Rating: 
Summary: Marvelous tale churns the ages
Review: I took a wild chance on this book, having never heard of the author, and loved it, cover to cover. Unsworth has a masterful pen and a magnificent imagination. You almost feel the chills, and stews, the coarse clothing, and the stares of peasants. The tale deals with a band of actors in the process of discovering theater as we now know it. It's exhilerating to be with them for this discovery--you experience something of that epoch-changing consciousness. Suddenly, midway through the book, the novel becomes haunting and a mystery unfolds. This too is gripping and compelling, through its disturbing end. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous tale churns the ages
Review: I took a wild chance on this book, having never heard of the author, and loved it, cover to cover. Unsworth has a masterful pen and a magnificent imagination. You almost feel the chills, and stews, the coarse clothing, and the stares of peasants. The tale deals with a band of actors in the process of discovering theater as we now know it. It's exhilerating to be with them for this discovery--you experience something of that epoch-changing consciousness. Suddenly, midway through the book, the novel becomes haunting and a mystery unfolds. This too is gripping and compelling, through its disturbing end. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible Book
Review: I was extremely disapointed in "Morality Play". I had never read any of Mr. Unsworth's novels before, but I was looking forward to this book, both because of the subnect matter and since it had gotten such great reviews both here and in the NY Times. Unfortunately I found this novel to be derivative, stilted, poorly written and seemed more like a first draft than a finished work. The "foreshadowing" in the book is laughable: Mr. Unsworth seems to believe that having the main character repeat the phrase "if we knew then what we know now" at the end of every chapter will add suspense. The characters- even the narrator- are poorly drawn. The author misses several opportunities to expand on their personalities. The "murder mystery" is both easily predicted and baffling, and what's worse, since the characters are such cyphers, the reader is never really given an opportunity to care. The ending is abrupt and arbitrary, and left me shrugging and saying "so what". The author has done a reasonable job setting the medieval scene, but ultimately that goes to waste. This felt like a preliminary draft for a longer and more involved book that never got written. There was a lot of potential here that was never realized. There are much better books out there- don't waste your time or your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Is It just Me?
Review: I was personally shocked when I saw the reviews for this book. I didn't expect to see such high ratings, I expected to see negative opinions on the book. So maybe it's just me and the book was pretty good, but in my opinion, I thought the book was not worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A thrillingly well-woven tale
Review: I'm not much for reviewing; but I loved it... The best book I have read in the past year...
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, very well worth reading
Review: If you ever enjoyed The Name of the Rose, be sure to also read Morality Play - although it is short, it is a really impressive piece of work, giving you a very good insight of the life in the towns in the 15 century. And of course - a very good story around it.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Tale of Fourteenth Century England
Review: Life in fourteenth century England was a grim affair, particularly when viewed through modern eyes. There was little in the way of material comfort, most people struggling merely to subsist. Liberty, too, was scarce in a feudal system dominated by the often capricious and competing forces of King, Lord and Church. And there were intermingled the ubiquitous spectres of magic, superstition, banditry, and disease. With the ravages of the Black Death, life in the late Middle Ages was truly nasty, brutish and short. Against this background, Barry Unsworth's "Morality Play" weaves a masterful and compelling tale of Nicholas Barber, a twenty-three year old priest, "a poor scholar, open-breeched to the winds of heaven as people say, with nothing but Latin to recommend [him]." Nicholas, after commiting adultery and losing his cloak while fleeing the wrathful husband, takes up with an itinerant band of players. He thus becomes both a fugitive, by leaving his diocese without permission of his Bishop, and a sinner by entering upon an occupation forbidden by the Church. The players soon find themselves in a town where Thomas Wells, a twelve year old boy, has been murdered and a young woman has been hastily tried, convicted and sentenced to hang for the crime. It is then that their leader, Martin, suggests that the troupe depart from the accepted practice of the day, the enactment of plays based upon Biblical stories with well-known themes. Martin proposes, instead, that they perform a "Morality Play" based upon the murder of Thomas Wells. It is a proposal fraught with peril, not only to their physical safety, but also to their moral well-being, for as Nicholas suggests, "if we make our own meanings, God will oblige us to answer our own questions, He will leave us in the void without the comfort of his Word." The players accept Martin's suggestion, and soon the facts surrounding the murder of Thomas Wells, as well as the motives and behavior of the players, become troubling and enigmatic. The result is an absorbing narrative that unravels as part murder mystery, part suspense story and part historical fiction, the telling all the time enriched by Nicholas Barber's first person voice and diction. "Morality Play" leaves the reader with a profoundly satisfying feeling for the historical period and the characters. But the book also operates on a deeper level, the text providing an often thought-provoking gloss on the relationship between theatre and reality, between life on the stage and real life. "Morality Play" is, thus, like all great fiction, not only an entertainment, but an intellectually stimulating short novel that educates even as it delights.
Rating: 
Summary: a mystery with historical value
Review: Morality Play is a book that offers not only an accurate portrayal of the hardships experienced by a traveling group of players in the 14th century, but it also offers an enthralling murder mystery. A reader remains captivated by the intreguing death of Thomas Wells, while learning history. The book begins with a death and the story is propelled by a death. Through the players' enactment, the mystery behind the death unfolds. The reader learns that there is a great deal of uncertainty and mystery surrounding the boy's death. As the players delve deeper into the murder, they find false accusations, Church corruption, and the involvement of high officials. Their need to play the Truth may prove their undoing. Morality Play truely becomes a battle between the forces of good and evil- truth versus mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Historical Fiction
Review: Morality Play is the best and most enjoyable book I've read in many months. Barry Unsworth's prose is perfect and he does a wonderful job of bringing 14th century England to life. While the descriptions of winter are particularly good, I found all the description to be so real and so evocative, yet never intrusive. In Morality Play, Unsworth performs a perfect balancing act: characterization, setting, plot, theme...all are given their perfect weight. Morality Play is a mystery, but it is one with a complex and thoughtful plot rather than one that races ahead at a breakneck pace. This doesn't slow the book down. Far from it; the book's perfect pacing only enriches and deepens both the story and the characters. Morality Play is really a perfect novel: a surprising murder mystery, engrossing historical fiction and a book that delves into the very beginnings of modern theatre. It's perfect for anyone who loves England, loves historical fiction, mysteries or theatre.
Rating:
Summary: Roaring promise but weak conclusion.
Review: Morality Play starts out with roaring promise as the curtain opens: a fugitive monk stumbles into a traveling actors troupe in the woods of medieval England and is taken under their wing as the players make their way across the wintry countryside. With the monk eagerly absorbing the tricks of the players trade as the group literally sings for their supper, the reader is transported through a 14th-century world of feudal loyalties, political intrigue and the desperation of peasants trying to survive against winter, famine, the Black plague and the injustices of ruling priests and knights. But there's danger ahead - the group arrives in a small village in the aftermath of a child's murder, and finds itself with a role to play as the evidence is hastily buried. Up to this point the story is a rollicking good read, with interesting group dynamics as each troupe-member adopts their public and private roles, and a growing sense of dread as the players get deeper into dangerous waters. Unsworth does a great job of making medieval England come alive - you smell the stench of corpses, you feel the itch of the horsehair costume, you fear the unpredictable rage of the peasantry. But just when you're expecting a strong and satisfying conclusion, the story collapses. It simply peters out. A late-arriving character arrives at the end to explain it all and promise that everything will be OK. It's like watching a murder mystery on stage where suddenly the curtain comes down and somebody you've never seen arrives on stage to tell the audience "the bad guy was arrested, the crime was solved, and you can go home now, and I have no idea what happened to the players left in the castle." Despite Unsworth's masterful depiction of time and place, Morality Play suffers from a disappointing ending for a story with so much promise.
|
