I am honestly not entirely sure what I thought of this? (NB: I only read The Real Inspector Hound, not any of the other plays.) On the one hand, it was a fun little one act play that took me around twenty minutes to read, and it made me laugh, and it made me go, what the hell? On the other hand, I’m 100% positive I missed things, and the cleverness of this play almost entirely went over my head. All I could think of to […]
Will the Real Inspector Hound please stand up?
When faintingviolet told me that the next book club topic was going to be plays, I immediately thought of The Real Inspector Hound. I had never read it, but I had seen it performed in college, and it was by far one of the better plays I had seen. I remembered that it was funny and entertaining, and on the lighter side as well. (And luckily for people who are not all that terribly fond of reading plays, on the short side!) So, if you […]
The Real in the Title Means Nothing
I always get a smidge nervous reviewing short works and book club choices. This one is both. Exciting times friends! My immediate takeaway when I finished was that it may be too absurdist for me. But that doesn’t quite grasp the idea I was after. From my limited experience with Stoppard, he is always playing with words, playing with meaning, playing with intent, and has no problem (perhaps prefers) to have his characters speaking at cross purposes. What that does to a reader is leave […]
Book Club Discussion Post: The Real Inspector Hound
Are you ready for our final book club of the year? Well, ready or not here we go to cap off another year of reading and discussing together! The Real Inspector Hound is a quick, funny play where Tom Stoppard takes aim at theatre, critics, reality, and fate. While its one act zips by in 50 pages or less, it still manages to have opinions about our place in the world around us. Ground rules remain the same as before, discuss in the comments below, […]