A review by jentang
A Bright Ray of Darkness by Ethan Hawke

4.75

i was caught off guard by how much i enjoyed this book. it is incredibly male, but incredibly true to ethan hawke and his creative style. while i don't necessarily think hawke and i share similar viewpoints on love, and while i am not inclined at all to feel much sympathy for the MC, the realness with which the hotshot protagonist in this book who is grappling with facing the rest of his life was spun made me feel his humanity in such a way that i cannot simply hate this book for not exactly being very respectful nor romantic, as much as i would like to.

boo cheating boo objectification boo eyebrow-raising violent sex why does this have to be an accurate depiction of men and the way in which they see things

hawke writes such raw relationships. i could find myself clearly envisioning most of william's interactions, whether they were with his lovers, his coworkers, or random people on the street. hawke was able, in my opinion, to successfully transfer life (of course, i'm sure many of william's written experiences were based off his own) to paper, something which i feel a great deal of authors are unfortunately unable to do. another angle: the writing was human enough that i read every single page about acting in the play with as much focus and interest as i did pages about drug usage, sex, and sadness, even though i can definitively say i have never in my life sought out shakespeare-related media of my own free will. william isn't perfect. he's not someone who i can relate to. he's not someone i would want to find myself entangled with. he's not someone i would be able to help in any way if i were his friend. and yet, i can only say all of these things because this book made me feel like i know him enough to do so.