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BRAND NEW LEATHERBOUND BOOK ACCENTED IN 22 KT GOLD. Personally signed by Alan Alda. A moving and funny memoir from the award-winning star of television's most beloved series, M*A*S*H. 6 1/8" x 9 1/2", 240pp ... Read more

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leather bound book is accented in 22kt gold. Personally signed by Alan Alda. ... Read more

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Inspired by a true story, the play follows a young black con man as he insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy New York couple. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Six Degrees of Separation
I am requesting the book (not the play) for this Title.I do know that it was a true story.Cab you help me find this book?

Thanks,
Wendy

Liked it, but...
Maybe its me, but where did the concept of six degrees of separation come in?That being said, I enjoyed the pacing and language of this play, and the characters were strong and fleshed out.A good, fast-paced read.

A play about everything
After reading a book about the Oscars, I decided to seek out books that weremade into films, and I came across Guare's now-famous play that was produced on Broadway in the 1990s and eventually made into a film starring Will Smith and Stockard Channing.A young black man, feigning injury, insinuates himself into the lives of art dealer Flan Kitteredge and his wife, Ouisa.He claims to have known their kids at college and also claims to be Sidney Poitier's son.They have a wildly fascinating conversation during their first meeting, but after inviting him to stay the night, they discover him in bed with a male hustler.Then Ouisa and Flan discover the con: other friends of theirs have also had run-ins with this man, Paul, and his lies eventually lead to tragedy.

Ouisa gives the play's best and most famous monologue in which she talks about their being six degrees of separation from every individual on the planet.Performed as a play, it's only about 90 minutes long, but those minutes are filled with seamlessly joined dialogue between well-rounded characters who seem to leap off the page.

"I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people"
Loosely based upon real events, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION is a dramatic comedy that explores the deep interconnectivity of people while at the same time illustrating how shallow our quest for fame and fortune often is.The play tells the story of Flan and Ouisa Kittredge, an upper class Manhattan couple.The Kittredges are art dealers, but they've about run out of funds and unless they sell something soon, they might have to downgrade their lifestyle.One evening while they are having a friend from South Africa over for dinner (and trying to get some money from him), a young black man appears on their doorstep.He claims to have been mugged in Central Park and that he is a college friend of their kids. The initial tension soon dissolves when Paul, the young black man, begins cooking them dinner and lets slip that his father is Sidney Poitier. Paul makes everyone feel better about themselves and the Kittredges agree to let Paul spend the night in their apartment.However, things begin to unravel when the Kittredges find Paul having sex with a man the next morning. They throw Paul out and they think that's the end of it until later they learn of acquaintances who have been duped by Paul in similar ways.Thus begins a quest to find out who Paul really is and in doing so the Kittredges discover themselves.

I think SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION is a great play. Most of the characters are pretentious and snobbish and at times not very likeable.However, they have no idea that they are pretentious, they think they are charming, and very likeable.The irony is that it takes a con man who no one really knows to help them take their own masks off and truly see themselves for the first time.

Even if the plot of the play doesn't sound interesting, the play is worth reading and knowing about because of introducing the concept of"six degrees of separation" into the lexicon.The concept had existed before, but only in vague terms.It wasn't until John Guare's play that the idea became commonplace and a part of American culture.

Overall, a fairly entertaining and thought-provoking play that anyone with an interest in American theatre should read.

"We're not enough to be envied"
John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation" is about the foibles of a New York City couple named Flanders and Louisa Kittredge, who go by the nicknames Flan and Ouisa. They are a pretentious pair desperate to make a deal with a wealthy South African to keep them in their swank lifestyle when a black man named Paul barges into their lives and cons his way into an invitation to stay the night. Because Paul is charming and intellectual -- flattering Flan and Ouisa to their heart's content -- they become easy dupes, totally shocked when they wake in the morning to find that Paul had invited a male hustler into his bed while they slept. There are touches of liberal guilt in how easily Flan and Ouisa are deceived in that they are fairly patronizing to Paul as a young black man who has (seemingly) been mugged and left penniless until his father gets into town the next morning. But the truth is that the Kittredges are not taken in by their guilt but by the promise that they can get something out of their association with Paul. He claims that the father he is waiting for is none other than Sidney Poitier, coming to NYC to cast for his upcoming film adaptation of "Cats" -- and that he can get them roles as extras to repay their kindness. That is Paul's modus operandi (it turns out that he has also conned several of Ouisa and Flan's friends in the same fashion). He promises his marks a connection to a higher level of society that they aspire to. For Ouisa, Flan et al this means the world of celebrity, but for Rick and Elizabeth (the poor couple Paul turns to when his mugged-son-of-Poitier shtick won't work anymore) it is access to the upper east side world that the Kittredges inhabit. Eventually Paul's relentless conning has tragic consequences, and it feels typical of this play's mindset that the tragedy happens to the lower-class characters while the upper-crust ones hover above it all. But the main fault of Guare's play is that the characters are so uniformly unappealing. They are all pretentious (a word that just about sums up the play) and unlikable cartoons lacking in depth or realism. The parents abysmally ignore their college-aged children, who lavishly act out in retaliation, and they all just feel like stereotypes instead of relatable people you might actually meet in the real world. This is not to say that the play is without merit. It's now famous concept that everyone in the world is connected by a mere six people is intriguing, as are its questions regarding race and class distinctions. The question of how far a person is willing to go to break into the upper echelons of society is also a good one. But what I found most intriguing was when Ouisa, wondering why Paul went to such great lengths to gain access to their lives, commented that "We're not enough to be envied." Can anyone ever be happy with what they have when someone else will always have more? All in all I found "Six Degrees of Separation" to be a mixed bag with some good points muddled by weak characters.
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Product Description
Alan Alda (born January 28, 1936) is an American actor,director and screenwriter. He is known for his role asHawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. During the 1970sand 1980s, he was viewed as the archetypal sympatheticmale, though in recent years, he has appeared in roles thatcounter that image. ... Read more

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Perfect, unabridged library edition on 5 CDs. Read by Alda. This funny memoir describes some of the questions he's aked himself over the years. After life-threating experiences, he is glad to be alive and is looking for the way to live life. He ponders his life and a "life of meaning."This audiobook is candid, honest and questioning. A great listen. Shipped daily. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

no clue...I paid for it and NEVER received it from the seller
I am very frustrated....I paid for this CD and never got it, and have emailed the seller twice and have heard nothing from them. ... Read more