Joe Turner's Come and Gone [Mass Market Paperback]

August Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

When Harold Loomis arrives at a black Pittsburgh boardinghouse after seven years' impressed labor on Joe Turner's chain gang, he is a free man—in body. But the scars of his enslavement and a sense of inescapable alienation oppress his spirit still, and the seemingly hospitable rooming house seethes with tension and distrust in the presence of this tormented stranger. Loomis is looking for the wife he left hehind, believing that she can help him reclaim his old identity. But through his encounters with the other residents he begins to realize that what he really seeks is his rightful place in a new world—and it will take more than the skill of the local "People Finder" to discover it. . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As rich in religious feeling as in historical detail, Joe Turner is at once a teeming canvas of black America and a spiritual allegory with a Melville whammy . . . Joe Turner is flecked with hypnotic storytelling soliloquies as grittily redolent of itinerant America as those in The Iceman Cometh."
—Frank Rich, The New York Times

"Has the haunting power of a ghost story . . . bold theatricality . . . electrifying."
—The Washington Post

"August Wilson''s best play!"
—William A. Henry III, Time magazine

"Joe Turner''s Come and Gone is one of the best American plays of the decade . . . he takes us through joy and disaster, hatred and love; he pulls few punches and in the end he has contributed not only to the stature of American playwrighting but to our understanding of our society. A rich, rewarding play, that rare work what entertains while it teaches."
—The Providence Journal

About the Author

August Wilson is a major American playwright whose work has been consistently acclaimed as among the finest of the American theater. His first play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best new play of 1984-85. His second play, Fences, won numerous awards for best play of the year, 1987, including the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Joe Turner's Come and Gone, his third play, was also voted best play of 1987-88 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. In 1990, Wilson was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 94 pages
• Publisher: Plume; 1ST edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452260094
• ISBN-13: 978-0452260092
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don' Be Mad?, May 7, 2003

By 

"blakepreston" (Lorain, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Mass Market Paperback)

The title "Joe turner's Come & Gone symbolizes the American socialized system of oppression. Joe Turner is "the Man", Joe Turner is jail, and oppression. In this play, Herald Loomis has been detained by Joe Tuerner for seven years. Upon his release he searches to find his daughter and his wife while all along he has been searching for his inner self.
Bynum Walker is a "Rootworker", one who practices unconventional spiritual worship. He lives in the boarding house an tells a story of a shiny man who has the secrete of life. This secret that he refers to, the secret of life, symbliizes the meaning of all in existance and most impoprtantly the knowledge of self. Joe Turner, "the Man", "the system", and American society have stripped, robbed,and raped the African American of self. It is this quest for idenity that Herald Loomis searches for within himself. This same quest is also found in all of the other characters in the play as well. Those that come to the boarding house are unstable and have not found their true selves. Even Seth and Bertha, the owners of the house also quest for their idenity. They have a better financial system than the others, but they are stil timid when they encounter white America. Seth constantly states the rules of the boarding house. He proclaims to operate a clean, safe, and respectful house. He feels that any other behavior would call too much attention to him and his home. Resulting in white American society to take oppresive actions against his achievements.
Joe Turner's Come & Gone is an excellent concept that spiritually looks at the concept of knowing ones-self. August Willson's use of quest for idenity among all his characters allows the reader to unmistakenly find a connection with their own secret song to sing.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convincing, February 9, 2001

By 

Walter Sobchak (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Mass Market Paperback)

"Joe Turner's Come and Gone" is a play about African Americans migrating north in the 1911. The play takes place in Pittsburgh in a boarding house owned by a husband, Seth, and his wife, Bertha. It is the perfect location for Wilson's theme of separation. This boarding house has several guests and each one has their own philosophy, story, and search. I tried to determine which of those three were most important, but I have come to the conclusion that they are all equally important. Their stories are what link the characters' past to their present. Their respective philosophies explain their outlooks on life and their personalities. The search itself, in my opinion, is for identity - an identity that has been raped by the horrors of slavery. These horrors either directly or indirectly tore the main characters from their loved ones and I think Wilson is arguing that they lost their identities in the process. It is hard to review a play without giving away any plot. I believe the problem Wilson is trying to overcome is how to recover one's identity. Where does it come from? The characters in this play are unforgettable - especially the interaction between Bynum and Loomis. The ending is worth reading the play alone - it is so surprising, yet after the initial shock, it makes perfect sense without Wilson elaborating on it. Highly recommended.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz: the Center of the Black Experience, May 6, 2003

By 

Takiela Walker (Oberlin,Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Mass Market Paperback)

August Wilson, a Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright captures the essence of the African-American experience of slavery, migration, and the quest for an identity. These themes are part of the written slave narrative, from which the African-American literary tradition was born. In "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", Wilson brings the struggle of migration from the agricultural South to the Industrial North to light; set in the early 1900's when this great migration had just begun. The quest for self/an identity is one of the many scarring ramifications of slavery, and the result of namelessness. Wilson, is able to capture this central theme through religion, allegory, and music-Jazz/Blues. The quest for ones identity is rooted in the metaphorical use of the quest for a song. Songs mean different things for different people; they touch people in different ways. Why? Because each individual is unique, each individual has a song, an identity. With the historical culture of the African-American, and its connection to Music, this collaboration of rhythms and imagery proliferate the importance of this quest to life. Wilson, like Toni Morrison, offers his work as an illustration of the Blues Theory of Art-the idea that music has the ability to reach deep into the soul, and pull from it the raw feelings that may otherwise be unreachable. Music goes to the core of ones being, and helps the healing process. With Loomis, this was evident in the search for his song, his identity, it was all part of the restorative process, yet a consequence of America's greatest shame-Slavery. I must say that "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" in a wonderful way, using symbolism, folklore, and like Jazz, a non-written form of art, serves as an anchor and captures the heart of the African-American experience.