William Saroyan

In commemoration of William Saroyan’s life I went to an event at the local play house near my residency. I watched two plays written by Saroyan. One of them was called The Ping-Pong Players and the second play was, Hello out there. Surprisingly I wasn’t impressed by these particular play works. I’ve read a good collection of his short stories before, and in fact I’ve become admirable for his work. But in contrast, I had no particular interest in the plays I watched this weekend. They were a bit cold and lacked some character development in my opinion. I got that impression more from The Ping-Pong Players. Which is about a couple “quarreling” over a game of Ping-Pong there is slight humor usage, but once again it is a bit too cold for my taste. About a month ago I read My name is Aram in which Saroyan introduces his readers with a series of short stories that are strung together as a novel. The novel is about a young boy named Aram, who lives in Fresno before World War I. I was very impressed by the stories in the anthology. The stories also reminded me of Mark Twain’s writing for the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Humorous and adventurous, that is what I love about Saroyan’s writing. I’m not the type to put writers and artists in certain categories, and I am flexible to change and development in their works. But The Ping-Pong Players and Hello out there was a great disappointment. I will not discredit his work because of two lousy plays I saw this weekend. For the sake of his good writing I’ll give it another shot.

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