{"product_id":"the-stonemason-a-play-in-five-acts-9780880013598","title":"The Stonemason: A Play In Five Acts","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Stonemason is a profoundly moving drama set in Louisville  Kentucky in the 1970s  concerning several generations of a black family. McCarthys narrator  Ben  reveals a painful episode in his familys history  grounding us at the same time in the beautiful dynamic between him and his grandfather  Papaw. Ben  Bens father  and Papaw are all stonemasons  but in descriptions of \"the trade\" we learn as much about this familys capacity for love as we do about constructing sound foundations for houses  barns and bridges. Papaws knowledge about stonemasonry is analogous to his deep spiritual wisdom  and Ben recognizes both as he looks back on his apprenticeship in the \"trade at which I thoughtmyself a master and of which I stood in darkest ignorance. And as I came to know him ... As I came to know him ... Oh I could hardly believe my good fortune. I swore then Idcleave to that old man like a bride. I swore hed take nothing to his grave.\" Papaws son Big Ben and great-grandson Soldier do not respond as whole-heartedly to the old mans wealth of knowledge and patient guidance and the tragedy of the story is largely rooted in this fact. Both of these characters have lost connection with the work of their hands and by association with the earth  their family  and themselves. They are profoundly dissatisfied. Of his father  Ben later wonders  \"Why could he not see the worth of that which he had laid aside and the poverty of all he hungered for? Why could he not see that he too was blest?\" The Stonemason reveals afresh the mastery of character  plot  pathos  and the poetic facility for language that distinguishes Cormac McCarthys fiction  and which recently earned him the National Book Award for his bestselling novel  All The Pretty Horses.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45116134096949,"sku":"ByrdShop_0880013591","price":119.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780880013598_e064befd-4790-41a4-a024-9ace42e6a857.jpg?v=1781692244","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-stonemason-a-play-in-five-acts-9780880013598","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}