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

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 A film star at the end of his marriage, William Harding attempts to find his grounding during a Broadway production of Henry IV, Part I . The book reverberates with the immediacy and precarious balance of staging a large-scale theater production. Harding's overlapping anxiety about his marriage and how its collapse is impacting the production are conveyed so well that the scenes on the stage are as tense as in any thriller. I read this in two days and enjoyed the entirety of it -- the discussions of Hotspur as a character, of theater acting at large, of ego and Harding's attempts to satisfy or subsume it through drugs and sex; it is a fast, fearful ride to see the narrator and his production to a good end. If a reader carries hesitations about Hawke's abilities as an author, don't. This is an outstanding title.