Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group and also by my family to read and discuss at a family reunion.  It won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in the 1930s – continues to be a classic  and is a very short read.  Also, I have read and been moved several times by  Thornton Wilder’s other Pulitzer Prize winning work, The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

Summary in 3 Sentences: The play offers  three snapshots of life in a small town in New Hampshire in the early 1900s narrated by the stage manager – an omniscient God-like figure, compassionate and wise who speaks directly to the audience.  We get to know two families and a number of figures in the small town, and through them, the tempo and rhythms of life in that town, but by analogy, life in almost any community.  We see how the little things that happen in all of our lives – family, love, loss, joy, disappointment – are the essence of our lives – and the play delivers this message simply and powerfully.

My Impressions:  I loved watching this play and I loved reading it.  I had seen it performed many years ago on TV with Hal Holbrook playing the stage manager, and after reading it this time, I watch it again on DVD  – with Paul Newman (2003 production) playing the stage manager.  It was very powerful and moving watching it after reading it – Paul Newman was superb as the stage manager, and the other characters were also excellent. I saw several things that touched me that I had missed in reading the play.  I can’t recommend highly enough reading the play, then watching it – especially the Paul Newman version.

Because of its short-length (about 100 pages) and the simplicity of the language and style, it is often assigned reading in high-school, but I believe it is best appreciated by a more mature, and life-experienced audience.  By seeing the lives of a few people in this New England town at different points in their lives, and with the added omniscient perspective offered by the stage manager, we gain a perspective on the moments we live within the larger context of our whole lives,  the life of our community and of our nation.

The three acts of the play are: 1 Daily Life, 2 Love and Marriage, and 3 Death and Dying. The first two acts give us glimpses into the simple joys of life in Grovers Corner ,New Hampshire at the beginning of the 20th century and are insightful and moving in their innocence and simplicity.  The most powerful part of the play is in the third act – the culmination of the play – when one of the characters in the book who has passed away joins the ranks of the dead, and we are given a different perspective on the world of the still-living.  This character chooses to go back and revisit  a moment in the life she had lived, though the other no-longer living souls she had joined strongly recommended against it.  With the perspective of beyond the grave, she realizes how wonderful the little moments in her life were that she had failed to appreciate while experiencing them.  It was extremely sad and frustrating for her to see how unconsciously she and others in her life were going through their daily rituals and lives.  “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it- every, every minute?” she asks.  “No.” replied the stage manager. “The saints and poets maybe.  They do some.”

The third act is powerful. It was particularly moving for me as I watched the Paul Newman version of it at our family reunion, with every one of the 4 generations of my family – to include my 91 year old father and 88 year old mother.

The copy of the book in the image with this post includes an extensive afterward about how the play was initially received,  more about Thornton Wilder and about the impact the play has had.  It was initially panned in many cities – due to its sparse scenery and somewhat mystical message.  Then its popularity grew and continues, nearly 8 decades later.   I might argue that it is timeless, in how well it treats timeless themes.

Two descriptions of the play in the afterward that I thought captured how I felt about the book:

“Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times: <Our Town>  “…transmitted the simple events of human life into universal reverie and contained nothing less than a fragment of the immortal truth.”

Wilder’s fiction includes the themes  “…of the repetition of family life, the chorus of life and death, and man’s relation to time and space.”

Key Take Aways for me:

• The main take-away, and this isn’t trivial:  Whenever I can, I should step back and look at what I’m doing, how I’m treating people, and where I’m giving my energy and priorities – as if I were coming back from beyond the grave and observing myself.  Am I focusing on the right things? Am I realizing what from the BIG picture perspective, is TRULY important? Am I making decisions, or behaving in ways that  I may regret later?
• This is related:  Don’t take anything for granted.  What we accept as “the way things are” is only temporary.  The rhythms of life in our community – patterns of life which we count on every day will change.  People grow older, technology changes the way we live, accidents happen, people move away, people we know well and some we don’t, die.