Happy Talk - by Jesse Eisenberg (Paperback)

About the Book

Eisenberg's hysterical and devastating play reveals the absurd lengths peoplego to save themselves in the name of saving others.

Book Synopsis

Lorraine is a saint of the suburbs. On top of trying to save her dying mother, miserable husband and estranged daughter, she's starring as Bloody Mary in the Jewish Community Center production of South Pacific. When her mother's home aide, Serbian immigrant Ljuba, asks for help finding a husband, Lorraine takes on her most challenging role to date: matchmaker. In Jesse Eisenberg's hysterical and devastating play, Happy Talk, he reveals the absurd lengths people go to save themselves in the name of saving others.

Review Quotes

Praise for Jesse Eisenberg:

"His clever, frantic dialogue assumes an irresistible authenticity."--Ben Brantley, New York Times (NYT Critics' Pick) on The Spoils

"Brutally funny and deeply moving."--Huffington Post on The Spoils

"It says a lot about Eisenberg--his extreme decency and his extreme neurosis--that the avatars he's created for the stage are sadder and less admirable than the sly, nebbishy parts he's played in movies. But that's always been the fascinating paradox of Eisenberg's life, the source of his strange charisma."--Boris Kachka, New York Magazine on The Revisionist

"Eisenberg writes funny, but he is also a real storyteller--moody and dangerous and even loving."--Newsday on The Spoils

About the Author

Jesse Eisenberg is an Academy Award-nominated actor, playwright, and contributor to the New Yorker and McSweeney's. He is the author of three plays, Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils, which won the Theatre Visions Fund Award, as well as the story collection, Bream Gives Me Hiccups. Eisenberg's film credits include The Social Network, Café Society, Now You See Me, The End of the Tour, and The Hummingbird Project.