A Bright Ray of Darkness

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it communicates a real power’ Sunday Times’A wild ride of a book’ MetroActor William Harding has been caught cheating on his rock star wife and the press have descended upon him. A bracing meditation on fame and celebrity, and the redemptive, healing power of art; a portrait of the ravages of disappointment and divorce; a poignant consideration of the rites of fatherhood and manhood; a novel soaked in rage and sex, longing and despair; and a passionate love letter to the world of theater, A Bright Ray of Darkness showcases Ethan Hawke's gifts as a novelist as never before. PATTI SMITH “Una brillante narración desde dentro que muestra las alegrías y los temores de la actuación, las servidumbres de la fama y los secretos de Enrique IV". Even harder, he’ll have to do that personal reconstruction while making his debut appearance on Broadway.

Diese Geschichte war an sich sehr spannend und das Ende hat mich auch berührt, auch wenn es etwas kitschig war. Searing, raw, and utterly transfixing, A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel about shame and beauty and faith, and the moral power of art. This is one of the best pieces of writing I’ve ever read to convey the art of pretending to be somebody else in a made-up story in front of hundreds of people who, in the best case, suspend their belief that you are really a regular schlub.I spent many years in the theater as an actor and playwright, so the world of A Bright Ray of Darkness is one I know well.

If you can ignore the author’s motive for creating such a sensitive and endearing cad, you’ll find here a novel that explores the demands of acting and the delusions of manhood with tremendous verve and insight. Hawke’s narrator is a young man in torment, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, still half hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself and move on as he clumsily, and sometimes hilariously, tries to manage the wreckage of his personal life with whiskey and sex.He throws himself into the part of Hotspur with such unbridled enthusiasm that he just about ruins his voice. Well written with some extremely heterosexual scenes, but that doesn’t detract from the plot as they are infrequent and mostly flashbacks.

The other thread involves Harding's disintegrating marriage to his beautiful and acclaimed pop star wife - and Hawke was going through a painful divorce with HIS superstar wife Uma Thurman at the same time also. I like the guy and really enjoyed The Hottest State and Ash Wednesday when I last read them 20 years ago or so. Drawing on his own experience playing Hotspur at Lincoln Center in 2003, Hawke creates spectacular performances — on and offstage — by King Henry, Prince Hal, Falstaff and the whole cast of brittle egos conniving for the director’s love and the audience’s attention. A Bright Ray of Darkness, is an unhinged story of a famous actor married to a rock star at the cusp of divorce. Since "Dead Poets Society" I've admired Ethan Hawke as an actor -- brutally honest, authentic to his character and the piece, and courageous in the choices he makes.

Una scrittura naturale e brillante, ironica e amara sa descrivere il disagio emotivo e nello stesso tempo entrare nei meccanismi profondi di un allestimento teatrale mostrandone la complessità e il fascino, tenendo incollati alle pagine di un racconto strutturato come un dramma classico. What saves him is theater: in particular, the challenge of performing the role of Hotspur in a production of Henry IV under the leadership of a brilliant director, helmed by one of the most electrifying--and narcissistic--Falstaff's of all time. From the rehearsals to performances to the teardown, we see William in the show and learning in life. This is one of those novels, upon reading the first pages, I was completely caught up in the life of the protagonist.