Hogarth, October 11, 2016.
Four Stars
Hag-Seed is the latest installment of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in
which authors rewrite the stories of Shakespeare, with a contemporary twist. This
series started out strong, with Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap of Time, but I wasn’t as excited by the next two books.
However, Atwood’s quirky sense of humour is the perfect match for a retelling
of The Tempest, making this book unexpected,
clever and fun.
Felix is the artistic director at the Makeshiweg
Theatre Festival, and he is looking forward to starring as Prospero in his
version of The Tempest, when he is
suddenly deposed by his devious assistant, who has gradually been taking over
Felix’s job. Like Prospero, Felix goes into exile with his young daughter
Miranda – but unlike Prospero, Felix’s exile is self-imposed in rural Ontario,
and his daughter in fact died as a young child, although her spirit becomes his
constant companion.
As Felix takes on Prospero’s persona, he also comes
up with a complex plan for retribution. He takes a job teaching theatre to
prisoners at the Burgess Correctional Institution, showing them how to act,
create costumes and sets, and learn digital effects – the year-end plays are
recorded and shown to the other convicts on video, to prevent any violent
uprisings during a live show. After many years, the stars align for Felix like
they did for Prospero when a violent storm brought his enemies to the island –
Felix learns that his former assistant and his political allies will be
attending the screening of this year’s play. Naturally, Felix decides to stage
his own version of The Tempest to
enact his revenge.
The convicts who participate in Felix’s theatre program
feel strongly about their roles in the play, and they truly empathize with the
characters they are playing – especially the actors and their supporting teams
who play Caliban and Ariel, Prospero’s faithful servants. The prisoners come up
with relatable, modern motivations for their actions in the play, and they even
make up a ridiculous rap about Caliban and the various insults he is subjected
to, which is where the title of the novel comes from. Their dialogue is
unlikely to be realistic for hardened criminals, but it is funny and it
humanizes them in an entertaining way.
As Felix adds new twists to the play to incorporate
the politicians, he creates illusions and adds hallucinations to the experience
– and he is also influenced by the ghost of his daughter Miranda, whose
participation in the play is unexpected. This is the first book in the Hogarth
Shakespeare series in which the characters are aware of the original text –
Felix is acting out The Tempest, and
yet he is a part of a larger retelling of the same play, creating complex and
metafictional layers to the novel.
Hag-Seed is classic Margaret Atwood, witty and smart – she even manages to
bring a healthy dose of Canadiana to Shakespeare’s classic play. Although the
plot is often silly, it still made me laugh out loud, and I think Shakespeare
would have approved. This novel stands on its own, but it is so much better if
you know the story of the original Tempest.
Is Hag-Seed an improvement on the
original? Probably not, but it adds something new and fresh, and I think that’s
the whole point.
I received this book from Hogarth and NetGalley in
exchange for an honest review.
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