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Book Review: "Our Town" by Thorton Wilder

Updated: Dec 30, 2021

ABOUT + INSIGHT

"Our Town" is a play (in three acts) by the great American playwright, Thorton Wilder. It has won the Pulitzer prize and is most renowned for its story. This amazing drama was first published and produced in 1938. The setting is in the small village of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, America, (during 1901 and 1913) and it explains the everyday lives of its people. "Our Town" has been performed in theatres in America and abroad. To me, "Our Town" is a very emotional story about life. I must sadly confess that when I was reading its beginning, I was bored. But Mr.Wilder has written it with such power and persistence that I finished it to the end, like the Filipino author, Candy Gourlay, but yet in his own God-given unique way. While reading, I was hit upon the fact that this story, "Our Town," represents exactly the town we live in, all you need to do is to just change the names and some of the attitudes of your neighbors, hence, OuR Town. I also want to say that there is nothing inappropriate in this book and that this book is definitely for readers (or people) like my dad (hehehe), who prefers movies, books, etc. that explain reality and the world we live in.

AGE-APPROPRIATE

Ages 13 & up, grades 7-9.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial Modern Classics; 1st edition (January 1, 2003)

  • Language ‏ : ‎ English

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 204 pages

  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060512636

  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060512637


PRAISE That an American of present-day can create with such delicacy and detachment touches the soul like a miracle. Here is quiet originality that comes from within. - Albert Einstein, in a letter to Thorton Wilder. You are holding in your hands a great American play. Possibly the great American play. - Donald Margulies, from his foreword.


“Taking as his material three periods in the history of a placid New Hampshire town, Mr. Wilder has transmuted the simple events of human life into universal reverie. He has given familiar facts a deeply moving, philosophical perspective...Our Town is one of the finest achievements of the current stage."

- Brooks Atkinson


“Its astringent distillation of life and death in the fictional early-20th-century town of Grover’s Corners, N.H., is desperately needed...so Americans can remember who we are. . . . The true American faith endures in “Our Town.”

- Frank Rich, New York Times


“Wilder’s unfashionable insistence on embracing wonders as well as woe is both gallant and exhilarating. . . .[Our Town] leaves us with a sense of blessing, and the unspoken but palpable command to achieve gratitude in what remains of our days on earth”

- The New Yorker


SOLI DEO GLORIA!


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