The Cryptogram

(Paperback)

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"I suspect that in time, The Cryptogram will take its place among Mamet's major works" John Lahr

"Mamet's play suggests that deception is an endless spiralling process that eventually corrodes the soul. But it also harps on a theme that runs right throughout Mamet's work: the notion that we use words as a destructive social camouflage to lie to others and ourselves...And here through all the repetitions, half sentences and echoing encounter of one question with another, you feel the characters devalue experience through their use of language. As Del cries in desperation at the end, 'If we could speak the truth for one instant, then we would be free.' Mamet's point is that we are held spiritually captive by our bluster and evasions." (Michael Billington, The Guardian)

"Dense with thought, feeling and hard psychological insight...There is no spare flesh on this text: words, objects, images interlock in mutual dependence which is both natural and superbly contrived." (John Peter Sunday Times)

Reviews

"First-rate...spooky, elliptical, full of wit. . . . Not in any stage literature that I know has childhood been as movingly evoked as it is in "The Cryptogram"." --Vincent Canby, "The New York Times"
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"Heart stopping. . . . Where other dramatists are writing melodrama about the dysfunctional family, Mamet has written high tragedy." --Iris Fanger, "The Boston Herald"
"Powerful. . . . His most personal work. . . . A whodunit with the it waiting to happen. . . . Spooky and exciting." --Jack Kroll, "Newsweek"
"Daring, dark, complex, brilliant. . . . I suspect that in time it will take its place among Mamet's major works." --John Lahr, "The New Yorker"

Author Bio

David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.