Crimes of the Heart Book

Crimes of the Heart, the 1981 Pulitzer prize winning play from Beth Henley was also nominated for the 1982 Tony Award for a Broadway musical.

A later film adaptation featured Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek. At one level this seems like a family version of Sartre's No Exit, as each character seemed to have created her own hell that was made worse by complex interactions with the others.

A better study, though, shows the strong, resilient endurance by the sisters and their ability to come together and overcome "bad days". Another strength of the play itself is the rich history that Henley has created through the narrow lens of the dialogue. Almost like a focused perspective, we learn about characters not in the play but whose actions and influence paint indelible marks on the McGrath sisters, especially the shadow of their mother's suicide and the oppressive tyranny of Old Grandaddy.

Set in Mississippi, this is a Southern family that is reborn from the past, struggling to find a new way.

Excellent.