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Joe Turner's Come and Gone: A Play in Two Acts Kindle Edition
August Wilson (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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“The glow accompanying August Wilson’s place in contemporary American theater is fixed.”—Toni Morrison
When Harold Loomis arrives at a black Pittsburgh boardinghouse after seven years' impressed labor on Joe Turner's chain gang, he is a free man—in body. But the scars of his enslavement and a sense of inescapable alienation oppress his spirit still, and the seemingly hospitable rooming house seethes with tension and distrust in the presence of this tormented stranger. Loomis is looking for the wife he left behind, believing that she can help him reclaim his old identity. But through his encounters with the other residents he begins to realize that what he really seeks is his rightful place in a new world—and it will take more than the skill of the local “People Finder” to discover it.
This jazz-influenced drama is a moving narrative of African-American experience in the 20th century.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPlume
- Publication dateAugust 6, 2019
- Reading age18 years and up
- File size1107 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Has the haunting power of a ghost story . . . bold theatricality . . . electrifying."—The Washington Post
"August Wilson's best play!"—William A. Henry III, Timemagazine
"Joe Turner's Come and Gone is one of the best American plays of the decade . . . he takes us through joy and disaster, hatred and love; he pulls few punches and in the end he has contributed not only to the stature of American playwrighting but to our understanding of our society. A rich, rewarding play, that rare work what entertains while it teaches."—The Providence Journal
--This text refers to the paperback edition.About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B07V64RY3D
- Publisher : Plume; Reissue edition (August 6, 2019)
- Publication date : August 6, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 1107 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 112 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #484,560 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #94 in African Dramas & Plays
- #163 in Black & African American Dramas & Plays
- #349 in United States Drama & Plays
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

August Wilson (1945–2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African Americans, decade by decade, over the course of the twentieth century. Mr. Wilson’s plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country, on Broadway and throughout the world. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned.
Mr. Wilson’s work garnered many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; and eight New York Drama Critics Circle awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney and Radio Golf. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works include the one act plays: The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills.
Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim fellowships in playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award and the 2003 Heinz Award. He was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theater located at 245 West 52nd Street: The August Wilson Theatre. In 2007, he was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, and lived in Seattle at the time of his death. He is survived by two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.
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"Joe Turner" is the Man: the system of institutional racism, of social, political and economic injustice, of American society promising opportunity with one hand while taking away any gains the underclass makes. It is Joe Turner who has imprisoned Herald Loomis, it is Joe Turner that frightens Seth Holly, it is Joe Turner that intimidates African-Americans from knowing - and celebrating - who they are, where they are from, and from realizing what they can become. It is no accident, then, that Loomis walks away from Joe Turner only with the help of Bynum: Wilson's message that only by facing the past and knowing what it has done to African-Americans can they truly know themselves and thereby become self-actualized.
I am a huge fan of Wilson's work - his century cycle is a brilliant and moving narrative of the African-American experience in the 20th century. It seems with each play of his I find a new favorite; _Joe Turner's Come and Gone_ was Wilson's favorite, and I find it difficult to disagree with him here. Highly recommended
P.S. The quality of book/play speaks for itself. August Wilson's plays are a brilliant display of literary genius, and an illumination of (African) American life.