Conversations With Pinter

For more than twenty years Mel Gussow a drama critic for the New York Timeshas been meeting Harold Pinter to talk about work and life plays and people.At the co... » 

For more than twenty years Mel Gussow a drama critic for the New York Timeshas been meeting Harold Pinter to talk about work and life plays and people.At the core of this book is a series of lengthy interviews some of the mostextensive that Pinter has ever given all published here in full for the firsttime. Pinter and Gussow first meet in 1971 when Old Times is a new play andPinters status as a major writer is still being confirmed. Then come publicand private conversations in the eighties when the voice of Pinters politicalcommitment is first heard. And finally over a period of a week in September1993 the two talk after the London premiere of Pinters latest playMoonlight. Here the playwright is in a more mellow mood happy to contemplatehis early life and to admit to a political agenda behind such plays as TheBirthday Party. Through these and other revealing insights he allows us to seethe complete arc of his work to date in its true light. The resulting book isone of the most thoughtful and intimate portraits of the writer yet to appear.In fact it is a kind of selfportrait since intentionally it is Pinter whodoes most of the talking. Though famously reticent on the subjects of his workand his private life Pinter opens up for Gussow in a manner both beguilinglyfrank and refreshingly informative. «