The Homecoming by Harold Pinter Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Homecoming
Book Review: Weak
Summary: 1 Stars
Quite displeasing, featuring a long sequence of arbitrary and unpleasant action, revolving around characters that are even more simplistic and unappealing. The dialog fails to be very believable, and fails even more at being rhetorically appealing. I'm left baffled by Pinter's fame and critical success, and am thoroughly uninterested in reading his other material.
Worse than: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
Better than: Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker
Book Review: What in the world did we do before Pinter?
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best works out thereBook Review: Whorecoming
Summary: 4 Stars
At first this play seems like a good absurd/kitchen sink 60s
English play, with the usual dysfunctional family characters. It
is that but with the character of Ruth, things get really weird-even
for this group of people. They're a pretty perverted bunch, but I still
enjoyed the play. Though Ruth stills seems like something pretty
unexpected, but that's what the theatre is sometimes all about. If
I were Ruth I'd get back to the USA ASAP.
Book Review: strange play
Summary: 1 Stars
this is the type of play that seems to have been written for the sole purpose of having people analyze it to death. it is an ugly play full of ugly characters. Bring your anti-depressants - you'll need them.Book Review: this play shows its age
Summary: 2 Stars
This play caused a great controversial stir when it was first performed in 1965. This is supposed to be a classic example of an existentialist and absurdist play. It was Pinter's first stage play and the one that made his reputation. Although it was very daring and shocking in 1965, the play has aged and lost its freshness and original power, in my opinion. There are many other portrayals of dysfunctional families that have retained their freshness and power--such families have been a mainstay of drama from the time of the ancient Greeks. Shakespeare and even fairy tales have built themselves around exploring the dark and abusive aspects of the family dynamic. So Pinter's on to nothing new or radical here. The script as such is blatantly misogynist. The one female role, Ruth, has no lines that sound human--she comes across as a stilted android. Ruth is so obviously not a real woman but a male projection of lust, fear, possession, hate, and paranoia. I recently saw this play performed in Manchester, UK, and have to wonder why people still think this play, with all its misogynist posturing, is relevant to a contemporary audience. If it were just a black absurd comedy, it might have worked better for me, but Pinter seems to be aiming at something deeper and more menacing yet can't seem to make up his mind if we're supposed to be feeling sympathy with his characters or taking them (and the underlying meaning of the play) seriously or not.