Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. DC Metro Theater Arts. Locations Maryland Reviews. Photo by Kristofer Northrup. Please enter your comment! I was afraid it would be written like a script, but to my delight, it was written as a regular novel.
The story is quirky, funny, magical, and sweet, just like I remember from the play. I highly recommend reading this heartwarming book and also, if given the chance, see the play. Lynn Plourde.
Author 58 books followers. DNF--gave it a pages. I was excited to read about the County northern Maine , one of my favorite places with some of my favorite people and home to my ancestors. Maybe this worked as a play, but the book was weird and frustratingly repetitive with lines repeating over and over again, and action repeating over and over again, and sentences starting with "And" repeating over and over again. It was supposed to be about a magical, northern lights night, but I didn't feel any magic, only annoyed.
Samantha Dupree. I also played the uncredited role of "Marci's shoe" which one night fell from the catwalk and rolled perfectly mid-stage, a feat I never accomplished again in our six show run I was a bit skeptical when this was first announced because I truly loved the experience of that play.
We had a small cast with much double-casting and we all grew very close through the experience. I was worried the novel would simply be a complicated version of the source and I wasn't interested. The cover was cute though so I had to give it a shot. This is a lovely story, perfect to read in the winter around a fire. It is written in short, staccato sentences that feel like someone telling a story and making sure they pause to let the right beats land. The supernatural and fabulistic elements never seem weird or out of place and in fact the idea of faith in, well, anything is a key component to this story.
The faith that the person you love will come back to you. The faith that you will be found. The faith that you can be accepted for who you are. It feels like it has the scope of a small town but it feels connected by simple mentions of previous persons throughout the novel.
Honestly the best part for me was the addition of a story I hadn't heard because it was not in fact part of the play! Full disclosure, this play was banned in places in my state due to the scene "They Fell" which feature's two men "falling for each other" literally.
A local high school tried to put this on and there were efforts to shut it down which thankfully failed. This new scene has elements that make it feel like it would cause this same pushback and I love that it acknowledges that within the story. I won't give it away but it was a very touching story that I felt fit right in with the originals in heart and quirk.
All in all I really enjoyed this walk through Almost and down Memory Lane. I sent many pictures to my cast mates when a line of dialogue rang out in my head with their voice and it was fun to remember the time we all experienced a little magic. Recommended for those who want to be found. My brother starred in his high school's version of this play. It was the most beautiful and funny play I've seen.!
Looking forward to this book.! Here's my honest review That, and short stories are not really my thing, as much as a good structured old fashioned novel, with all the deepness and character building.
John Cariani has developed a nice writing style to translate the play into paper and, once again, cute is the best way to describe the resulting product. Cute characters, cute little stories, cute setting But I can't but leave it at just the medium point of the 2.
Also, and just being picky, those acknowledgements need some work This is a YA book based on the play of the same name. Danielle Sinsigalli. This had just a hint of magical realism, which was perfect. Every chapter was a slice of somebody's story unfolding on the same night that everyone in this almost-town could see the Northern lights.
I loved the wild scenery of Northern Maine and the poetic way that this was written. Greatly enjoyed this! Super fast read for me because it was hard to put down! Loved that each chapter was a different story yet all related to the main characters. Cariani transforms his popular play into a fully realized YA novel of interconnected vignettes.
The third-person narration opens on Ginette and Pete going to look at the stars in their hometown of Almost. Every subsequent chapter is a two-person vignette, a short story informed by her walk home past various locations. The couples experience the joys and struggles of love, with a magical realism bent, and not all the stories end happily.
It will be worth it. Verdict: For New Adult sections, theater enthusiasts, and born romantics, a charming and whimsical collection. Chris S. Thanks to Fierce Reads for my ARC The ending was absolutely phenomenal, but the quality of the stories felt like it varied a good deal. Moreover, even though the substance of the stories was very nice, it felt like there was a lot of telling and less showing. Some of this may have been due to the repetitive use of phrases like "and," "so" and "because" to start sentences and sentence fragments, which I'm sure were artistic decisions made in order to create a certain mood, but just didn't sit well with me and made the book feel somewhat monotonous.
All in all, a very sweet novel that's absolutely beautiful in some parts, but just one that failed to entrance me. I'll stick with the play, but there still might be something for you here if you enjoyed the stage production and wonder what it would look like in a different medium.
Zoey Perrigo. Something wonderful happens in Almost. Maine that leads to couples either realizing love or falling out of it. The wonderful thing that may or may not have happened in Almost. I admit that I read this book because of being in a production of the play version of the story.
It was one of the happiest memories of college theatre that I have. This brought all that back and then some. I enjoyed reading what John Cariani's views of the characters were and how it transformed itself into a book. I would recommend this to those who want some vignettes of love that can happen to us. I would not recommend this to anyone about to be in a production of Almost, Maine.
It limits in a way that theatre does not quite survive. However, for those who feel better to read stories in books, I will recommend it. I loved the pieces of Ginnette and Pete that come along with every chapter and little telling of the other's stories. The pieces, or vignettes, always feel like pieces and not part of a larger story, like books usually do. It's definitely for those who are fans of small parts of stories that take place in one location.
Derek Moore. One night in the middle of winter, something happens to the residents of Almost. They find themselves falling in and out of love. Life for the residents will never be the same. I understand the book is based on a play.
John Cariani takes the reader on a journey that begins with Ginette professing her love to her best friend. Ginette seems to be the catalyst for the disruption of the town. Each house she passes is affected by some sort of magic. We see the highs and lows, the good, bad and ugliness of relationships. This is a well written and easy to read book that I enjoyed.
YouTube is full of clips of high school actors shouting the lines to each other, mugging, and self-consciously wriggling around on the stage. The straight productions are more emotionally resonant, but leave the audience silent and the actors seemingly more uncomfortable. It has an innocence without being a naive play. I think Almost, Maine kind of crosses all these different stages of life. I think it can be done by virtually any theater company without offending anyone.
Improbably, the play has found itself recently embroiled in scandal. Cariani, ever chipper, found nothing about which to be upset, even in the censorship of his own play. I think that probably plays better to the less hardened among us.
And if you live in New York, you become hardened to a certain degree. I mean, you do if you survive. Surviving as a New York playwright is exactly the thing at which Cariani is struggling.
As an actor, he is doing well: nominated for a Tony for a revival of Fiddler on the Roof and currently starring on Broadway in the Shakespeare-aping comedy Something Rotten! Cariani still feels that the New York nonprofit theater establishment refuses to give his work a fair hearing.
His biggest fans tend to be teenagers located far from New York. The plays are kind of Taylor Swift-y, you know? I do feel that life is really complex, but it can also be really simple. Living in a place like northern Maine—life is a bit simpler there. AWS Deloitte Genpact. From then on, Cariani kept working on the material as he took other jobs. I asked Wendy Rich Stetson. He is a unique soul. After Cariani did one of his scenes, the older actor came up him. I was being a ham. Therefore, theater has to be very simple.
Formulas are important. Formulaic is not a dirty word to me. I got in touch with one of those teachers, Valerie von Rosenvinge, drama director of Hopkinton Mass. High School. And each of those 20 students can have a genuine moment on stage that is focused solely on them. I look at Almost, Maine as an educational piece.
It provides an opportunity to develop talent, confidence and awareness that not a whole lot of other pieces do. And when you pull back the layers, you appreciate the brilliance of what this play can be. Musicals get most of the love in high school theater. With straight plays, there are either too few roles or the text is too complicated or inappropriate.
Yet not a one is modern. She concedes that productions of Almost, Maine can founder if actors accentuate its sweetness without mining deeper. Take the scene where a seemingly together woman and seemingly odd man interact at a laundromat. And she feels better by virtue of doing that.
And then, as we began to do the work, she began to uncover that this woman was just as damaged as he was. That kind of epiphany started to happen with many of the kids. Mid-March is when most northeast high schools put on a show—and so the COVID-related cancellations cascaded just before those opening nights, including in Hopkinton.
A few months later, at the Zoom session with the cast, Cariani spoke at length to each teen about how they played their parts. What a gift. Meanwhile, Almost, Maine continues to broaden its impact.
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