Week 22 - The Beauty Queen of Leenane; The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Last week I experienced some black Irish humour at the Young Vic. On the last showing week I saw The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh. It's a play from the 1990s painting a grim reality of provincial Ireland. The Beauty Queen is Maureen, 40 year old virgin taking care of and hating her old mother, who sits in the rocking chair and nags at her daughter. Their relationship is based on hatred and sarcasm, although they are two lonely souls and can't live without each other. However, Maureen starts a fling with a nice bloke, who came from London to see his family. Through her mother's sly plotting, she loses that chance to escape and the play ends with Maureen murdering her mother. The evening contains many gruesome moments, just a few examples: the mother pouring her night pot down the kitchen sink over the dishes, Maureen scalding her mother's hand with hot oil. And still in all this bleakness there is plenty laughs and love and some hope. The cast acted superbly, although Susan Lynch as Maureen was a bit too beautiful for her role.

The book of last week was The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I was attracted to this book purely because of the cover. Since I saw that boy in fancy outfit, some higher power didn't let me put down the book. The title also helped and the fact that it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 increased the need to read it. And what a disappointment! The story of the Dominican family spans through three generations and it is full of murder, torture, tough love and too much bad language. It reminded me of Vernon God Little a lot (similar language and pointless story about a loser). Never judge a book by it's cover – that cliché is proven to be right by this tome.