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Book Review
Jan. 6th, 2018 05:16 pmHag-Seed
by Margaret Atwood
Hag-Seed is a clever retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and it is brilliant. Moreover, it's really fun. Felix Phillips has just been dismissed as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival just as he is about to stage The Tempest, the result of his treacherous colleague Tony's machinations. At loose ends, still grieving his dead daughter, and, frankly, wallowing in a bit of self-pity and angst, Felix spends the next twelve years living in a shack and ruminating on revenge. Along the way, he also gets a job teaching Shakespeare to inmates at the local jail as part of their educational program. Felix becomes quite good at and involved with this job. When during his fourth year of teaching at the jail, Felix learns of an immanent opportunity for vengeance, he decides to make The Tempest that year's play. Thus, we really get two retellings of the play.
Atwood pulls off the play-within-a-play device marvelously. The interactions between the illusions of theatre and the novel's reality are beautifully done, as are the interleaving of the characters and the roles the take on in the play. I also loved the explorations of the play's themes of vengeance, loss, treachery, and magic within the nested plotting. Atwood's interpretations of the play itself as seen through the eyes of Felix and his cast of inmates were wonderful, too. Plus, it is all shot through with equal amounts of wit and heart.
by Margaret Atwood
Hag-Seed is a clever retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and it is brilliant. Moreover, it's really fun. Felix Phillips has just been dismissed as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival just as he is about to stage The Tempest, the result of his treacherous colleague Tony's machinations. At loose ends, still grieving his dead daughter, and, frankly, wallowing in a bit of self-pity and angst, Felix spends the next twelve years living in a shack and ruminating on revenge. Along the way, he also gets a job teaching Shakespeare to inmates at the local jail as part of their educational program. Felix becomes quite good at and involved with this job. When during his fourth year of teaching at the jail, Felix learns of an immanent opportunity for vengeance, he decides to make The Tempest that year's play. Thus, we really get two retellings of the play.
Atwood pulls off the play-within-a-play device marvelously. The interactions between the illusions of theatre and the novel's reality are beautifully done, as are the interleaving of the characters and the roles the take on in the play. I also loved the explorations of the play's themes of vengeance, loss, treachery, and magic within the nested plotting. Atwood's interpretations of the play itself as seen through the eyes of Felix and his cast of inmates were wonderful, too. Plus, it is all shot through with equal amounts of wit and heart.
