The Old Religion

by David Mamet

Book Overview

The investigation focused on the Jewish manager of the factory, Leo Frank, who was subsequently forced to stand trial for the crime he didn't commit and railroaded to a life sentence in prison. Shortly after being incarcerated, he was abducted from his cell and lynched in front of a gleeful mob. In vividly re-imagining these horrifying events, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet inhabits the consciousness of the condemned man to create a novel whose...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585671908
• ISBN13: 9781585671908
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Disturbing, but worthwhile

Being very familiar with the Leo Frank case and the various forms of media that have evolved concerning it (novels, plays, movies, musicals...etc.) I was anxious to see what slant Mamet would take on this most intriguing true story. As usual, Mamet offers a bizarre, disturbing and profoundly intellectual work that provides a whole new look at Leo Frank. Instead of focusing in on the trial or events surrounding it...Mamet takes us on a journey inside Frank's head...we see the mind of a man displaced; trying to make peace with himself, his world and his God. The result is not a page-turner, not a heartfelt and moving account of a man accused, but rather a facsinating examination of the human brain and it's inexplicable way of relating ideas. A worthwhile read for anyone familiar with the Frank case...but a little too heavy and vague for those who are not.

Mamet Combines It All

Mamet's prose is never easy, but always rewarding. In his second novel, Mamet takes as into the mind of Leo Frank, a New York Jew, wrongly accused of murdering an employee of his. As the reader learns about Leo Frank's background and of his trial and eventual unjust conviction, (s)he also gets a piece of Frank's mind pondering the big philosphical and social questions: What does it mean to be a Jew in America? What does it mean to be an American? What is the role of justice, wealth and hard-work? Yet, he also asks himself questions that are both personal and universal: What if he had not come to work on that day? He wonders whether he shouldn't have foreseen the future, and he asks himself as we often do, whether there were any signs he ignored or misread that could have saved him. In a way, it's a novel about the small and unsovable questions each and everyone of us faces in one's life. And Mamet's depiction of these ponderings are not only brilliant in its clear-ness, but his answers and insights into these questions are also enlighting. As when he says that when one looks back on one's past and doesn't feel pride but sadness. That's wisdom. Or when he discredits the typical Jewish response to anti-smitism, which is a reference to the contribution of the Jews to society, by claiming that contribution in itself is despicable as it means nothing but 'what have you done for me'. This is not a melodrama, although the book ends dramatically. Neither is it Hemingway-esque, as the story's emphasis is not on action or plot, it is rather a beautiful account of a man trying to find sense in a senseless situation, by trying to find the answers to his existence. The questions he asks and the answers he gives are often familair, but have never been put so beautifully and with so much insight.