Hamlet's Dresser (Scribner): A Memoir - Couverture souple

Smith

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0743231783 ISBN 13 : 9780743231787

Editeur : Simon & Schuster Australia, 2002

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

'Bob Smith's Hamlet's Dresser, A Memoir, is a masterpiece. That's all there is to it. There may be dozens of memoirs pouring from the presses these days but there's nothing, absolutely nothing, like Mr. Smith's book. You'll want to keep it on your shelves snugly by Shakespeare. You'll keep it by your bed. You'll press it on high school kids, college students. Old Shakespeare himself must be crowing with delight and handing HAMLET'S DRESSER to the saints and angels.'
- Frank McCourt, author of ANGELA'S ASHES

'An ANGELA'S ASHES for Bardolaters, HAMLET'S DRESSER demonstrates with elegaic grace the truth of Bob Smith's own dictum that Shakespeare can be 'an armature on which to build a document of long life remembrances', a way to 'confirm what matters most'. It is a tale told by a wise man, full of tears and laughter, signifying a great deal more than most other works of autobiography and indeed literary criticism'
- Anthony Holden, author of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

'HAMLET'S DRESSER is a magnificent book. I have never read anything quite
like it before. The writing is masterful, poetic, sad and brilliant'
- Neil Simon, playwright
'Ask a kid on the Lower East Side what he thinks of Shakespeare: "Ah, he
sucks - I don't understand about them kings and queens." But Bob Smith opens the works of Shakespeare to the masses, and HAMLET'S DRESSER will take those kids - along with a coterie of senior citizens, nuns, storekeepers, and taxi drivers - on an illuminating trip through Shakespeare's world. What an odyssey! This book gave me great pleasure'
- Eli Wallach, actor
'Intimate and inspiring...his ability to juggle humour and pain never fails. Throughout this triumphant book, the shadow of Shakespeare looms, and Smith finds meaning in the plays to redeem his daily existence....Veteran memoir readers will find this book absorbing, refreshing and touching' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'Thank you most sincerely for sending me Hamlet's Dresser which I absolutely relished. It is written with such delicate and sensitive humanity that laughter and tears are constantly interchanging. I could hardly get through the final pages and felt an emotional wreck by the end. What a lovely man, with a golden gift for words and a deep understanding of human frailties and fears. The Shakespearean motif is superbly handled, never tricksy or clever but true and moving.
I found it inspirational; it made me look at those around me more sympathetically - especially the aged - his compassion touched me deeply'. Derek Jacobi
'[Bob Smith's] students know him, respond to him, and love him. I suspect that most readers will, too' BOSTON GLOBE
'A lyrical memoir' DAILY NEWS (New York)
'It's appropriate to compliment [Bob Smith's] achievement by altering Laertes' comment on his troubled sister, Ophelia. Laertes describes her as "a document on madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted." Smith's book is a fitting document on madness, thoughts and remembrance' THE NEW YORK TIMES
'This is an extraordinarily touching and haunting memoir of a life in Shakespeare ... But through it all runs Smith's search for himself, for his lost sister, for a life bound up in Shakespeare to such an extent that every play, every sonnet, has an autobiographical resonance. Neither scholastic nor fey, this is not a traditional backstage story. The author does not claim to be an interpreter of the Bard; he just wants us to know what it is like to live, eat, sleep and even dream Shakespeare, to have him as your life's partner and guide and inspiration, just to have him there in the good times and bad. The author's greatest strength, oddly enough, is his own self-confessed invisibility: he was just there when Shakespeare came to life, time after time after time, and he tells us in brisk, brilliant prose how it was done: all with mirrors, of course, but the images and the memories live on' Sheridan Morley
'Bob Smith weaves episodes of his story into a non-sequential narrative, told in lyrical prose in which his perception of links between his actual and his imaginative life achieves poetic force' Stanley Wells, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
'This beautifully written memoir describes poignantly Smith's journey through his childhood' THE TIMES
'HAMLET'S DRESSER is an extraordinarily beautiful and moving memoir. Although the story of one man's life, it manages to encompass compassion for the human condition, a virtual history of the ageing process and one of the best whistle-stop tours through Shakespeare's literary works ever produced' DAILY EXPRESS
'Serious, sensitive and sad' THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Deeply moving . . . hypnotic' Time Out
'An unusual and touching account of Shakespeare's influence on one man and through him, on others' CONTEMPORARY REVIEW

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Bob Smith was a fragile boy from a difficult household that was presided over by an unstable, depressive mother who depended on him, an unsupportive, unavailable father and a severely disabled, beautiful sister who lived at home, largely cared for by Bob. At the age of ten he stumbled upon a line from THE MERCHANT OF VENICE - 'in sooth I know not why I am so sad' - recognized himself in this poetic, melancholy language, and found a buoy that would keep him afloat for the rest of his tumultuous life. He now knows every single Shakespeare play inside and out and every week Bob teaches the play to over six hundred senior citizens. A sad, funny and inspiring account of how one man's life was saved by Shakespeare, this will be the memoir of the year.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster Australia
• Date d'édition: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743231783
• ISBN 13: 9780743231787
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 288