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All My Sons - starring Julie Harris, James Farentino, and Arye Gross (Audio Theatre Series)

All My Sons - starring Julie Harris, James Farentino, and Arye Gross (Audio Theatre Series)

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not A Pulitzer.
Review: "All My Sons" is a play that captures the reader simply with the title. The first few pages are rather slow, but after setting the characters this play takes off like a rocket. The reader is plunged directly into post WWII America, in the middle of a town's scandal and a family's crisis. It is easy to understand the scandalous ongoings of small town America, certainly a lesser focus of the novel. The centrifugal point of the play is just a different twist on "Romeo and Juliet". If one strips away the whole conflict with the town and the influence of the war, all you are left with is a story about a boy and girl who are in love but who's families are at odds with each other. The result is book with a hackneyed base plot and an overdramatic ending. Luckily for Miller, he adds enough meat with the town and war subplots to classify this play as worthreading and worth seeing on stage. Although, in comparison to his only Pulitzer winner, "Death of a Salesman"...Well, comparing the two will not do "All My Sons" any justice.

If you liked "Death of a Salesman" then go for this book too. On the other hand, if you found "Death of a Salesman" to be lackluster, "All My Sons" will only add to your grief.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not A Pulitzer.
Review: "All My Sons" is a play that captures the reader simply with the title. The first few pages are rather slow, but after setting the characters this play takes off like a rocket. The reader is plunged directly into post WWII America, in the middle of a town's scandal and a family's crisis. It is easy to understand the scandalous ongoings of small town America, certainly a lesser focus of the novel. The centrifugal point of the play is just a different twist on "Romeo and Juliet". If one strips away the whole conflict with the town and the influence of the war, all you are left with is a story about a boy and girl who are in love but who's families are at odds with each other. The result is book with a hackneyed base plot and an overdramatic ending. Luckily for Miller, he adds enough meat with the town and war subplots to classify this play as worthreading and worth seeing on stage. Although, in comparison to his only Pulitzer winner, "Death of a Salesman"...Well, comparing the two will not do "All My Sons" any justice.

If you liked "Death of a Salesman" then go for this book too. On the other hand, if you found "Death of a Salesman" to be lackluster, "All My Sons" will only add to your grief.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: family crisis
Review: -- The development of the story is very interesting: everything fits. Sometimes there are several passages when the reader has to laugh because of the text' s ironical content.- It' s very well described how a perfect family can fall and be overcome by their past. The author gives the story a special character so that you can recognize his type of writing in another book as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: YOU MUST READ THIS FORGOTTEN PIECE OF AMERICAN LITERATURE!!!
Review: After searching long and hard for this book to complete my English requirement (I also had to read Miller's "The Crucible" and "Death of a Salesman") the payoff came when I finally got to read this highly suspenseful and fast-moving play. The characters are so real and the script reads like you would never imagine. This play is very good for two reasons: 1) It is interesting to read one of M iller's very first plays to see how he has evolved into one of the most famous playwrights ever. 2) The enlightening parallels to "Death of a Salesman" are very interesting and numerous. If you liked DOAS, then you will enjoy this play just as much, if not better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a family tragedy
Review: All in all, the book is quite interesting. We give the story four stars, because we liked especially the end of it. It was unexpected, you never thought it was going to end like this. This story includes only a few persons, but every single men is important in a way. The tension increases more and more from the beginning to the end. It is thrilling . The plot is directly and clearly, and the text easely. The American English, used in this book, is not this difficult to understand. Through the whole book there is a red line and almost every dialogue is important for the plot ahead. Every word that is said has its own importance. Family tragedies are in the centre of it, and you cannot always see behind the faces of the persons.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: All Not in the Family
Review: All My Sons is Arthur Miller's first work which gives hint of his future genius. While the plot is strong, it starts slowly. However, the ending makes the play worth reading.

The story tells of partners in a defective machine shop during World War II. Keller escapes punishment for the faulty parts. Herbert Deever is sent to prison. Keller's son Chris intends to marry his deceased brother's love who happens to be Herbert Deever's daughter Anne. Keller's wife Kate is in denial of their son Larry's death. This denial makes her a trademark of Miller's works, an annoying female character. She is overbearing and at times a nag. Thus, conflict is created over Chris and Anne's relationship. The story reaches its climax when the true nature of Larry's death is revealed. While the conclusion is not shocking, it is a fitting end.

Miller has written some great plays and novels. While this is certainly not as good as Death of a Salesman, it is still a solid work.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad for someone's first play
Review: As many may know, All My Sons was Miller's first play. In it he supplies enough drama to leave you in tears. The struggle of a family to pull back together after a great crime has been comitted is at the heart of the matter. Joe Keller chooses to ignore his responsibility to the loss of 121 American pilots in WWII, seeing as to how he approved the shipping of deffective plane engine cylinders. After what seems to everyone else as pulling a fast one, Joe basically gets away with murder and tries to pretend it never happened. His neighbors know, his old business partners know, and more importantly, his family knows. The question to ask yourself when you read this magnificent play is: Who would I relate to? Would I try to ignore my responsibilities like Joe? Or would I struggle to confront my father like Chris? If you've read other reviews about this play and you haven't read it yet, I do apologize for others giving away the ending. In case this is the only review you've read, I'll tell you this: Read the play already and don't read any reviews after this one. It's not that they are bad; it's just that you run the risk of the end being revealed, and then what would be the point? The end is what will captivate your heart.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: War is not healthy for children and other living things.....
Review: Chris:But I'm like everyone else now. I'm practical now. You made me practical.
Mother:But you have to be.
Chris:The cats in the alley are practical, the bums who ran away
when we were fighting were practical. Only the dead ones weren't practical. But now I'm practical, and I spit on myself....

Father and sons. Idols and lies. The family crumbling under the weight of the truth. The business of war, and the business of America. Miller at his purest, most direct, heart-breaking.

Clearly Death of a Salesman is found in All My Sons. But on its own All My Sons is a fine, fine play.

Another passage:

Mother:Joe, Joe...it don't excuse it that you did it for the family.
Keller:It's got to excuse it!
Mother:There's something bigger than the family to him.
Keller:Nothin' is bigger!
Mother:There is to him.
Keller:There's nothin' he could do that I wouldn't forgive. Because he's my son. Because I'm his father and he's my son.
Mother:Joe, I tell you...
Keller:Nothin's bigger than that. And you're goin' to tell him,
you understand? I'm his father and he's my son, and if there's something bigger than that I'll put a bullet in my head!

When and if America leaves Iraq, when and if we are not at war somewhere on Earth, this play will be worthy of productions all over the country. As an indictment of war and business, All My Sons is a special play, that illuminates the violence we do to ourselves, especially in the name of business and even in the name of family or country.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Timeless Drama
Review: Despite the distance of the World Wars from Twenty-First century life, Arthur Miller's first theatrical success is a timeless drama. Far from dated, the revelations of ALL MY SONS are just as engaging now as in 1947Ñthe sacrifices of a father for his sons, that hazy line between right and wrong, the search for truth among so many lies, the cowardice of man. Miller's play is heartwrenching in its revelations and the conclusion of Act Two is an explosive climax. For reading pleasure, study, or perfomance, ALL MY SONS remains a fascinating study of the struggles caused by war and its effects on family life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Timeless Drama
Review: Despite the distance of the World Wars from Twenty-First century life, Arthur Miller's first theatrical success is a timeless drama. Far from dated, the revelations of ALL MY SONS are just as engaging now as in 1947Ñthe sacrifices of a father for his sons, that hazy line between right and wrong, the search for truth among so many lies, the cowardice of man. Miller's play is heartwrenching in its revelations and the conclusion of Act Two is an explosive climax. For reading pleasure, study, or perfomance, ALL MY SONS remains a fascinating study of the struggles caused by war and its effects on family life.


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