The Blue Touch Paper: A Memoir

Insightful and articulate British writer and playwright Hare (Obedience, Struggle, and Revolt) succeeds with this engaging memoir. His story charms with self-deprecation, understatement, and laugh-out-loud moments, sometimes tinged with sadness. Sent away to school as a youngster, he felt "sustained excitement at being out in the world." For the rest of his life, though he's often been "dissatisfied" with himself, he has "almost never been bored." He writes that he "stumbled on a gift for writing dialogue." He confides that a routine would be essential "for those... working at below genius level," and for 40 years has aimed to sit down at his desk every weekday at 9 a.m. Hare reflects on Britain of the 1960s and '70s, observing that "many of contemporary history's most important changes were being wrought by feminism." He doesn't think much of critics or academics. He takes readers through his fear of failure, physical distress, and the unraveling of his marriage. In a hilarious section about his play Teeth %E2%80%98n' Smiles, he casts Helen Mirren as a rock singer even though she can't sing. In this exceptionally perceptive and gratifying read, Hare appropriately writes that "the excitement and fun of theater is never in the play itself but in the transaction." (Nov.)