Death of a salesman
Arthur Miller
One of the reasons that I set myself a target of books, films and albums at the start of 2012 was to try and increase my ‘cultural footprint’
In my mind I would read a mixture of fiction, non fiction, classics and modern novels. The task is and was harder than I imagined. I have been able to return to some books that I have always wanted to read, eg: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley but recently I revisited sales with Dan Pink.
There are many books referenced in that book but the one that sprung to my attention was Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. This is of course not a book but a play written by Miller in the mid 20th Century focusing on the hapless Willy Loman as he reflects on his life and what he has and hasn’t achieved. The reason I was taken by the reference in the book is that we studied this play at school but I have very little recollection of it apart from the fact that it struck a chord with me and on revisiting it I was amazed at how relevant it seems now and how terribly sad it is, therefore how sad the relevance of the whole thing is.
In the world where Charles Handy describes the folly of building a CV that is impressive to other people Willy Loman strives to be well liked and sees that as the main marker of success for his sons. It is a terrible comment on American (and therefore UK) society but is something that has expanded my horizons again and something I would love to see performed on the stage.
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