Author

Publication

2003-10-01 - Dramatist's Play Service

Language

English

Word Count

22,500 words, Guess

Page Count

90 pages

Physical Format

Paperback

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • LibraryThing8345953
  • Goodreads2285800

Classifications

  • LCCPS3557.U2 F49 2003b
  • DDC812/.54
  • LCCPS3557.U2 F49 2003

Description

"This latest work from award winning playwright John Guare, author of House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation, addresses ideas of history and memory, fame and ignominy, reason and insanity, with trademark Guare imagination. It's 1885. Ulysses S. Grant is penniless and dying of throat cancer in his Fifth Avenue brownstone while struggling to finish his memoirs. He's continuously cajoled and pestered by everyone from his wife and children to his publisher, Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain), to - via drugged hallucinations - the Emperor of Japan. Although he completes his memoirs eventually, the audience is left questioning their accuracy, and, ultimately, the authenticity of history itself."--BOOK JACKET.

First Sentence

THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN I am the emperor of Japan

Excerpt

THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN I am the emperor of Japan

Description

A wonderfully screwy comedy-drama that figures Ulysses S. Grant in the throes of writing his memoirs while battling throat cancer, crushing debt, the labyrinth of his memories and the haunting tragedy of the battle of Cold Harbor, all the while surrounded by a cast of fantastical characters, including the Emperor and Empress of Japan, the opera star Adelina Patti and Mark Twain.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • Few Stout IndividualsPaperbackDramatist's Play Service2003-10-01

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