J.B.: A Play in Verse

MacLeish's play grapples with the Book of Job, but not simply because of any personal or childish reasons. As the Adversary figure puts it, never have more suffered more for less -- for having the wrong eyelids or the wrong shape of nose, or going to bed in the wrong city. After World War 2, few American intellectuals grappled with the meaning of the bomb and holocaust as a global indictment of the underlying system of justification to the degree that MacLeish did, or at least so publicly. The poetry is alternately grand and serviceable, but the real power in the play shifts from Job's accusations to "Mr Zuss" and "Mr Nickels" -- those who must ACT the parts of God and Satan. When, at the end, J.B. reaches a conclusion different from that of Job, much has been made, and may be, but the hard questions are not answered; they're only deferred back one frame of reference.Perhaps today, when we are less satisfied with a "Dover Beach" sort of truth, we can read this play and see that MacLeish, who was, after all, a political man as well as poet, does not rest in individualism or selfism or even love. The dreadful agony is only worse.

JB is a 20th century version of JOB, the most referred to book in the Bible. This modern masterpiece has all the drama and poignancy of its Old Testament counterpart and it has somewhat a better ending and answers to the question about why bad things happen to the good. JB's blinding trust in a God who rewards the good and punished the sinful remains despite all that happens to him or his family. The devil has more compassion for him than God and his wife even more. She first leaves him for his maniacal faith only to return with her answer to the answerable--love. The play raises the most troublesome question of faith and like the book Job has no answers except (1) the ways of God are mysterious (an answer unworthy of the question and those whose circumstances most need to know) and (2) your answer is the afterlife's rewarding heaven or fire-consuming hell. There is no answer as God is silent and exists in the regions of one's faith and choice that stems from the free choice God gave us as a consequence of sin. Could He just have decided at the Garden to kick us out with a "good riddance?" If you want to explore this question from a different viewpoint, read the ever wise Rabbi Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

I have appreciated this play since I saw it performed over 40 years ago. Finding it still in print and available on Amazon was truly fortunate. It arrived sooner than I thought it would, and it is in new condition. Excellent all the way around.

Clean texts and format.Page quality is good.As for the story itself- I read this for a Humanity class a few years ago and decided to get a copy of my own. Obviously because i like the story, so 5 stars.

Just what I needed.

Great play.

beautifully done! I have loved every production I have seen of this piece. You can't go wrong with this play for High Schoolers!

I bought this as required reading for a religion class and I found it to be absolutely amazing. It was a great story, even without the in depth break down we did in class. It's a good read and not necessarily religiously based.