A Raisin in the Sun

A bunch of my peers had to read this play in high school, but I never did. To remedy that, I did so in one sitting earlier this afternoon. I liked it. The characters, setting, and dialogue all seemed extremely genuine. What's more, it's regarded as the first American play (1959) to accurately portray a black group of people. I haven't read many plays, so I don't have much to compare the actual writing to, but one thing that did stick out at me was the heavy use of novel-like prose to describe scenes instead of stage directions. It felt more like a screenplay than one made for the stage. And I liked that about it. Three acts made for a very neat story that introduced the characters and conflicts, brought things to a head, and resolved itself politely and unambiguously. It was all that you could ask a play to be.