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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A glorious banquet of language, imagery, and rage, March 26, 1999
This review is from: Plays Well with Others (Paperback)
If American literature of the last decade were a color, it would probably be medium gray, with silver and tan highlights. If it were music, it would be minimalist. Authors' voices are missing or consciously disengaged. Then along comes Allan Gurganus who, in "Plays Well With Others," puts the AIDS crisis and New York art scene of the 80s on paper as no one ever has, or will ever have to again. His colors are primary; his soundtrack is Mahler; his rage is heartbreaking and wildly funny. If you don't like getting involved in the characters' lives, stay away from this wonderful book. If, however, you revel in the use of language for its own sake, in raunchy humor and sexual exploits, in characters who jump off the page and into your brain even after you have put the book down, then this one is for you. Gurganus has Robert, the central character, accuse Hartley, the narrator and Gurganus' voice, of only ever wanting a Thank You from life. Well, Mr. Gurganus, thank you.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What a letdown!, September 17, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Plays Well with Others (Paperback)
I was really excited that a new novel had been written by the author of OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW. Maybe I anticipated too much, but no way does this book live up to its predecessor. WIDOW brought me into the world of the American South and helped me to understand so much of the experiences of the people who lived through the Civil War and of the mind set of their descendents. PLAYS WELL talked about the New York art scene of the 1980's, but I always felt like Gurganus was treating me like an outsider who could never really understand what it was like. There were some amazingly touching scenes (such as when the narrator first notices his friend's telltale "spot") that serve to remind us of the level of writing Gurganus is capable of achieving, but those moments are way too few for me to recommend this book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant, February 12, 2005
This review is from: Plays Well with Others (Paperback)
What this book reminded me of was the song "Lady in Red" by Chris Deburgh. I understand the song was written in about 30 minutes - like a quick sketch - so it retained all the immediacy of someone who was writing down impressions and feelings while they were still fresh. Then he presented them unedited with all the immediacy intact. It may not have been the best song ever written, but it touched a chord because the emotions were so raw, and the feelings were so sincere.
"Plays Well with Others" is very obviously a not very well-camouflaged autobiographical tribute to the author's friends, who lived in pre-AIDS New York during a time period the author refers to as "Before", then died there of the "plague". The writing is rough, and these friends are idealized to the point where you seriously doubt they were as clever, talented and unique as the author depicted them, but the emotions are very real, and the author is trying to describe people striving for a creative life and are at the very verge of great things, when they are all cut down by the sudden, unexpected and very deadly onset of AIDS.
The important things are the emotions and the pain. Part of the beauty of his writing style in this book is the spontaneous feel you get from it. You feel as though you're really reading a story written by someone who experienced all the pain of watching his friends die one by one until his only relief came from knowing they were finally all gone and he had no more friends to lose. That same sense of immediacy is there to remind you that someone real is mourning people who were real. And their deaths were a loss and a tragedy, not only to the author. They represent all the people who died, and are dying now. They were loved and cherished and had great plans to do great things. Instead of doing those great things, they left behind one good friend to clean up the mess, usher in their grieving parents, and write a book so they wouldn't be forgotten.
It's almost diary-like in the way he wrote it. Approach it like you're reading someone's diary, and you'll be more forgiving than some of the reviewers who focused on the book as "fiction" and expected it to read like Gurganus' other great novel, "Confederate Widow". It's nothing like the first book. Please don't compare them. And when you read it, presume there is real grief behind the words - I see it there, anyway.
Just read it as the tribute it is, and use it as a means through which you might understand what all it was like, for one person at least.
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