Excellent- many great quotes and inspirational

“It isn't a circle. It is simply a long line-as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end—we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd that those who see the changes are called "idealists," and those who cannot, or refuse to, think they are the "realists" —it is very strange, and amusing too, I think. But you—I never thought to see you in these ranks. Already—and after just one small defeat—you would worship despair?” (185)

The joy and despair bought by $10,000 in a Chicago apartment, crippled by the unreachable latter of upward mobility. I know that money is the route to happiness, the root of evil, and the recipe for disaster. A Raisin in the Sun is that recipe. Hard work, Afro-Centricity, greed, and disappointment define black neighborhoods across the nation.

Bad decisions and high hopes for the future can change people. Lead them to drink into a stupor or forget their people. But those defeats mean not in the face of white America. Just across the river where Black problems aren’t as big, aren’t as important. Getting a leg up, putting the money down, means nothing if not accompanied by changes in society. But… the changes do happen. It’s just that from the bottom of the hill, people forget that you have to hold your chin high and squint to see them.

*4.5
I read this in freshmen year but my love for it has grown since.

The best $4 paperback i´ve ever found. i had heard a lot about this play/movie but had never seen either of the two movies or seen the play. now i have to see the movies and i will be writing a lenghty letter to spike lee (he wrote a foreword here) telling him to direct the original screenplay. anyone have his address?
definately a must-read for folk of all colors and creeds. the introductions depicting how and why the original version wasnt made are as enlightening as the play.

So far, this is o.k. I have to read it for work--I'm teaching summer school, and this book is in the curriculum.

Incredibly well-crafted, the arc of the plot, dialogue as natural as any real-life conversation and scenes set with such vivid attention to detail, character, and emotion, that even though this is a screenplay it reads as satisfyingly as a novel.

There are some spoilers in the introduction/commentary section of the book so you might want to jump ahead to the screenplay first but make sure you go back afterwards as it is both informative and infuriating to read about why this superior screenplay wasn’t used, not that the Sidney Poitier movie wasn’t perfectly fine but when you read this version you realize it could have been even better.

A really good classic. For a piece of literature history read this!

I thought this book would be horrible because most books were at least the ones they made us read in school. But once I read it (mind you it was the only book I did not sparknote in my 10th grade english class) it made think of how the american dream effects people and how lorraine hansberry shaped Bennie to be ahead of her time. I thought it was a great play and the portrayal of the play by ABC was okay but it left some things out that were important.

Read it twice; several years apart.

Mama and Ruth = best characters.