Margaret Atwood

Bestselling and multiple award-winning author Margaret Atwood retells The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's most stirring and unforgettable plays.

The Tempest

Celeste Richardson

This book was fan-freaking-tastic. I adored it. 

I have such immense respect for Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale is right up there with other dystopian classics like 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 in its scope of influence. But that’s the only book of hers that I’ve read all the way through, and that particular book was assigned for a class. I liked it, but it was homework, which always skews my enjoyment level a bit. There are other books by Atwood that I’ve picked up, but I could never get into them. But Hag-Seed was so small. Surely I could get through that one, right?

To prepare for reading it, I assigned myself some homework; reread The Tempest, the Shakespearean play that Hag-Seed retells. And reading it definitely felt like homework. But I’m so glad that I read it, because there was a richness to Hag-Seed that I would have missed without the play fresh in my mind. Do you have to read The Tempest to enjoy Hag-Seed? Nope! There’s a short summary of the play in the back of Atwood’s book, for anyone who isn’t familiar.

So, what did I think of Hag-Seed? I adored it. Five-star reviews are usually reserved for my favorites, books that I will read again and again, but I can’t find enough fault with this book to bump it down to four stars. I was hesitant about it when I picked it up and figured that, if I did enjoy the book, it would be in the same way that I enjoy a classic or a popular novel. That I would (hopefully) like it and feel that I had checked something off of a to-do list. But I should have had more faith in Atwood. Hag-Seed was fabulous! The Tempest is a play-within-a-play, and Hag-Seed added another layer of “within-a-play” to that. Felix was pitiable in the opening chapters of the book, but he wasn’t likable. At all. His growth throughout the story was wonderful to follow. Hag-Seed was deep, and moving, and funny. And that's all I'll say, so as not to spoil it for anyone. I was immensely entertained, and I highly recommend it!

I liked this a lot! I haven't read The Tempest yet so I'm not sure how it compares to the original, but the story was really good. I liked the idea of a character in the story possibly emulating a character in the play.


I really liked the fact that it took a look at prison programs as well. It is always nice to see someone highlight those in literature.

Laura

Prior to this book, I've never read anything by Margaret Atwood. Actually, that's not entirely true; I do really like her poem They Eat Out- there's a musical quality about it that I enjoy, even if the message behind it is fairly obvious if you've ever heard of her. But I've never read The Handmaid's Tale, nor any other novel by her simply because feminist lit just isn't my thing, and that particular book has always struck me as, well, reactionary isn't the right word but kind of like Atwood decided the best way to destroy an ant hill was to break out the blowtorch and gasoline. But I digress. 

I decided to read Hag-Seed though because I always wanted to read something by her, if for no other reason than she's a famous modern day literary icon whose name is known by basically anyone involved in literature. Even though it was both a retelling and Shakespeare, two things I am not as crazy about as a lot of people are. While I have no excuses nor regrets about not really liking retellings, Shakespeare is a point of shame with me and I do fully intend on reading Shakespeare voluntarily someday, but that day just hasn't come yet. Still, this was the least likely of her books to be filled with tired ideology, so I was willing to give it a go, and decided to keep an open mind and not go in with any expectations about her writing or the story.

One thing I noticed is that Atwood lacks subtlety. The connections between The Tempest and Felix's life were always fairly obvious, even without her explicitly pointing that out to us several times, and even to someone like me, who has just enough knowledge of the play itself to be able to understand references to it and make them myself, thank you TS Eliot. And even if you know nothing about the play, don't worry, this book basically tells you everything you need to know about it.

It's almost like Atwood just wanted to write about The Tempest, and then she remembered that she had to make it a retelling. Because a lot of this book is Felix teaching the inmates and putting the production on and not a lot is retelling. Which I liked, but it made the retelling parts feel like afterthoughts, and I had a hard time getting into the actual climax with Felix's revenge plot and Freddie and Sal and Tony and Anne-Marie because it was transparently obvious it was only in there to fill some requirement. 

Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...

The Tempest

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