YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA is a professor in the creative writing department at New York University. CHAD GRACIA is a theater producer and consultant. He has edited six verse plays and writes extensively on theater.
"Unique, powerful, and beautifully succinct, this Gilgamesh is marked by Komunyakaa's personal style and vision. He and Gracia wipe the dust off of the old broken cuneiform tablets and make the characters in the epic come alive." RICHARD CECIL, author of Twenty First Century Blues"
"Unique, powerful, and beautifully succinct, this Gilgamesh is marked by Komunyakaa's personal style and vision. He and Gracia wipe the dust off of the old broken cuneiform tablets and make the characters in the epic come alive." RICHARD CECIL, author of Twenty First Century Blues"
In spare, stark language, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Komunyakaa and dramatist Gracia create a 21st-century version of the ancient Middle Eastern tale Gilgamesh. Repetition, occasionally almost to the point of chanting, moves the story forward. "And I sit here-/ And I sit here-/ And I sit here/ in my immense aloneness," Gilgamesh says next to the corpse of Enkidu, his rival. The writers also successfully imbue objects with power as in these words spoken by Ninsun: "The ax is a man./ A tool. A weapon./ A friend." The stage directions match the spareness and directness of the text's language and show Gracia's experience as a theatrical producer and writer of six other verse plays. A character list at the beginning would have been a useful addition. A few times the language lacks freshness as in the line "my god-given strength/ was sapped." However, on the whole, these two writers have brought vigorous life to this ancient tale. Recommended for most collections.-Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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