Looking For a Good Book

For me, Margaret Atwood is one of those writers who quietly keeps invading the literary world, transforming fiction and storytelling and leaves an indelible imprint on the reader’s soul.  I don’t seek out her works the way I should (and the way I do for a few other writers) which is why she seems so quiet to me.  But of course that’s really on me and no one else.

I was drawn to this not only because it’s an Atwood novel but because of the Shakespeare theme – the description of this as a re-telling or re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  When not reading and writing my blog, I work for a Shakespeare festival and have an affection for Shakespeare’s works.  I applaud any opportunity to bring his stories to a new audience.

Atwood is a remarkable and gifted writer and she takes this story and puts her magic touch on it, bringing it to a very modern world.

The story is about Felix – an artistic director at a major theatre who very suddenly is given the ol’ heave-ho and replaced by his assistant. Understandably, Felix is upset and wants to make the theatre regret their decision but finding a way to make a bold, theatrical statement is hard to do without a theatre company.

Felix becomes involved with a program called Literacy Through Theatre where he teaches and stages theatre productions at a local correctional facility (prison).  His current production?  The Tempest.

In a rather unique manner, Atwood retells the story in multiple layers.  There is the straight-forward manner of Felix’s teaching the story to the inmates, but we also see the parallels of the story to the characters inside Atwood’s story.  Felix isn’t just playing Prospero … he is a modern Prospero – discarded, lost, looking for revenge.  In fact, all the characters are the characters that they are portraying in some way.  It’s a brilliant bit of writing.

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen The Tempest where I felt so connected to the characters as much as I did with this book, and I feel I’ve seen some very good productions.

One small touch that I just loved was the idea that Felix presented to his inmate cast – that they could not swear during their rehearsals unless they did so using Shakespeare’s words.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and can be enjoyed on so many different levels.  It is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? Hag-Seed shows why Margaret Atwood is a true powerhouse as a writer and why Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant to us today.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Hag-Seed

author: Margaret Atwood

series: Hogarth Shakespeare

publisher: Hogarth

ISBN: 0804141290

hardcover, 301 pages