Some Recollections of St. Ives : A Novel

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Glengarry Glen Ross comes Some Recollections of St. Ives, a masterful novel masquerading as the memoir of Charles Hollis—a fictional man whose life spanned continents and conflicts, culminating in a decades-long tenure at one of America’s most storied institutions: The St. Ives School. Written in the final years of Hollis’s life, Some Recollections of St. Ives traces his forty years within the institution, providing portraits of the people, politics, and parables that shaped both the man and the school. Within Hollis’s allegorical ruminations, David Mamet delivers a sharp, incisive examination of an isolated world—the St. Ives School—and its place in the wider culture. Witty, elegant, and profoundly insightful, Some Recollections of St. Ives proves once again that Mamet is a master of language and character. Intimate yet expansive, this novel is an astute exploration of tradition and legacy—how we shape them and, in turn, how they shape us. 

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Glengarry Glen Ross comes Some Recollections of St. Ives, a masterful novel masquerading as the memoir of Charles Hollis—a fictional man whose life spanned continents and conflicts, culminating in a decades-long tenure at one of America’s most storied institutions: The St. Ives School. 

Written in the final years of Hollis’s life, Some Recollections of St. Ives traces his forty years within the institution, providing portraits of the people, politics, and parables that shaped both the man and the school. Within Hollis’s allegorical ruminations, David Mamet delivers a sharp, incisive examination of an isolated world—the St. Ives School—and its place in the wider culture.

Witty, elegant, and profoundly insightful, Some Recollections of St. Ives proves once again that Mamet is a master of language and character. Intimate yet expansive, this novel is an astute exploration of tradition and legacy—how we shape them and, in turn, how they shape us.