A review by kungfool
Seven Guitars by August Wilson

4.0

I finished the play last night and thought, like a lot of other readers, that this one was just okay, nothing like my favorite Wilson play, The Piano Lesson. But then as I was lying in bed this morning, not quite awake, I had this revelation about the character Floyd. He goes to jail because of a vagrancy law-- he goes to jail because he has no money! He makes money through music, but his guitar is in the pawn shop. The pawn shop owner wants $50 for the guitar, five time more than what Floyd pawned it for. What can Floyd do to get the guitar back, if the only way to get the $50 is to play a guitar he doesn't have? Here is August Wilson, once again, examining the complicated path to economic prosperity faced by African Americans, a path fraught with traps and barriers.