http://www.johnreed.tv
http://www.alltheworldsagrave.com
THE WHOLE (MTV, Simon & Schuster)
SNOWBALL'S CHANCE (Roof Books)
A STILL SMALL VOICE (Delacorte, Delta)
All THE WORLD'S A GRAVE: A NEW PLAY BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
COMING FROM PENGUIN/PLUME, September 1, 2008
The literary trick of the year. —New York Post
I can't quite believe "All The World's A Grave,": such an original idea. —Ian McKellen
This is the Frankenstein's monster of Shakespearean tragedy. It raises the
Artistotelian emotions of pity and fear to a new level as the audience
agonizes over the uncertainty of which catharsis John Reed's play is
heading toward. —William S. Niederkorn
I had just decided to name my new play “A Year Without Shakespeare,” to express my weariness with the recurring unimaginative return again and again to the Bard. Then I came upon John Reed’s NEW/old play, and I feel fired up! What a dramatic re-imagination is herein offered us! —Richard Foreman
Reed caramelizes the Bard's plays into a great and terrifying world, the State in continual war. "All The World's A Grave" is a dizzying feat of writing and scholarship. —Lynne Tillman
Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon ... a menace, or a messiah? —David Shankbone, Wikinews
A FEW OTHER OPINIONS
A pig returns to the farm, thumbing his snout at Orwell. ... And the estate of George Orwell is not happy about it. —The New York Times
Free John Reed! Free the piggies! —New York Press
SNOWBALL'S CHANCE parodies Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM, dragging it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. — Publisher’s Weekly
John Reed excels in the realm of strange. —San Francisco Examiner
It will take a great deal more than a fortnight's work by a smart-aleck anti-corporatist to undermine the most brilliant satire of the 20th century. —London Telegraph
Reed's book is a swift and satisfying read, viciously funny, out of left field and ultimately betraying an affection for the deeply superficial, for all the Things out there who are "all things and nothing … " —The New York Post
Reed has managed to take a dated masterpiece ... and revive it for the odd, casino-like social and political world we're mired in today; in the process he's created his own masterpiece. —Creative Loafing, Charlotte
This book has something to upset almost everyone who reads it, just like a good book should. —Dennis Loy Johnson
Likely to offend almost everyone. —Money Magazine
Phillip K. Dick got nuthin on John Reed! A psychotomimetic tale that seeps through the pages, into your skin—by the end, you are stunned to find you've read a book, not watched a 3-D film! —Laura Albert / J.T. Leroy
The New York author has ignited a fierce literary debate; is it ever right to write a book modeled on a classic, that twists the original message into unrecognizable form? —The Scotsman
THE WHOLE is satire at its most inventive and buoyant. ... It would have made Boris Vian grin and Lewis Carroll blush. —The Brooklyn Rail
One of the guiltiest postmodern pleasures is to take familiar stories and update them to fit our genre-crossing, coke-snorting, contemporary selves. ... Passes faster than an episode of The Real World. —PopMatters
Orwell’s sacred pigs get a proper roast. —The Portland Tribune
As brainy as it is base, destructive as it is innovative and sweeping as it is sophisticated. —Los Angeles Journal
While reading SNOWBALL’S CHANCE, one plays this terrifying guessing game of animal á clef: which animal am I? Which animal is my neighbor? Which animal is my enemy? Written in lucid, wise, funny, fable-prose, this book brings to mind Spiegelman’s Maus—the use of a playful metaphor to reveal truths we might otherwise refuse to see. —Jonathan Ames
A volatile new novel. … John Reed good! Orwell better! —San Diego Union Tribune
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