Beauty's Daughter, Monster, the Gimmick - by Dael Orlandersmith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The sheer exuberance of language that pours forth in Dael Orlandersmith's plays has dazzled critics and audiences alike. In these three pieces, the award-winning writer and performer celebrates the power of words to rescue the young black women she portrays from their constricted worlds.

In the Obie Award-winning play "Beauty's Daughter," Diane yearns to free herself from her soul-deadening surroundings, where people drown their unfulfilled aspirations in drugs and alcohol. In "Monster," Theresa imagines a life in the rock-'n'-roll poetry bohemia of Manhattan's Lower East Side and away from her home in East Harlem, where she is scorned as a misfit. And in "The Gimmick," Alexis escapes her brutal reality among the library bookshelves, where she dreams of becoming a writer in Paris. Charged with fearless wisdom, these three electrifying plays transform rage-filled ghetto experience into a triumph of rhapsodic expression.

Review Quotes

"There is a tough and necessary beauty in this writing, in these finely-detailed portraits of funny, infuriating, heroic people--. Orlandersmith hears the human need for dignity and justice, for love--. She is critic, witness, and poet."--Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angels in America

"[Orlandersmith's] depictions of the characters in her native East Harlem neighborhood--some broken, some on the way down--are passionate and full of insight."--The New Yorker

"An exciting new voice--of fiery rebellion and lilting lyricism--at once full of anger and compassion."--The New York Times

About the Author

Dael Orlandersmith lives in New York City. She won an Obie award in 1995 for "Beauty's Daughter."