Recommendations
Books Like The Homecoming
Best books to read after The Homecoming by Harold Pinter
Readers who love The Homecoming by Harold Pinter are drawn to its combination of menacing power dynamics, the impossibility of psychological explanation, and the deeply disturbing movement by which Ruth is absorbed into Teddy's family — they want plays and novels that deal with the violence concealed in family relationships, the dynamics of power and submission, and the Pinter tradition of menace and the unsaid.
- 1Buy
The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter
The earlier companion — Stanley, Goldberg, McCann, and the birthday party that destroys him. Companion investigations of the same Pinter theme: the arrival of people who reorganize the power dynamics of a confined space, and the violence (actual or implied) that follows
- 2Buy
Betrayal
by Harold Pinter
The later companion — Emma, Robert, and Jerry's seven-year affair told in reverse chronological order. Companion explorations of sexual power and family/friendship loyalty: The Homecoming organized around dominance and submission; Betrayal around the quieter violence of infidelity
- 3Buy
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee
Albee's companion about domestic power and the violence concealed in family relationships. Both plays are organized around an evening of escalating confrontation that uses the presence of outsiders to expose the dynamics of the central relationship, and both refuse any comfortable resolution
- 4Buy
Endgame
by Samuel Beckett
Beckett's companion about the confined space and the power dynamics that determine who serves whom. Companion explorations of the post-war theatrical theme: the confined space, the group of people who are stuck together, and the violence that is always present even when it is never acted on
- 5Buy
The Servant
by Robin Maugham
Maugham's companion about the relationship between master and servant and the violence it conceals — Tony and his manservant Barrett. Companion investigations of the British class relationship and the way that the servant's knowledge of the master can become a form of power
- 6Buy
Oleanna
by David Mamet
Mamet's companion about power, its redistribution, and the violence that accompanies it — the professor John and the student Carol. Companion investigations of the dynamics of power in a confined relationship: both organized around the moment when the person who appears to have less power reveals that they have more
- 7Buy
Old Times
by Harold Pinter
The companion Pinter play — Deeley and Kate and Kate's old friend Anna, and the battle over memory and possession. Companion late Pinter plays about the relationship between memory, possession, and the past: both organized around competing memories of what happened and who owns the other person
- 8Buy
No Exit
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's companion in the tradition of the play about a group of people who are stuck together and who discover that the people they are with are both their torture and their company — Garcin, Inez, and Estelle in their hell. Both No Exit and The Homecoming are organized around the impossibility of escape from the group of people you are in: 'Hell is other people' is the Sartrean formulation; Pinter's version is the family that will not let you go
More The Homecoming 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.