Tennessee Williams

Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh

De: John Lahr

Narrado por: Elizabeth Ashley

The definitive biography of America's greatest playwright from the celebrated drama critic of The New Yorker.

John Lahr has produced a theater biography like no other. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh gives intimate access to the mind of one of the most brilliant dramatists of his century, whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation's sense of itself. This astute, deeply researched biography sheds a light on Tennessee Williams's warring family, his guilt, his creative triumphs and failures, his sexuality and numerous affairs, his misreported death, even the shenanigans surrounding his estate.

With vivid cameos of the formative influences in Williams's life - his fierce, belittling father Cornelius; his puritanical, domineering mother Edwina; his demented sister Rose, who was lobotomized at the age of thirty-three; his beloved grandfather, the Reverend Walter Dakin - Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh is as much a biography of the man who created A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as it is a trenchant exploration of Williams’s plays and the tortured process of bringing them to stage and screen.

The portrait of Williams himself is unforgettable: a virgin until he was twenty-six, he had serial homosexual affairs thereafter as well as long-time, bruising relationships with Pancho Gonzalez and Frank Merlo. With compassion and verve, Lahr explores how Williams's relationships informed his work and how the resulting success brought turmoil to his personal life.

©2014 John Lahr (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Reseñas de la Crítica

• National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Biography, 2014

Perfect combination of story and narration

Oftentimes, good stories suffer from poor narration. Elizabeth Ashley is pitch perfect in her narration of John Lahr's exceptional book. Listeners will not be disappointed.

Great Story

I didn't want it to end! Very thorough and entertaining. A brilliant mind and a tragic life.

Terrific

Beautifully written extremely detailed and extensively researched It deservedly received the Pulitzer Prize Highly recommenced

Beautiful retelling of the story of Tennessee..

embedded in his plays…. I loved hearing about the writing and mounting of Menagerie, Streetcar, Cat, Rose Tattoo, and Iguana.. brilliant and iconic playwright.. im obsessed w TW…

Enthralling drama its subject would have enjoyed

I couldn't stop listening to Elizabeth Ashley's perfectly evocative performance of this biography... that felt more truly like a drama than a nonfiction work.
Good on you, John Lahr!! Thoughtful, even, wide open account with the perfect amount of detail. I loved the narrative structure being more dramatic than chronological.
Good on you, Elizabeth Ashley! You are now Tennessee Williams' voice in my subconscious. What a delicious voice you have for this text, although it is so much more than text, thanks to Lahr & Ashley (OK, and the late great T. Williams)!

outstanding

One of the best biographies I've ever read. The performance by Elizabeth Ashley brought the story and William's words to life for me.

Excellent Narrator

Elizabeth Ashley does an amazing job for 26 hours material. The writing by John Larh is excellent and Ashley's style, textured voice and ability to slip into accents makes the time fly by. I really have no criticism of the book or performance. If anything I want the physical book just so I can sit with the writing longer than an audiobook allows for.

informative, but uneven

I feel I understand his plays in a deeper way. Confusing structure and narration, however

A wonderful book...

An astonishing, beautiful story of the great playwright who wore his heart on his stage. John Lahr is a brilliant biographer.

A brilliant writer/playwrite & tortured soul

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but only if they have a curiosity for the dark, and kinky

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tennessee Williams?

It was all quite memorable

Which scene was your favorite?

n/a

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was intrigued by his personal life. The man wrote masterpiece after masterpiece, drawing from his tortured childhood, relationship with his mother, the drink, and lonely world of homosexuality, to create complexed characters, sub-consciously writing himself in the roll of the fem-fatal.

Any additional comments?

I found the world of Tennessee not at all what I thought. But that said, I really enjoyed the book.