Books by Tennessee Williams
“The Memoirs are structured so they flit back and forth, kind of like a Williams play, and the periods that he does decide to focus on are so salacious, so gossipy—he just lets it all hang out. He tells us about this lover and that lover, what he thought about this or that figure. You get the sense of a man unleashed. The American filmmaker John Waters described it as being like sitting down for drinks with an already-inebriated Williams, telling you stories. It’s incredibly brave for anybody to go so far and to be so candid about themselves. Yes, Williams was incredibly forthright in his plays, very articulate and outspoken about sexual relationships. But there is a distinct difference, I think, in what he could get away with on Broadway, which was dominated by its own very conservative rules and regulations, and what he could get away with on the printed page. This is an unparalleled frankness in a public figure.” Read more...
The Best Tennessee Williams Books
Ahmed Honeini, Literary Scholar
“It seems Serafina will be another of Williams’ tragic heroines. And yet, over the course of the play, you see a woman who has lost everything, very close to a Blanche DuBois figure, throw caution to the wind and embrace life. I think that’s the most beautiful thing about The Rose Tattoo. It’s a richly affirming play. Even Williams thinks that life cannot just be a series of tragedies. There has to be some kind of sweetness or succour at the end.” Read more...
The Best Tennessee Williams Books
Ahmed Honeini, Literary Scholar
“If The Glass Menagerie depicts Williams’ life with his family in St Louis, Vieux Carré depicts Williams’ life once he had left home and gone to New Orleans. It roughly maps onto Williams’ actual biography. The fundamental difference is that Williams did not just leave St Louis and never return; he returned several times, even after his so-called moment of liberation. In Vieux Carré, there’s a sense of romanticism and finality—the character based on Williams can never return.” Read more...
The Best Tennessee Williams Books
Ahmed Honeini, Literary Scholar
“The reason I’ve chosen to highlight it is because it sets up so many o fthe perennial themes that we’ve come to identify with Williams’ work. Namely, right at the top of the list is the importance of, and tensions within, families. The Glass Menagerie is a quintessential family play, and Williams comes back, repeatedly, to the centrality of the family in American life. He stages—with this triptych of Amanda, Laura and Tom—the loneliness and the alienation and the yearning that emerges from three disconnected, withdrawn, uncertain, fragile, but also beautiful characters.” Read more...
The Best Tennessee Williams Books
Ahmed Honeini, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Tennessee Williams were recommended
The Best Tennessee Williams Books, recommended by Ahmed Honeini
Tennessee Williams was a giant of 20th-century American theatre, explains literary scholar Ahmed Honeini, whose new book unpicks Williams’ preoccupation with domestic family drama. Here, Honeini selects five key books—landmark plays, personal memoirs and an influential biography—that illuminate the life of the great playwright.
