Confessions of Edward Day

When “The Confessions of Edward Day” first came out, a very famous novelist reviewed it (quite favorably) and said that it was a “self-contained gem” because it “never purport[ed] to be more than it seems to be (a tale of ambitious young actors struggling to get ahead in the New York theater scene i......more

Valerie Martin has an unequaled ability to capture the essence of a character and build a page-turning story around it. I was sucked into Edward Day's life as if by an industrial vacuum cleaner, fascinated by his persona and the events that shaped it. As the story progresses, a peculiar tension build......more

My grad school adviser recommended this book to me after reading a short story I wrote about community theatre actors. I liked the story itself, but I found basically all of the characters at basically every moment to be as insufferable as the most insufferable "theatre kids"--painfully self-absorbe......more

The 'confessions' are a pseudo-memoir, by an author exploring acting from from the outside. All the more impressive, then, that actors and critics have treated the book with respect. It has been widely reviewed, attracting some eminent commentary, particularly in relation to its setting – 1970s Broa......more

What a wonderful treat this book is! I tend to forget Valerie Martin. On the one hand, this means that I end up missing her novels. On the other hand, I get to rediscover her often which sort of fulfills my fantasies of re-reading various books & authors for the first time all over again. I spent mos......more