He had already given us an authentic American tragedy and essential anti-war document: The Deer Hunter.
His socially engaged plays were produced by the Federal Theater Project and the Group Theater, and he was ranked second only to Eugene O'Neill as a writer of authentic American tragedy.
The play stands up today as that rare thing in English drama: an authentic working-class tragedy.
The mutual sibling affection is so authentic that when the tragedy comes 17 pages in, it punches us in the gut.
A lot of these stories hinge on seductive lies and charismatic liars, and Hemon's writing, even as it supplies some of the richest delights in contemporary prose, as well as some of the best jokes, seems haunted by a wish to deliver an impossibly authentic witness to unspeakable tragedy.
It is visually unlike any film you're likely to see in the near-future, melding periodic fantasy elements with devastating tragedy and authentic humanity.
Trilling asserts in one of the essays in Sincerity and Authenticity ("The Heroic, the Beautiful, the Authentic") that the "import of tragedy depends upon the elevation of the hero".
Her story -- by turns funny, philosophical and visionary, sometimes tiresome and repetitious, but always in a vivid, authentic voice -- is a tragedy touched by moments of intense happiness.
In its best moments, "Sorry" critiques a culture that both fetishizes and willfully ignores tragedy, often subbing out authentic human interaction for cookie-cutter platitudes and shallow social conventions. .
"It's a tragedy to lose something that's authentic," said Mr. Grunewald, who walked through the store on Wednesday for the first time in several months.
