Angels in America: Perestroika by Tony Kushner

How hard is Angels in America: Perestroika to read?

Angels in America: Perestroika scores 73 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 72 out of 100

Tony Kushner employs a sophisticated and often rhetorical vocabulary, drawing on elevated language for dramatic monologues and philosophical discussions. The play's engagement with themes like 'the absconding of God' and 'pantheistically religious' concepts necessitates a rich lexicon, placing it above works like 'The Great Gatsby' in lexical demand.

Sentence structure: 68 out of 100

Angels in America features expansive monologues and complex dialogues, often characterized by rhetorical flourishes and extended clauses that demand sustained attention. While not reaching the extreme hypotaxis of Henry James, its sentence structures are more intricate and demanding than the direct prose of '1984,' contributing to its epic scope.

Abstraction: 82 out of 100

The play deeply engages with profound philosophical and theological questions, exploring themes such as the 'death or at least the absconding of God' and the nature of American identity. It frequently shifts between concrete narrative and existential abstraction, akin to the philosophical debates found in 'The Brothers Karamazov' or the allegorical depth of 'Waiting for Godot.'

Information density: 80 out of 100

Described as an 'epic' that ranges across diverse settings and characters, 'Angels in America' interweaves multiple plotlines, historical contexts, and mythological elements. This dense layering of political, social, and spiritual information requires significant reader attention to track its many interconnected concepts and narratives, similar to the scope of 'War and Peace.'

Narrative indirection: 70 out of 100

The play frequently requires readers to infer meaning from the complex interplay of its realistic and fantastical elements, such as Prior Walter's visions and the Angel's pronouncements. While dialogue is often direct, the deeper significance of the interwoven storylines and surreal events is left for the audience to synthesize, placing it higher than 'The Great Gatsby' but less opaque than 'Flights'.

Symbolic density: 85 out of 100

Kushner's play is a rich tapestry of symbols and allegory, with nearly every major element carrying profound meaning beyond its literal representation. The Angel, the AIDS epidemic, America itself, and the characters' journeys all function as potent symbols within this 'Gay Fantasia on National Themes', making it highly symbolic, akin to 'Moby-Dick' in its pervasive allegorical weight.

Ironic distance: 60 out of 100

While much of the play delivers its emotional and political messages directly, a moderate ironic distance is created through elements of camp, the juxtaposition of the sacred and profane, and the characters' often-flawed self-perceptions. This allows for both sincere engagement and critical reflection, positioning it above purely earnest narratives but below works of deep satire like 'The Sellout'.

Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100

Though individual character arcs find a measure of peace or purpose, the play's grander 'Great Work' and the fate of America remain open-ended, emphasizing ongoing struggle and the continuous need for human effort. The ending provides a sense of continuation rather than definitive closure for its overarching themes, making it more open than 'The Great Gatsby' but less ambiguous than 'The Crying of Lot 49'.

Structural complexity: 78 out of 100

The play employs a highly theatrical and non-naturalistic structure, weaving together multiple simultaneous storylines and blurring the lines between reality, dream, and vision. Its incorporation of angels, ghosts, and direct address, alongside rapid shifts in focus across a large ensemble, demands active engagement from the audience, making it significantly more complex than 'Midnight's Children' and approaching the experimental nature of 'Pedro Paramo'.

How Angels in America: Perestroika is regarded

Angels in America: Perestroika holds a literary regard score of 85 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Tony Kushner