Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
October’s Classic: Angels in America #CBAM2017
Welcome to October! Last month, we read Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, which I found to be quite beautiful (no surprise – I’m a big Cather fan!). A new month is here, which means a new book! This time, I chose one to correspond with national and international LGBT History/Pride month. Drum-roll, please! . . . Angels in America by Tony Kushner!
We will be reading both Part One and Part Two, so if you can find an edition that has both, all the better! I’ve read this play a few times already, but it’s really quite an experience, which is why I added it to the 2017 list of Classics for our club this year. I cannot wait to get started on it again!
Don’t forget: We have a Goodreads group! And we’re using #CBAM2017 to chat on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
About the Book:
In two full-length plays, “Millennium Approaches” and “Perestroika,” Kushner tells the story of a handful of people trying to make sense of the world. Prior is a man living with AIDS whose lover Louis has left him and become involved with Joe, an ex-Mormon and political conservative whose wife, Harper, is slowly having a nervous breakdown. These stories are contrasted with that of Roy Cohn (a fictional re-creation of the infamous American conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in 1986 and who, it should be noted, was a mentor to our current POTUS) and his attempts to remain in the closet while trying to find some sort of personal salvation in his beliefs.
One of the most honored American plays in history, Angels in America was awarded two Tony Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was made into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film directed by Mike Nichols. This two-part epic, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” has received hundreds of performances worldwide in more than twenty-six languages.
Schedule:
- October 1st: Begin reading
- September 15th: Mid-point Check-In
- October 31st: Final Thoughts
Feel free to read at your own pace, post at your own pace (or not at all), and drop by to comment/chat about the book at any point. The schedule above is just the one I plan to use in order to keep myself organized and to provide some standard points and places for anyone who is reading along to get together and chat.
Roof Beam Reader 