The Human Comedy

The Human Comedy, Saroyan's first novel, is the story of an American family in wartime, and in particular of Homer Macauley, the fastest messenger in San Joaquin valley. With all the qualities of warmth, cheer, and humanity which have endeared Saroyan to his reading public, The Human Comedy abounds in unforgettable scenes. Homer running the Two-Twenty hurdles; little Ulysses imprisoned in a bear trap in Covington's store; old-time telegraph operator Willie Grogan, with a bottle in the desk drawer to fuzz the sharp reality of the everflowing messages of love and hope and pain and death; Spangler, with a love for the whole world and every living thing; Homer's older brother Marcus singing, as the troop train in which he sits hurtles away from home. Saroyan has done many things, but he has here done something which even his oldest friends scarcely dared to predict -- a wartime novel of the home front which succeeds in capturing, and which nowhere oversteps, the modesty of ordinary human beings. It is a very simple novel. It is a very great achievement. With jacket and many drawings by Don Freeman.

Literature & Fiction

William, Saroyan

Literary

Harcourt, Brace and Company

Don't go, but if you must, say hello to everybody

Cassell

The time of your life (RSC playtext)

Methuen Publishing, Ltd.

The inspiration for the major motion picture Ithaca, directed by and starring Meg Ryan—with a cast that includes Sam Shepard, Hamish Linklater, Alex Neustaedter, Jack Quaid, and Tom Hanks The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's—a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants. . . . In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw. Gentle, poignant and richly autobiographical, this delightful novel shows us the boy becoming the man in a world that even in the midst of war, appears sweeter, safer and more livable than out own.

United States

Dell

The story of The Human Comedy, poignant and richly autobiographical, is based both on author Saroyan’s fatherless life and the Greek classic Homer’s Odyssey. Beloved actress Meg Ryan shows us the boy becoming the man in a world that, even in the midst of war, appears sweeter, safer, and more livable than our own.In World War II-era California, Homer Macauley and his mother, sister, and three brothers live out struggles and dreams that reflect those of America’s second-generation immigrants. Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw.The Human Comedy is part of Audible’s A-List Collection, featuring the world’s most celebrated actors narrating distinguished works of literature that each star had a hand in selecting.

Faber and Faber

Best Stories

Short Stories & Anthologies

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (Faber Editions)

1969 reprint of "The Beautiful People", a play by William Saroyan. Originally published in 1942. 120 pages.

The Beautiful People

Samuel French, Inc.

A play, in two acts and ten scenes, happens within the space of a few days, on the stage of an abandoned theatre on the lower East Side of New York, in the midst of a slum-clearing project.  "The Cave Dwellers" opened at the Bijou Theater in New York on Saturday evening, October 19, 1957.

The Cave Dwellers: A Play in Two Acts

The Time of Your Life : A Comedy in Three Acts

Dramas & Plays

Samuel French Inc Plays

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Books by William, Saroyan