Review: Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama, David Mamet
Vintage Books, 1998
79 pages, ISBN # 0-375-70423-X

Bottom Line: Recommended for people who like more artistic, theoretical discussion of writing. If you are looking for a practical, how-to guide, this isn’t it.

I do enjoy this book – at least parts of it. The first 52 pages are the most useful, but that is the major chunk of the book, so that’s good. Of course, I also like every movie Mamet has put out, so I am a little biased. The man knows how to put a good story together, as well as writing some of the most intriguing dialogue that I’ve ever heard, so I figured this was worth picking up.

Written as more of a discussion than a “how to” Mamet covers a broad range of issues in this little book, though sometimes I wonder what the heck he’s talking about, or why he’s talking about it – that is more the case in the sections on “Violence” and “Self-Censorship” which had some interesting nuggets, but were mostly skippable. Personally I think these sections belong in another book with much more explanation, but that’s just me.

However, the first chapter on the nature of drama is a very useful explanation of how drama works, how it exists in our every day lives and speech patterns, and this is very useful for a fiction writer to mull over. Even more importantly is his section on second acts, or as we romance writers often refer to it, “the sagging middle.” I read this section on second acts over and over again, and it always helps get me out of a rut and produces some creative idea – the book is worth the $10 for that purpose alone. Just be prepared to have to read this more than once, which is not a bad thing. It’ll make you think, and like I said, it has never failed to shake me out of middle of the book ruts.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this site is Copyright © of Samantha Hunter. This site may not be reproduced without express permission from Samantha Hunter. Harlequin and Harlequin Blaze are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited.