This year I read a lot of plays, a lot of advanced reader’s copies of books I had collected from publishers over the years that built up in my office, and several books I picked up from our staff recommends lists at the library. The first three title discussed here are taken from each of these categories.
#20 – Infinite Country by Patricia Engel (2021)
Anchoring my Top 20 is a book I picked up off the BPL’s display of staff recommendations. Patricia Engel’s novel about a Colombian family town between two countires, struggling with political unrest and violence, deportations, cruelty, and the harsh immigration climate in the United States, is so personal and yet so mythic in scope. Mauro and Elena grew up in Colombia during a time of political uprisings and mass executions. Somehow they meet and fall in love, have their first child, then flee to United States. There they struggle to make a home for themselves, despite the lack of money, the scarcity of work, and the mistrust of their neighbors and the law. Two more children follow before Mauro is torn from the family and sent back to Colombia.
Engle weaves the mythological beliefs of the Colombian culture with a love story about a family. There is danger, there is injustice; but through it all family is the central theme that keeps the characters bonded together despite years of physical separation and isolation. Both devastatin and uplifting, Engle creates a memorable tale.
#19 – Regrets by Matt Charman (2012)
I’m not sure what drew me to read this play by Matt Charman, other than it was set in the 1950’s, as is the play I’m about to direct. What I didn’t know until I was well into the reading was that they shared similar themes. Regrets is a nicely constructed play about a post-divorce camp for men in the 1950’s. When a young man arrives and joins the other men, all in their 40’s, curiosity turns to suspicion as secrets are revealed as to the true reason for his arrival. Powerful and unexpected finale.
I generally read plays in search of intersting ones to produce. Regrets certainly falls into this category, but with my next play, After the Revolution by Amy Herzog, exploring similar themes, I will probably hold off on Regrets.
#18 – Mislaid by Nell Zink (2015)
This sharp satire that explores race, gender, sexuality, and class in the latter half of the 20th century tears apart the American family in new and startling ways. Mismatched pair, college student Freshman, Peggy and poetry professor, Lee find themselves in passionate but awkward affair that yields an unhappy marriage and two children. Doomed from the start (she’s a lesbian, he’s gay), Peggy eventually flees with one child leaving her older son behind with her husband. From their, all four spiral into unconventional lives that won’t cross paths again for years.
Author Nell Zink has a pointed style poking fun at the establishment and counter-culture society alike, with some special barbs for the South. After a sizzling opening, things bog down a bit in the middle, before amping up again for a rousing conclusion.
We’re cracking the Top 20, and the pop wonders are just going to get better and better. This is where we see Emm’s true mastery of songwriting come to the fore. We also get the first appearance of her duets album, Gem and I, and her only appearance from her albums, Goddess and Song of Love and Death. It also gets harder and harder to apply any sort of ranking system when we get this high, because on any given day, I like one song slight better than the other. At any rate, here are #’s 21 – 16.
Here’s a nice assortment of pop songs, from gorgeous ballads, both piano and acoustic guitar, to easy pop rock, and clever lyrics. It’s a great lead-in to my Top 20… and now it’s getting harder and harder to rank them because they’re all great!