Amy Brenneman Books

This play is way too sophisticated for my tastes. I am only half-way through it and I am only going to reach the end because I am the kind of obsessive-compulsive individual who must finish a book or a movie or an audio book once I start them. I do violate this rule once in a while, but this play is too short to resist...

Anyway, I think LA Theater Works is a FANTASTIC publisher and I love most of the many plays of theirs I have listened to, but this one is above my head. I find the actors truly outstanding, but the story and the dialog are broken and confusing. Once in a while a short sequence will hit me as meaningful and compelling, but usually this is in the midst of other rather obscure dialog or monologues.

I have loved all other plays by Arthur Miller I have listened to so far, so I guess I just do not like this form or disconnected high-brow semi-autobiographical story telling. I really do not want to be dismissive. I can believe that there is much more to this play than what *I* can understand, but I just don't get it.

Enthralled by Anthony LaPaglia drawl and Amy Brennemann's squeaky blonde (I know, it sounds strange but it's really all there), I loved these CDs. The brilliant text of Arthur Miller is brought to life. Rarely put on, this story of man, searching for himself and for a woman he will not repeat the same mistakes with, is fascinating and sad. It's also disturbing and moving that an author should commit to paper, and thusly to posterity and for everyone to read, his own questions and failings. Because the line is terribly thin. Miller shows at the seams of every scene. It's him fighting with Marylin, it's him redeaming God know what past... It's good. Try it.

Having read most of Miller's previous work, I hold it to a high standard. "After the Fall" shows many of the simmilarities of his other works. Unlike the other ones, he is symbolically the main character here. In this work, Miller writes a cathartic explanation of his life including two failed marriages, one to Marilyn Monroe. Rather than entertaining, it comes off as rather unsettling.

The main character, Quentin narrates to the audience in the show. He is viewing his past as the various people in his life appear in a sequence of events. Through his childhood, we see hints of the origins of the problems the character faces, such as a manipulative mother. This seems to be the justification he uses for failed relationships. By Holga being the last character we see, it seems that he is insinuating that he should have never left his first wife. At the same time, he clears himself of any fault in the demise of Maggie (the veiled symbol for Marilyn Monroe).

In reality, there was a lot going on in the play. Perhaps it was even too busy. But even more worrisome is Miller's use of the stage to justify or rationalize his life. I love Miller's work. This play, which was intended to be disturbing, is disturbing in a way which Miller could have intended. It is one play the work could have gone without.

Arthur Miller's After the Fall is a highly autobiographical account told by a man named Quentin who has suffered through a difficult family life, two marriages, and the McCarthy Trials. It is depicted artistically by freely flowing from scene to scene with no regard to time or location, but the artistry in the continuity does not make up for the dullness of the overall story. The play reads as if this man is in a therapy session describing the painfully dull events of his life. He explains his shaky family relationships along with minor events from his childhood, his nagging first wife Louise and the attractive neighbor who made him start to think disloyally, and the struggles of co-workers faced with deciding between integrity and their careers. Although these events might seem like they could be earth-shattering, especially the McCarthy bit, Miller manages to drain them of any excitement or intrigue.

The bright spot in the play is Maggie, a highly self destructive but free spirited girl who becomes Quentin's second wife. Though when I first read the play, I had no idea of the connection, Maggie is Miller's interpretation of Marilyn Monroe. This is the sole reason that anyone who is not a fan of Miller's work would want to read this play; one gains insight into how immature and below him Miller considered Monroe to be.

If you are interested in Arthur Miller outside of his relationship with Marilyn Monroe, you might enjoy this book. If you are interested in the human mind and the way experiences shape a person, you have a slight chance of enjoying this book. If you are looking for a story with a rising action, a climax, and a fall, you probably will hate this play.

Arthur Miller, having divorced actress Marilyn Monroe and married photographer Inge Morath, and in the aftermath of Monroe's still-controversial death, wrote this as part catharsis and part explanation of the recent events in his past. Treating Monroe as it does, it inspired a groundswell of revulsion for Miller that after forty years has not fully abated.

Nonetheless, this is a fascinating work that on its own merits has some appeal.

So deep and dense with facts, theory and symbolism that I thought she broke my brain! I have never been more pleased with a play. This was a masterpiece.

Marlene (Amy Brenneman) has just been made Managing Director of the 'Top Girls Employment Agency' in Maggie Thatcher's anything-goes England of the high-flying 1980s. But in pursuing her professional success, Maggie doesn't really have any friends - but she is in possession of a personal past she'd just as soon forget. At a party where famous women from history collects, Maggie discovers that life above the 'glass ceiling' of the business world isn't really all that satisfying. Supported by an outstanding cast that includes Megan Austin Oberle, Kirsten Potter, Samantha Robson, Kate Steele, Concetta Tomei, and Missy Yager, this Caryl Churchill play, "Top Girls", is professionally directed by John Rubinstein and presents the listener with a truly impressive 'theatre of the mind' experience - the kind that is special to the resonating imagination and epitomizes the best of what live theatre has to offer an appreciative audience. Flawless produced and recorded, "Top Girls" is a strongly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library audiobook and Theatrical Studies collections.

Caryl Churchill, Top Girls (Methuen, 1982)

I almost stopped reading this play altogether at the conclusion of the first scene. I ended up glad I continued on, but really, there would have been so many better ways to handle that first scene. Putting it somewhere else in the play, for example.

Top Girls concerns Marlene, a woman just promoted to the head of her branch office of the Top Girls temp agency. She was promoted over a man, and in celebration, she imagines for herself a lavish dinner party, the guests for which are a number of notable historic women. This is understandable, and having other players in the play playing guests whose personalities are mirrored in their other roles is clever. But, really, the scene takes up an entire quarter of the play's length, and the information you get in the scene that's actually relevant to the plot is summed up in the first sentence of this paragraph. (You don't find out about the second sentence until later.) There's a lot more going on in the play's remaining four scenes, much of which is quite important, but it's shuffled off for this massive dinner party.

Once we get back into the real world, though, things get quite a bit more interesting. Marlene's niece Angie wants to run away from home and come live with Marlene, whom she sees as a great success, while Angie's mother, Joyce, is content to stay in the country eking out an existence and griping about everything possible. Angie's odd friend Kit is always hovering about in the background, being ominous. At Top Girls, life goes on, with the employees gossiping and interviewing potential workers.

The play's final four scenes are very good stuff, with all sorts of insight into their characters and action that flows through the talkiness. And in retrospect, again, the dinner party scene works within this framework, but it would probably have worked better elsewhere in the play (at the end of act one? Between the acts?). Suffer through it, though, and the play will reward you for it. ***

I read Top Girls in my dramatic literature class in college. Reading the play can be very helpful if you plan to attend a performance. Characters are constantly interrupting each other mid-sentence and an audience can miss much of the dialouge. The concept for the play is wonderful. It examines women's lives throughout history- from Joan of Arc to women in a temp agency- all sitting down to dinner. The dialogue is exceptional and the each woman's story can fill a play in itself. However, this is definately a play you will want to see acted on stage. It's also a fun play to read/ act out loud with girlfriends because it raises many issues which concern contemporary women.

I read Top Girls in my dramatic literature class in college. Reading the play can be very helpful if you plan to attend a performance. Characters are constantly interrupting each other mid-sentence and an audience can miss much of the dialouge. The concept for the play is wonderful. It examines women's lives throughout history- from Joan of Arc to women in a temp agency- all sitting down to dinner. The dialogue is exceptional and the each woman's story can fill a play in itself. However, this is definately a play you will want to see acted on stage. It's also a fun play to read/ act out loud with girlfriends because it raises many issues which concern contemporary women.

I picked up this book because I was looking for some erotica and I am fan of Anne Rice's other work, however I was extremely disappointed. As other reviewers have said, the "spanking" was so redundant it was annoying, the plot was non-existent and the narrative was only so-so.
Most importantly I was NOT aware when I bought this novel that it was so strongly S&M, nonconsensual acts etc. Some people may enjoy those fantasizes(as fantasizes ONLY) however, pain, the threat of infliction of pain and explict descriptions of forced sexual activity do NOT arose me in the slightest. Unless you are a fan of S&M I do not suggest you purchase this book.

This book was actually recommended for me here on amazon and I figured I give it a try....after all it's by Anne Rice and I love her books. However I realized after reading about a chapter that this definetley wasn't a typical Rice creation. It was better! Yes it's erotic and a little more sado. than I'm used to, which I've since discovered I like, but also it was such an interesting read. The book is a study on human emotion adn behavior and not the boring type of book that points out things like, "I felt sad, or lost, or devastated" which are obvious but relays humilitation, despair, release and ecstacy through detailed characters and their actions. I went on to read the other two books in the series within a week and when it was over I read them again. When a book has the ability to draw you in so much that you cry and laugh, blush and gasp along with the characters you know you've found a keeper and that's what this book did for me. Hope it does the same for you!

Okay, I loved all three of the Sleeping Beauty books. Just naughty enough for me. Love the mixture of calling it "punishment" when the recipient of the punishment gets more and more aroused and eventually orgasms! Deliciously naughty. Keeper!

I spent a good deal of tonight reading through reviews for this book and I am astonished at how many people expected the novel to be anything more than a sexy, erotic tale which was a twisted version of the old Sleeping Beauty story. I was also a bit disappointed in the way that many of the reviews came across as being rather closed-minded to some of the core concepts and those who seemed to expect more than what is reasonable from an erotic story.

Don't walk into the book thinking that you are getting some deep insight into the past or that there's any magic information that will tell you what the medieval socio-economic situation was, that's just ludicrous seeing as how it's fiction. Furthermore, why would you want to have some sort of deeper meaning when reading a fiction erotic novel?

If you enjoy Domination/submission with a BDSM twist that dances along the edges of punishment, torture, humiliation and raw sexuality then you will most likely be pleasantly surprised. This tale takes the basic story of Sleeping Beauty being woken by her prince charming and twists it into a whole new realm of (im)possibility, but it's the kind of situation that many people who lean towards non-vanilla tastes will find quite tantalizing.

Keep in mind that this book will put off anyone who does not see romance and sensuality in a power exchange. If you can't tolerate the idea that a woman, or man, may actually wish to submit to another person because they wish to please the Dominant then the concepts will probably seem too far fetched to keep your attention. Also, if you are put off by homo-erotic concepts then you'd best keep a distance. It's not for everyone, but for those open to the above mentioned "flavors" then the book will probably be entertaining at the very least.

As for the writing itself, I can't say that I had any major complaints. There were a few places where I felt things could have been either shortened or expounded upon, but ultimately I know I could not write a better book myself so I just let my mind follow the story and delight in the images that were conjured in my imagination. Many times there were shivers up and down my spine as I got lost in the imagery.

As a side note, I would write the same general review for the following two books in the series, though I do feel that the first was the best of the three in most regards. However, the third did sum up the whole story quite nicely and had a nice ending.

As you have no doubt noticed, the reviews of this book vary widely. I just got it and wasn't really sure what to expect, but I can't put it down. Heed the bad reviews; it is certainly not for everyone. However, I am a big snob concerning erotica, and I have never liked Ann Rice before, and I was very pleasantly surprised by this book.

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is not at all realistic, though why anyone would be looking for realism in a fairy tale/erotica combination that begins with the Prince breaking a spell of a 100-year sleep is beyond me. Everyone is impossibly beautiful, but so are all the princesses in Grimms' fairy tales and the principals in most erotica. I, for one, enjoy reading about a bunch of beautiful, exquisitely dressed people within impossibly opulent settings.

There certainly are a lot of spankings, nearly in every chapter. If you like that kind of thing, you won't be bored. If it's not your cup of tea, it might get old. I don't find it monotonous; maybe repetitive, but that's not necessarily bad. The Marquis de Sade is repetitive too; spanking is repetitive by nature. There's a lot going on in The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty besides spanking as well. Many of the principals are what would be considered underage in the present-day United States, and consent is questionable at best. Again, you're the judge of whether that would turn you on or off.

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is at heart a Nouveau-Décadent work. I just reread Beardsley's Under the Hill and Rice's book is very reminiscent of that style. (By the way, most Décadent works are unrealistic and light on plot.) If you like Sade or Mirbeau, or certain passages in Petronius or Suetonius, you'll probably like this. If you don't like eroticized violence or overwrought language, or you want erotica with consensual, loving, adult partners of clearly defined sexual orientation, this is not for you.