David Mamet, who back in 2008 declared he was no longer a Liberal, is now a self-confessed Republican and endorser of Trump. Thankfully, in this eclectic collection of 40 essays, he manages, without beating the right-wing drum too loudly, as many might have feared, to share his take and where we’re at in the world right now.
Apart from an astonishing error towards the end, which makes you wonder if he actually knows what he’s been talking about throughout, when he calls Yeats, “the greatest English poet since Shakespeare”, the scope and length of these pieces make for a book that’s hard to put down.
With many pieces being short, there’s a sense of him just shooting the breeze with the reader. Some end abruptly, making you want to reread them straight away. While his takes on Broadway, Hollywood, and HR departments leave you contemplating what he’s said for days.
Difficult obstacles
But it’s not all easy-going, there are some difficult obstacles to get past; his unapologetic take on Israel and what constitutes anti-Semitism today will be a tough read for many. You can’t help wonder how richer the collection might have been had he chose look at Palestine and the plight of its people at Israeli hands, if just for balance and nothing else. The mentions of Trump, although sparse, are written with a gaze in one direction and with one eye only. It’s as if Mamet is keeping his powder dry for another time and just testing the water.
Reader baiting
Others read like a subtle, forensic examination of what the left has become, but without the cage-rattling. There’s a calmness throughout, a sense of Mamet baiting the reader, daring them to take up the other end of the argument. And this is the strength of Recessional. It’s an opinion delivered with a shrug of the shoulders, and not the pointed finger that many might be have been expecting.
On the whole, there’s not too much that will anger, confuse or disappoint fans of Mamet. In a way these 40 essays are like the treasured leads that arrive from Mitch and Murray in the playwright’s opus, Glengarry Glen Ross. He presents them as they are, we make of them what we will.
Decadent Theatre will be premiering Jimmy Murphy’s new play on the last days of Michael Collins, The Chief, in August
