The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March

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Book Summary Information

Illustrator: Art Spiegelman
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994
ISBN: 0375706437
Number of pages: 120
Publisher: Pantheon Books

Book Reviews of The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March

Book Review: Excellent!
Summary: 5 Stars

I decided to buy this book for no other reason than that I loved the 1949 Robert Wise film, "The Set-up", and wanted to check out the other book written by the original story's author, Joseph Moncure March. Certainly the brief description of the book made it even easier to buy.

But now having read it in one sitting, I was blown away at how brilliant it was! The poetic style is very easy to get into, and its use to tell this gripping tale was amazing. It never seems forced in the least, but flows well and succeed's in pulling the reader into the party itself.

The characters are great, the kind that one wishes to know of some more. Queenie remains the center of the story, and rightfully so, she is the most developed and most fascinating.

Apparently this book was banned in Boston, and I guess it is understandable given the times. Still, even today the story maintains a kind of rawness and edge that stays with the reader.

I have not seen the move or the Broadway plays, and chances are won't, the original poem is more than satisfying enough for me.

Very very hghly recommended.

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Summary of The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March

"Spiegelman's drawings are like demonic woodcuts: every angle, line, and curve jumps out at you. Stylishness and brutishness are in perfect accord."
-- The New York Times

Art Spiegelman's sinister and witty black-and-white drawings give charged new life to Joseph Moncure March's Wild Party, a lost classic from 1928. The inventive and varied page designs offer perfect counterpoint to the staccato tempo of this hard-boiled jazz-age tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets.

Here is a poem that can make even readers with no time for poetry stop dead in their tracks. Once read, large shards of this story of one night of debauchery will become permanently lodged in the brain. When The Wild Party was first published, Louis Untermeyer declared: "It is repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious, uncompromising, unashamed . . . and unremittingly powerful. It is an amazing tour de force."