-Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award winner; and Comfort and Joy. He lives in Atlanta and teaches at Emory University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156512202X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565122024
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,609,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful style and suspense till the end!, April 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mr. Universe: And Other Plays (Hardcover)

Once again Jim Grimsley has a way of grasping your attention to a story making you read as fast as you can. These plays are wonderful and really stay with you as you wonder why characters did certain things. Especially after I finished reading Mr. Universe, I still had so many unanswered questions. I got so pulled into the story that I could imagine the muscle man standing there in front of me.

Jim Grimsley has a wonderful talent as an author and regardless of your background all of his books are wonderful!! His writing style is fantastic and his books are never predictable. He has a way of describing things in such detail that while you are reading one of his books you actually think you hear the characters talking out the words. Keep up the great writing and I will be looking for the next book of yours soon!