David Mamet

Foreign correspondent Bronson Bailey, 49 years old, doesn't know what's wrong with him. Is he burnt out by his many years reporting human rights abuses? Is he simply lonely? Georgine Nichols, a decade younger, knows she's lonely-but it's a child she longs for, not a husband. Unable to have children of her own, George has long since given up hope of having a family, until she considers adoption as a single mother. In this tender, moving story, a little girl in a Chinese orphanage-a child whose very existence is a miracle-teaches them both the life-changing power of love.

This scalding comedy is about small-time, cutthroat real estate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land on reluctant buyers in a never-ending scramble for their fair share of the American dream.

Humour

A fortune-teller's teasing rumination sends Edmond Burke lurching into New York City's hellish underworld. He becomes involved in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder with 3 young women.

In the ancient Jewish practice of the kavannah (a meditation designed to focus one's heart on its spiritual goal), Lawrence Kushner and David Mamet offer their own reactions to key verses from each week's Torah portion, opening the biblical text to new layers of understanding.Here is a fascinating glimpse into two great minds, as each author approaches the text from his unique perspective, each seeking an understanding of the Bible's personalities and commandments, paradoxes and ambiguities. Kushner offers his words of Torah with a conversational enthusiasm that ranges from family dynamics to the Kabbalah; Mamet challenges the reader, often beginning his comment far afield--with Freud or the American judiciary--before returning to a text now wholly reinterpreted.In the tradition of Israel as a people who wrestle with God, Kushner and Mamet grapple with the biblical text, succumbing neither to apologetics nor parochialism, asking questions without fear of the answers they may find. Over the course of a year of weekly readings, they comment on all aspects of the Bible: its richness of theme and language, its contradictions, its commandments, and its often unfathomable demands. If you are already familiar with the Bible, this book will draw you back to the text for a deeper look. If you have not yet explored the Bible in depth, Kushner and Mamet are guides of unparalleled wisdom and discernment. Five Cities of Refuge is easily accessible yet powerfully illuminating. Each week's comments can be read in a few minutes, but they will give you something to think about all week long. Lawrence Kushner teaches and writes as the Emanu-El Scholar at The Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco. He has taught at Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and served for twenty-eight years as rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts. A frequent lecturer, he is also the author of more than a dozen books on Jewish spirituality and mysticism. He lives in San Francisco.David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize--winning playwright. He is the author of Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cryptogram, and Boston Marriage, among other plays. He has also published three novels and many screenplays, children's books, and essay collections.From the Hardcover edition.

A poetic depiction of what keeps you warm when it is cold, from good clothes and steam to the sound of talk and the love that you keep with you wherever you go.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director, and teacher gives us a blunt, irreverent, unsparingly honest guide to acting that overturns conventional truths and tells aspiring actors what they really need to know. David Mamet leaves no acting tenet untouched: How to judge the role, approach the part, work with the playwright. How to concentrate and think about the scene. How to avoid becoming the Paint-by-Numbers Mechanical Actor, the "How'm I Doing?" Ham Actor, the over-the-top "Hollywood Huff" Actor. The right way to undertake auditions and rehearsals. The proper approach to agents, to individual jobs, and to the business in general. The question of talent.

Presents three children's plays by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

Simple text and repetition of the letter "c" help readers learn how to use this sound.

THE SPANISH PRISONER"Elegant, entertaining. . . . Mamet's craftiest and most satisfying cinematic puzzle." --The New York TimesTHE WINSLOW BOY"One of the most subtly compelling love stories of the year." --The New York ObserverPulitzer Prize winner David Mamet ranks among the century's most influential writers for stage and screen. His dialogue--abrasive, rhythmic--illuminates a modern aesthetic evocative of Samuel Beckett. His plots--surprising, comic, topical--have evoked comparisons to masters from Alfred Hitchcock to Arthur Miller. Here are two screenplays demonstrating the astounding range of Mamet's talents. The Spanish Prisoner, a neo-noir thriller about a research-and-development cog hoodwinked out of his own brilliant discovery, demonstrates Mamet's incomparable use of character in a dizzying tale of twists and mistaken identity. The Winslow Boy, Mamet's revisitation of Terence Rattigan's classic 1946 play, tells of a thirteen-year-old boy accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and the tug of war for truth that ensues between his middle-class family and the Royal Navy. Crackling with wit, intelligent and surprising, The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy celebrate Mamet's unique genius and our eternal fascination with the extraordinary predicaments of the common man.From the Trade Paperback edition.