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

3.0

The parts of the story about putting on a Shakespeare play on Broadway are great and honestly the reason for the three stars. Everything else is so repetitive of the kind of stuff Hawke has tackled in his films and his previous novels—father abandonment. The life stuff about a high profile divorce and celebrity was thinly veiled so should have maybe felt like a look inside or gossipy fun but instead it felt so empty and self important. Mostly why I’m so disappointed is that all the men in the book get to be these great philosophical figures and all the women are gorgeous ciphers or sexy and empty. Without the really interesting, insiders backstage theatre stuff this book feels like very amateur guy in your MFA crap.