Rating: 
Summary: A new understanding of an American Society
Review: When starting this book I really didn't know what to expect. I was not disappointed. Angels in America: A gay fantasia on national themes, was a great book that kept you attention from the first to last page. Angels in America gave me a perspective on a gay community I have never experienced in my life. The characters in this book were intriguing, but still understandable. You could see them as the human beings they are.One character in particular that I felt gave me a humanistic view of the realities of our country. That character is Joe, A married man who is a republican morman. Joe hides his homosexuality, and eventually faces it head on after leaving his wife Harper. Joe is a weak man who is very self conscience of how others view him. Mormans, Jews, African Americans, and Homosexuals, are a few of the races, religions, and sexual preferences looked at throughout this book. The conversations between Roy and Belize and a good example of race issues in America. Roy a Jewish lawyer is very hostile towards Belize an African American nurse and drag queen. America has obvious racial and religious issues that are often left with out saying a word about them. Angels in America faces this problem head on. It takes the issue and puts it in your face, bluntly. It is a reality check that often people don't want to hear. Angels in America is a great story I advise everyone to read. I think more books like this could help people understand one another better.
Rating:
Summary: Enough here to consider over a lifetime
Review: With ANGELS, Tony Kushner has accomplished what only a rare few Western writers have managed to do. Integrating biblical knowledge, classical history, myth, poetry and a vast understanding of the human heart in all of its best and worst guises, these plays illuminate with the blinding fire of the angel at its core, the great hypocrisies which lay just beneath the surface of our nation. Like Howard Zinn, and to some extent Studs Terkel, Kushner recognizes that we are not one nation under God. Instead, we seem to be a huge, selfish and confused hoarde attepting to move forward in time with primary moral references to the oldest, and in some ways, least applicable documents and sources of wisdom. Whether one believes that God is "dead" or not, I cannot imagine another work of literature which might promote a more useful theological discussion between so-called liberals and conservatives. Add to this the fact that the stories and characterization are gripping, the heroes are truly admirable and the villains reprehensible. Humans change in profound and permanent ways, and amid the pain of our time, there is -- after a reading of these remarkable plays -- still hope. For once in many years, the Pulitzer Prize moved in the right direction. Whether read or viewed on stage or in its most recent iteration as a superb HBO movie, ANGELS is one of the most rewarding experiences of a lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: Enough here to consider over a lifetime
Review: With ANGELS, Tony Kushner has accomplished what only a rare few Western writers have managed to do. Integrating biblical knowledge, classical history, myth, poetry and a vast understanding of the human heart in all of its best and worst guises, these plays illuminate with the blinding fire of the angel at its core, the great hypocrisies which lay just beneath the surface of our nation. Like Howard Zinn, and to some extent Studs Terkel, Kushner recognizes that we are not one nation under God. Instead, we seem to be a huge, selfish and confused hoarde attepting to move forward in time with primary moral references to the oldest, and in some ways, least applicable documents and sources of wisdom. Whether one believes that God is "dead" or not, I cannot imagine another work of literature which might promote a more useful theological discussion between so-called liberals and conservatives. Add to this the fact that the stories and characterization are gripping, the heroes are truly admirable and the villains reprehensible. Humans change in profound and permanent ways, and amid the pain of our time, there is -- after a reading of these remarkable plays -- still hope. For once in many years, the Pulitzer Prize moved in the right direction. Whether read or viewed on stage or in its most recent iteration as a superb HBO movie, ANGELS is one of the most rewarding experiences of a lifetime.
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