Value of Names

THE STORY: Benny Silverman, a celebrated comic, has revived his career via television after many years of forced inactivity following his having been named on the Hollywood blacklist of the Fifties. Now his actress daughter, Norma, has been cast in a play to be directed by Leo Greshen, the man who had testified against him before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, and suddenly Benny must deal again with a moral crisis that he has tried to put behind him. At his daughter's urging he meets with Leo, a confrontation in which initial reserve gradually gives way to a provocative and increasingly passionate exchange of ideas and convictions until Benny, rising to the occasion with biting, devastating wit, lays to rest the sense of outrage and injustice that has preyed on his conscience for so many bitter years.Sweet, Jeffrey is the author of 'Value of Names ', published 1986 under ISBN 9780822212003 and ISBN 0822212005.