Paul Zindel is perhaps best known for his young adult novels including
The Pigman,
My Darling, My Hamburger, and
Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball, but the height of his career was in 1971 when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play,
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds. According to Zindel's introduction to
Marigolds, the play is semi-autobiographical relating to his dysfunctional relationship with his own mother, a dissatisfied woman who was constantly thinking up schemes for preposterous undertakings that were designed to make her family get rich quick. Although all the characters in the play are female, most critics consider the lead character, Matilda Hunsdorfer nicknamed Tillie, as representative of Zindel himself, since she, like her…
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Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26469, accessed 25 November 2024.]
