Recommendations
Books Like Art
Best books to read after Art by Yasmina Reza
Readers who love Art by Yasmina Reza are drawn to its combination of precision, the way it uses a white painting as the trigger for a devastating investigation of friendship, aesthetic judgment, and masculine competitiveness — they want plays and novels that deal with the violence concealed in close friendships, the relationship between taste and identity, and the tradition of the contemporary European play organized around a single triggering event.
- 1Buy
The God of Carnage
by Yasmina Reza
The companion Reza play — two sets of middle-class parents who meet to discuss their sons' fight, and the gradual collapse of civilized behavior. Companion investigations of the same Reza theme: the way that close relationships (friendship; marriage) conceal competitive violence that emerges when a specific trigger releases it
- 2Buy
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee
The companion in the tradition of the play about the violence concealed in close relationships. Both are organized around an evening of escalating confrontation in which the ostensible subject (the painting; the imaginary son) is the vehicle for the real conflict about what the relationship actually means
- 3Buy
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro's companion about what we invest our dignity in and what it costs when that investment proves mistaken. Companion investigations of what happens when the thing we have invested our sense of self in (the painting; the service to Lord Darlington) is shown to have been a mistake
- 4Buy
Sunday in the Park with George
by Stephen Sondheim
Sondheim's companion theatrical investigation of the relationship between artistic creation and human connection. Companion theatrical investigations of what art is for: whether its value lies in the formal achievement or in the human connection it makes possible
- 5Buy
The Real Thing
by Tom Stoppard
Stoppard's companion about the relationship between aesthetic judgment and personal authenticity — Henry's cricket bat speech. Both Art and The Real Thing are organized around the question of whether aesthetic judgment reveals something true about the person who makes it, and what happens when the aesthetic judgments diverge
- 6Buy
A Room with a View
by E.M. Forster
Forster's companion about the relationship between aesthetic judgment and personal authenticity — Lucy Honeychurch's choices. Both are organized around the question of whether aesthetic judgment reveals something true about the person who makes it, or whether it is merely the performance of a class position
- 7Buy
The Stone
by Marius von Mayenburg
Von Mayenburg's companion European play about the secrets concealed in close relationships. Companion European plays about the way that close relationships conceal histories of compromise and violence that emerge when specific triggers release them
- 8Buy
Noises Off
by Michael Frayn
Frayn's companion British comedy about the relationship between the surface of things and the chaos beneath — a play-within-a-play with increasing backstage chaos. Art and Noises Off are companion comic investigations of the fragility of the social surfaces that people maintain: Art shows the surface of friendship; Noises Off shows the surface of theatrical performance
More Art Resources
More Reading Recommendations
View all →Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.