“As tough as it is tender, and shot through with aching authenticity, Good People is that rare play that is timeless and keyed into a specific moment of American life, without the need to grasp for topicality…Bringing the same clear-eyed emotional observation that distinguished his Pulitzer Prize-winner Rabbit Hole, Lindsay-Abaire has crafted another penetrating drama about deeply relatable issues.” –David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“Searing, superbly written…this is a well-made play, in the best sense of the term.” –Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
“If Good People isn't a hit for Manhattan Theatre Club, there is no justice in the land. Lindsay-Abaire pays his respects to his old South Boston neighborhood with this tough and tender play about the insurmountable class divide between those who make it out of this blue-collar Irish neighborhood and those who find themselves left behind.” –Marilyn Stasio, Variety
“Substantial, tender yet often howlingly funny…delectably uncomfortable to sit through. I’d call it a smart, painful social comedy with a head and a heart.” –Dominic Maxwell, The Times (UK)
With his signature humor, Lindsay-Abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America. Set in Boston’s Southie neighborhood, where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo, where this month’s paycheck covers last month’s bills, we meet Margaret Walsh, who is facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break. When a friend from the old neighborhood, who is now very successful, moves back to town, Margaret hopes he may be the ticket to turning her life around.
David Lindsay-Abaire is the Pulitzer-winning author of Rabbit Hole, which was made into a feature film. He is the author of Good People, Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World, A Devil Inside and Kimberly Akimbo, as well as the book and lyrics to Shrek the Musical. He has written the screenplays for Rabbit Hole, Rise of the Guardians and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Born in South Boston, he now lives in Brooklyn.
Industry Reviews
BOMB magazine Books Preview selection Bookish Fiction Preview selection Vol. 1 Brooklyn Preview selection Big Other "Most Anticipated Small Press Book" selection Publishers Weekly "Big Indie Book" selection Library Journal "BookExpo America Book That Buzzed" selection New York Public Library Staff Pick Oakland Public Library "10 Great Reasons to Read Fiction" selection "Lopez's methodical narrators will draw comparisons to Beckett, but they also share DNA with the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, showcasing out-of-touch anxiety cases in all their poetically elliptical glory... Lopez has the ability to give the reader whiplash with his unconventional and bewitching stories." --Los Angeles Times "These [stories are] trance-like rants, full of strange dark bitter, bitter comedy. Nobody else does whatever the hell it is [Lopez]'s doing better than he does." --BOMB magazine "Whatever you believe about what separates good people from bad ones, forget it. Robert Lopez will challenge all of those assumptions in this arresting short story collection." --Bookish "[Lopez's] style is what would happen if Al Camus and Gertrude Stein teamed up to take down Hemingway." --JMWW Journal "Dark humor finds its way into these confessional stories and throughout the collection, the diverse voices ring true. Lopez has said music played a big part in his experience growing up, and it's apparent in Good People that his writing has found its rhythm." --Raleigh Review "Remarkably intimate... Deliciously clever." --Best New Fiction "Lopez does amazing things with prose, tone, and sparsity." --Vol. 1 Brooklyn "Lopez uses a close point of view to maximum effect, drawing the reader into each character's mindset; despite the sense of complicity this imparts, the dark humor and discomfort of these stories provides just as much enlightenment." --Late Night Library "One of Lopez's many gifts is being able to make accessible, through humor and wit, what might otherwise frighten us. Good People makes us question our own ideas about morality and the weight of our thoughts and actions, all the while entertaining us with the plights of others." --About.com "Read [Good People] to stumble into the sunlight afterward... Depressing, inventive, and marvelous--a thought-provoking path to feeling awful." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Tightly knit... Recommended for lovers of darkly humorous, strangely illuminating fiction." --Booklist "Personalities ranging from the amusingly neurotic to the borderline psychotic shape the 20 quirky stories in this collection... Lopez shows uncommon skill at evoking both laughs and shudders, sometimes in the same story." --Publishers Weekly "A dizzying, disturbing tour of what might be going on in the minds of 'good people.' ... Those who enjoy dark humor with a dose of sado-masochistic sexual fantasy will take pleasure in [Lopez's] spare prose and ability to spear a thought on first strike." --Foreword Reviews "Soul-crushingly dark, exceptionally well-written, and brimming with bitter wisdom, Good People is an anthology of compellingly authored masterpieces of the short story format that are very highly recommended." --Midwest Book Review "Master of the vandalized psyche, Lopez's poetics combine high-octane sonic loops with desperate delusions, to form one of the most stylish and urgent books of 2016." --TRACY O'NEILL, New York Public Library Staff Pick "Robert Lopez's strange, incantatory, visionary stories reveal the mysteries behind the ordinary world. You lift your head from this book and it's as if a third eye has been opened." --DAN CHAON, author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake "Robert Lopez is such a master of saddening hilarities that his virtuoso turns in this crazily heartbreaking, dizzyingly original new collection will restore even the most jaded reader's faith in the fresh possibilities of American fiction." --GARY LUTZ, author of Stories in the Worst Way "Robert Lopez is the master of deadpan dread, of the elliptical koan, of the sudden turn of language that reveals life to be so wonderfully absurd. Always with Lopez, the voice is all his--enchanting, surprising, at times devastating." --JESS WALTER, author of Beautiful Ruins
