Review of Antonio & Clara - Six One-Act Plays

[Brett Linette]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Antonio & Clara - Six One-Act Plays" by Terrence McMurray.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Antonio & Clara - Six One-Act Plays is a book by Terrence McMurray. The title is self-explanatory. There are six stories. The first story is about Antonio asking Clara where she's been. The second story is about Bernadette getting her phone fixed. The third story is about Clay offering Orth a ride. The fourth story is about the General waking Maxwell up (against Dr. Cohen's orders). The fifth story is about Joyce looking to Dean for directions. The final story is about Gwen coping with her son's desire to be in the military.

The book reads like any ordinary screenplay. Every scene opens with an introduction. This is where the setting is explained to us. Aside from the setting, there's a lot of dialogue. If you like dialogue (as much as I do), you'll love how much dialogue this book consists of; I'd argue that 90% of the book is dialogue. There aren't any "action tags." There was no need for any action tags. Because the author introduces every line of dialogue with the name of a character, it's always obvious who's speaking.

Even though I didn't like how sparingly some of the characters were used, I did like all of the characters. Each character has their own way of speaking; Mitzi asks a lot of personal questions, while Bernadette is more professional than that. One character says a homophobic slur. If the slur were said by one of the good guys, I'd question the morality of the story. Since the homophobic slur is said by one of the bad guys, it's safe to say that we're not supposed to endorse the said statement.

All things considered, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. While I wish a number of characters would've played a bigger part in the story, I still loved the book. I loved how the characters interacted with one another. I liked what a friend Casey was to Jake; the way that Casey worried about Jake was a testament to just how much he cared about him.

All of the stories are incredibly short. Because of just how short the stories are, I'd recommend this book to those who like short stories. The stories are really short. The fifth story consists of less than ten pages. I think it's worth noting that the fifth story is the shortest of them all. There are no writing errors. There aren't even any errors in the structure of the story.

******
Antonio & Clara - Six One-Act Plays
View: on Bookshelves