A customer suggested Roland S. as an author I might find interesting. His description brought to mind Handke, with whom I have become increasingly less enchanted over the decades. The prose piece he recommended is not currently available in the US and, as I enjoy reading plays, I opted for this as a starting place. Though the play is structured to be read, with both filmic devices and non-dialogue narration essential to any understanding of it, it was obviously meant to be, and has been, staged. I kept trying to envision that scenario, but eventually gave up on it.

The play itself has elements I love: strained relationships, both domestic and familial; an other intruding upon this strained domesticity; and a child as witness. I kept thinking of Alan Ayckbourn's "Season's Greetings," and making comparisons thereof. Pinteresque touches are there as well, but more and more, as I neared its end, I realised that nothing was being commented upon or, if it was, it escaped me. An interesting experiment, but ultimately futile. ( )