Do you build Fences to keep your family in? Or to keep intruders out?

August Wilson's play Fences has been well received to say the least since its first staged reading in 1983. It has since won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the John Gassner Outer Critics' Circle Award. In its first few productions, legendary James Earl Jones portrayed the main character (a role for which he was awarded a Tony) and part of me wishes I hadn't known that prior to reading it, because Mr. Jones has such a commanding presence, it was impossible for me to read the character without hearing that unmistakable voice.

Troy Maxson has been working on a fence around his little yard for years. His wife Rose longs for the fence to be completed in the hopes that it will keep her family together, keep them safely inside the confines of their homestead. Troy, however, harbors ideas that it will keep intruders out, including Death whom he claims to have once wrestled and defeated and who has been lying in wait ever since.

Troy is a decent man, prone to telling exaggerated stories to anyone who will listen (hence the Death smackdown wrestling match). Throughout the course of the play, however, those who once hung on every word Troy uttered begin to slide away, including his friend Bono and his son Cory. The incomplete fence fails to keep Rose's family intact as Troy himself jeopardizes it by "carrying on" with another woman. He tells Rose by asking her to be a mother to his illegitimate daughter after his lover Alberta dies.

Though Troy does all in his power to do right by his family, he's often crippled in his attempts by his own shortsightedness. He was a good enough baseball player to make the major leagues, except the major leagues weren't letting black men play when he was in his prime. Because of this experience, Troy refuses to let Cory talk to a college football recruiter, not realizing that times had changed just enough that this might be Cory's best chance.

In reading Fences it's easy to see why it was so critically acclaimed. It is sad. It is funny. It is hopeful. It is poignant. But above all, it is powerful.

The play takes place in an unnamed American city in 1957. The scenes jump forward several months from the beginning to the end, with the final scene taking place seven years in the future. Like the other August Wilson plays I've read recently, the action is confined to one set, this time the yard of the Maxson home. By doing this, Wilson is able to concentrate solely on building his characters, and I've come to appreciate his attention to detail in this, from the dialect to their interactions and wardrobe, each character is brought to life under Wilson's pen.

Heavy themes run throughout Fences from racism to adultery to strained father-son relationships to responsibility. It is not an easy, warm-fuzzy read, but it is impossible not to identify with, and I found it compelling enough to read in one sitting. Troy Maxson is a likeable man, even in the depths of his adulterous confession. His staunch loyalty is admirable, even if it is evenly divided between two women. The continuing fight he has with his son is understandable, if extremely frustrating. As a reader, I just wanted to reach through the pages and shake him, explain to him that his desire to protect his son was just going to hold him back.

Once again, I find myself wishing I could see a production of this live on stage. It is the first book so heavily awarded that I have read and agreed with the critics so entirely.