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An exuberant, darkly humorous novel by the National Book Award–nominated author of Fieldwork.
Celebrated stage actress Mona Zahid wakes up on Thanksgiving morning to the clamor of guests packed into her Manhattan apartment and to a wave of dread: her in-laws are lurking on the other side of the bedroom door; she's still fighting with her husband; and in just a few weeks she will begin rehearsals as Shakespeare's Cleopatra, the hardest role in theater. In an impulsive burst, Mona bounds out the door with the family dog in tow ("I forgot the parsley!" is her lame excuse) to find her estranged mentor, Milton Katz, who was recently forced out of the legendary theater company he founded amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Mona's escape turns into an overnight adventure that brings her face-to-face with her past, with her creative power and its limitations, and ultimately, with all the people she has ever loved.
Beguilingly approachable and intricately constructed, at once funny and sad and wise, Mona Acts Out is a novel about acting and telling the truth, about how we play roles to get through our days, and how the great roles teach us how to live.
"[S]harp-witted...Mona's thoughts are laced with scathing humor and piercing insight into the actor's craft, resulting in a surprisingly moving exploration of the courage required to play life's many roles. Berlinski deserves a standing ovation for this bravura performance." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Readers who know their Shakespeare will thrill to Berlinski's brilliant distillation of the power and relevance of the plays and characters, but those who don't will find they can easily come along for the ride. And a great ride it is. Wonderfully constructed, witty, warm, wise, and filled with an extraordinary sense of the relation between theater and life." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"After a few pages, I canceled my dinner plans rather than put this one down. I absolutely loved this novel's stunning, almost alarming, insight into one woman's longing. An unflinchingly honest exploration of the complexities of the human condition and the ambiguities of contemporary morality, Mona Acts Out epitomizes great comedy; deftly woven throughout its fabulously hilarious prose is significant wisdom and sorrow." ―Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Rabbits for Food
"The delightful Mona Acts Out takes us where we all dream of going: away from the irritations of our present moment, into the open streets, to confront everything that still haunts us and reach, surely, hopefully, the Promised Land." ―Daniel Handler, author of And Then? And Then? What Else?
"I'm head over heels for this witty, tender, keenly intelligent exploration of art, artifice, and the human heart. Mischa Berlinski is a masterful and deeply empathetic storyteller, and Mona Acts Out is a pure delight." ―Antonia Angress, author of Sirens & Muses
This information about Mona Acts Out was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Fieldwork is Mischa's first novel, it won him a $50,000 Whiting Award in 2008. Peacekeeping: A Novel was published in 2016.
Mischa Berlinski was born in New York in 1973. He studied classics at the University of California at Berkeley and at Columbia University. He has worked as a journalist in Thailand. He lives in Rome.
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