Something Cloudy, Something Clear (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Tennessee Williams (Author), Eve Adamson (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This previously unpublished autobiographical play?it is based on Tennessee Williams: Memoirs (LJ 11/1/75)?was written late in Williams's life and is now being published through his trust. Williams offers a fictionalized remembrance of the pivotal 1940 summer at Provincetown, Cape Cod, where he retreated to rewrite a play intended to be his Broadway debut. While there he had an affair with a Canadian draft-dodger/dancer, Kip, who later died of a brain tumor. Eve Adamson, director of the original 1981 production, maintains in the introduction that the play "seeks a reconciliation between love and art, life and death, and to use two phrases which recur in the play?exigencies of desperation and negotiation of terms." Unfortunately, a thin plot and weak characterizations make it a minor work in Williams's dramatic canon. However, as one of his most personal plays, bearing the mark of Williams's poetic beauty and pathos, it is recommended for all academic and large public libraries.?Ming-ming Shen Kuo, Ball State Univ., Muncie, Ind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Williams spent his last 20 years scribbling eccentric little "chamber pieces," most of them lacking the focus, depth, and scope of his earlier, more operatic plays. This play from that late period is full of painfully obvious symbolism and dramatic moments deflated by characters overexplaining themselves, yet it has some power, and images from it linger after the final scene. It concerns an old writer, lost in his thoughts, who relives a key moment in his past--the time when he met and fell in love with a dying dancer named Kip. Structurally, the play flits from 1941 to 1981 and back with fascinating, disorienting ease. Williams aficionados will also appreciate the promiscuous use of autobiographical material: the main character is clearly a stand-in for Williams, and Kip was the name of the great, lost love of Williams' life. Jack Helbig --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 85 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation; First UK Edition edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213110
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213110
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,550,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > British & Irish > Contemporary
  • #31 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Williams, Tennessee

More About the Author

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), one of the 20th century's most superb writers, was also one of its most successful and prolific. His classic works include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Summer and Smoke, Camino Real, Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana, Orpheus Descending, and The Rose Tattoo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Piece of Poetry, May 2, 2000

By 

Gianmarco Manzione (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Hardcover)

After my first reading of 'Something Cloudy, Something clear," I was confused and frustrated with myself. The play did little for me and I knew this had to be the result of my inattentive reading, because no Tennessee Williams play has ever failed to effect me in some way. Upon a second reading, I was immediately struck by the play's powerful nostalgia, almost frighteningly true insights and Wiliams's mastery of universal language. This is when I knew I was reading a play by the great Tennessee Williams. Much like Chekov, the play has little to do with plot. Victims of Hollywood's endless catalog of films void of subtlety, which spare audiences any thought by saying everything for them, are unlikely to enjoy this play. "Something Cloudy, Something Clear" is an opportunity to take a tour through a great playwright's life and read his welocme observations which unexpectedly leap out of the dialogue. But "Something Cloudy, Soemthing Clear" is not exclusively autobiographical, it speaks for us all. We all have moments in which we recall certain portions of our lives with surprising clarity. "[Life] finally seems to occur all at one time," as the play's main character, August, tells us. Looking back on those times, we are often better able to understand ourselves and the human experience, As Wiliams appears to have accomplished in writing this play. Written at the end of his life, "Something Cloudy, Something Clear" is a fitting epitaph to one man's relentless attempt to understand the human experience, and with plays such as this, Williams was kind enough to let us peak in at his thoughts along the way. Thank you, Tennessee.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb autobiographic play, January 8, 1999

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[e-mail] (germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Hardcover)

actually, i think this is one of williams' most daring plays, as it is so autobiographical, in every detail. the main character is no doubt williams himself, every (but one) person appearing in the play have been in close contact to him in the 40s. I think it is high time to have this play performed again, as it had not seen the spotlight since 1981 (as far as i'm informed).

5.0 out of 5 stars Daring, compelling, February 5, 2010

By 

R. Blackbird "Dreaming Blackbird" (Oakland, California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Something Cloudy, Something Clear - Acting Edition (Paperback)

I have read this play several times and will continue reading it several more times. I think if you read this play once then you miss all the detail and interesting effects that Tennessee Williams was going for. I know its not a perfect piece compared to some of his other plays but Tennessee williams was onto something with this play. I don't think he was able to get the play were it needed to be because so many people critizided it from the begining. The wanted Tennessee Williams to write similar plays that made him famous. I think it is important for a play write to be inovative, daring and to just go out on a limb with their writing. And this is what Williams did. I really think that Williams was trying to do things in this play that was a head of its time and unfortanetly critizized and pushed aside. Anyone who is a true fan of Tennessee Williams should read this play, and read it more than once and notice all the little things that the play consit of that make it more than a failure.