Description
BOOK OVERVIEW :
The first novel in nearly twenty years from the acclaimed actor/writer/director,A BRIGHT RAY OF DARKNESS is a book about art and love, fame and heartbreak a blistering story of a young man making his Broadway debut just as his marriage implodes.A bracing meditation on fame and celebrity, and the redemptive, healing power of art;a portrait of the ravages of disappointment and divorce; a poignant consideration of the rites of fatherhood and manhood; a novel soaked in rage and sex, longing and despair; and a passionate love letter to the world of theatre, A Bright Ray of Darkness showcases Ethan Hawke’s gifts as a novelist as never before.Hawke’s narrator is a young man in torment, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, still half-hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself and move on as he clumsily, and sometimes hilariously,tries to manage the wreckage of his personal life with whisky and sex.What saves him is the theatre:in particular, the challenge of performing Shakespeare in his Broadway debut under the leadership of a brilliant director.Searing, raw, and utterly transfixing,A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel about shame and beauty and faith, and the moral power of art.
The first novel in nearly twenty years from the acclaimed actor/writer/director,A BRIGHT RAY OF DARKNESS is a book about art and love, fame and heartbreak a blistering story of a young man making his Broadway debut just as his marriage implodes.A bracing meditation on fame and celebrity, and the redemptive, healing power of art;a portrait of the ravages of disappointment and divorce; a poignant consideration of the rites of fatherhood and manhood; a novel soaked in rage and sex, longing and despair; and a passionate love letter to the world of theatre, A Bright Ray of Darkness showcases Ethan Hawke’s gifts as a novelist as never before.Hawke’s narrator is a young man in torment, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, still half-hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself and move on as he clumsily, and sometimes hilariously,tries to manage the wreckage of his personal life with whisky and sex.What saves him is the theatre:in particular, the challenge of performing Shakespeare in his Broadway debut under the leadership of a brilliant director.Searing, raw, and utterly transfixing,A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel about shame and beauty and faith, and the moral power of art.
ETHAN HAWKE BIOGRAPHY :
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, writer, and director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a documentary. He has also written three novels and one graphic novel. He made his film debut with the 1985 science fiction feature Explorers, before making a breakthrough appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society. He appeared in various films before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites, for which he received critical praise. Hawke starred alongside Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013), all of which received critical acclaim. Hawke has been nominated twice for both the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; his writing contributions to Before Sunset and Before Midnight were recognized, as were his performances in Training Day (2001) and Boyhood (2014). Hawke was further honored with Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for both films, as well as British Academy Film Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for the latter. His other films include the science fiction drama Gattaca (1997), the contemporary adaptation of Hamlet (2000), the action thriller Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), Sidney Lumet’s crime drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), and the horror film Sinister (2012). In 2018, he garnered critical acclaim for his performance as a Protestant minister in Paul Schrader’s drama First Reformed (2017), receiving numerous accolades, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, and a nomination for the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actor. In addition to his film work, Hawke has appeared in many theater productions. He made his Broadway debut in 1992 in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 2007 for his performance in Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia. In 2010, Hawke directed Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play. In 2018, he starred in the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Sam Shepard’s play True West alongside Paul Dano.
