Author: Arthur Miller
Publisher: Heinemann Library
Release Date: March 18, 1994
For Fans of: Fences by August Wilson, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
My Rating: 2 stars
Summery:
"Willy Loman has been
a salesman for 34 years. At 60, he is cast aside, his usefulness exhausted.
With no future to dream about he must face the crushing disappointments of his
past. He takes one final brave action, but is he heroic at last or a self-deluding
fool?"
This play is a little different from the other literature I've read and reviewed on here, in the way that it was assigned reading for school. Assigned reading is usually pretty hard for me to get into because I like to read at my own pace, but other than that I usually enjoy the books and appreciate the chance to read good literature. I rarely give books lower than 3 stars, but there really wasn't anything about this play that I enjoyed. This play was written to convey a different sort of lifestyle than we usually read about the 1940's. In this novel we follow the main character Willy Loman through his exhausting and miserable life. At this point in his life he has absolutely nothing going for him. He has just been taken off salary by his boss who is 20 years younger than him so he's only working on commission, he hasn't been able to sell anything for years, His grown sons don't respect him and think he's a coward and a liar, he has no money and has to borrow from his neighbor just to pay the bills (without his wife's knowledge), he's disappointed with his sons (One of which is stuck in the same trap as Willy and the other is completely immoral and unethical), He's cheating on his wife just to feel like someone needs him, and to top it off his is insanely depressed. This book really goes above and beyond in making you feel sorry for the main character in a way thats hard to read. The worst part of this play is that it never gets better, in fact it keeps getting worse and more depressing. I have been meaning to watch the play, just to see if that makes me like it any better, but I highly doubt it will.
So, just beware as your reading this that it might put you in a bad mood. I also will admit that I read this right after I read the Great Gatsby, which was phenomenal (review to come) so that might also have contributed a little to the low rating. But just because this book wasn't my favorite, doesn't mean that it wont be yours! So please pick it up if your interested and let me know what you thought of it!
