Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama

This brilliant, inspiring, and occasionally hilarious tract is Ur-Mamet. He's a pleasure to read. I picked it up because I was in the mood for some vigorous polemic--but it never occurred to me that I would find myself examining my self, my beliefs, my goals, and what it means to tell the truth. I read it twice in one night, and again the next day. A corker!

Mr. Mamet cuts and exposes the grooves that we both claim and deny. Three Uses of the Knife is much more than the subtitle "On the Nature and Purpose of Drama" would lead you to believe. (In fact, I am not quite sure that the Vanity Fair review that appears on the cover could have been written by someone who really read this book. It seems banal and patronizing = "[Mamet] brings his usual passion and provocation to his treatise on what makes good drama.")

Anyway..far from a "treatise on...good drama", this is a book that calls for honest introspection and critical consideration of the pop drama of daily living (sports, politics, race, etc.). A case in point: I dare you to lay the current drama of internet madness in the context of this book -- It will be most revealing and this will become the best internet book you have read.

O.K., nuff hyperbole -- the book is simply on target as a structure for social criticism. Whether you agree with his opinions or not, you can't shirk the debate and keep your integrity.

It is a very short book well worth reading and re-reading.

In a short, easy-to-read book, Mamet reveals, as the title suggests, "the nature and purpose of drama."