The Young Man From Atlanta.
The title character of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize play never appears onstage. The implication is strong that he was the lover of Will and Lily Dale Kidder's son Bill. He's a needy young man who extracted from Bill thousands of the dollars Will sent him while he floundered about after World War II service. Even after Bill's suicide, which has devastated Will, the young man has importuned Bill's parents, successfully persuading Lily Dale to give him, unbeknownst to Will, half her savings. Now he's back on the Kidders' doorstep in Houston in 1950, just as Will has been let go from his job of 40 years; has incurred debts as a result of the new house, furnishings, and car he acquired to assuage his grief; and needs every penny he can scrounge. Foote's domestic demitragedy begins with some fairly creaky exposition, settles into a sort of white-bread Arthur Miller groove, and concludes in a welter of doubts about the young man from Atlanta.Ray Olson--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.