Book Review: Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare

Title: Six Degrees of Seperation

Author: John Guare

Genre: Plays

Number of Pages: 120

Rating: B

Recommended?: Yes

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I’ve never seen the film adaptation of this starring Will Smith, but after reading the play it’s definitely something I’d like to check out in the future. Six Degrees of Separation is an odd play about class and privilege, with an unsettling tone and very unlikable characters. It starts out with a young gay black man who’s an extremely skilled con artist insinuating himself in the lives of a rich white couple, and how his deceit and people’s reactions to his behavior set off a chain of peculiar events.

The young grifter, Paul, preys on his entitled victims’ racially biased perceptions of the ‘well-spoken educated black man’ and something about his ruthless opportunism appeals to them and arouses their sympathies even as he callously ruins lives. The nature of this play is misanthropic and somewhat satiric, and it’s strength lies in character motives that are both perplexing and often fascinating.