Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
London : Vintage Books, 2017.
Description
Felix is at the top of his game as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. And brewing revenge. After 12 years revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here Felix and his inmate actors will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who destroyed him. It's magic! But will it remake Felix as his enemies fall?
Media reviews
While “Hag-Seed” is a book that’s great for a quick read, it doesn’t deliver the punches that the premises promise, making it an all-around mediocre book.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LizzieD
If magic can be explained, it's no longer magic. That's what I think. Margaret Atwood has moved Shakespeare's magical Tempest into a magical novel Hag-Seed with much analysis of the original play, which leaves the core untouched and unexplained. I think the work lends itself to a master's thesis or
Felix Phillips has been elbowed out of his job as artistic director of the well-endowed Makeshewig Theatrical Festival by a politically motivated underling. Other festival powers were not sorry to see Felix go as his productions had grown more and more bizarre. Bereft and still reeling from the death of both his wife and his three year-old daughter, Felix retires to a shack in the country and thinks on revenge. He spends a lot of time talking to Miranda, his daughter, who first comes with him in his imagination and then in spirit. Real or not real? Felix can see and hear her growing up. At some point in his twelve year exile, Felix takes over a project to teach theater to inmates in a nearby prison with resounding success. And when the time is right, he begins to produce The Tempest with a sub-plot to win revenge over the enemies who stole his life.
Felix is Prospero. We learn Atwood's interpretation of the play as he leads his players through their study and development of their parts. They write rap and learn dances, they devise costumes from plastic raincoats and Disney dolls, they curse only in the play's vernacular, they work in teams to understand their characters, they predict the way those characters' lives proceed after their video ends. Felix remembers earlier productions: "Watching the many faces watching their own faces as they pretended to be someone else - Felix found that strangely moving. For once in their lives, they loved themselves." It's redemptive. It's funny. It's tragic. It's magic. Many thanks, Early Reviewers, for allowing me to read this one now!
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a paragraph or two. I choose to write the paragraphs.Felix Phillips has been elbowed out of his job as artistic director of the well-endowed Makeshewig Theatrical Festival by a politically motivated underling. Other festival powers were not sorry to see Felix go as his productions had grown more and more bizarre. Bereft and still reeling from the death of both his wife and his three year-old daughter, Felix retires to a shack in the country and thinks on revenge. He spends a lot of time talking to Miranda, his daughter, who first comes with him in his imagination and then in spirit. Real or not real? Felix can see and hear her growing up. At some point in his twelve year exile, Felix takes over a project to teach theater to inmates in a nearby prison with resounding success. And when the time is right, he begins to produce The Tempest with a sub-plot to win revenge over the enemies who stole his life.
Felix is Prospero. We learn Atwood's interpretation of the play as he leads his players through their study and development of their parts. They write rap and learn dances, they devise costumes from plastic raincoats and Disney dolls, they curse only in the play's vernacular, they work in teams to understand their characters, they predict the way those characters' lives proceed after their video ends. Felix remembers earlier productions: "Watching the many faces watching their own faces as they pretended to be someone else - Felix found that strangely moving. For once in their lives, they loved themselves." It's redemptive. It's funny. It's tragic. It's magic. Many thanks, Early Reviewers, for allowing me to read this one now!
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LibraryThing member Liz1564
I read Hag-Seed twice and listened to the audio book before I attempted to review the novel. The first time, I was overwhelmed by what Margaret Atwood had accomplished. The Hogarth Press Shakespeare Project asks authors to retell Shakespeare’s plays and make them relevant to today’s readers. In
Did she update the plot successfully? Yes. Prospero’s island becomes a prison and Prospero is Felix Phillips a brilliant interpreter of Shakespeare who is fired from his position as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival. His Miranda is his daughter who died at the age of three but who is still present in his life as an essence (in his mind? in reality?) and who ages until she is 15 when the novel opens. Felix, now Mr. Duke, seeks revenge on the men who ended his career and they easily become Antonio, Alonso, Sebastian and the kind Gonzago. Caliban and Ariel? They have no parallel in Felix’s life yet. So the story, updated to 2013 Canada, works well, as have many other Shakespeare modern adaptions.
But that is only the first layer of this book. For Atwood sets the scene in a prison where Felix who is Prospero is directing The Tempest which is his story. His actors are the prisoners who sign up for his literacy course. These men, for the most part, are intelligent but without formal education. Felix opens up Shakespeare to them and the men put their unique spin on the play, taking the themes and viewing them through their own life experiences.
And here is where I became totally awed by Atwood’s achievement. She unlocks the Tempest through Felix’s teaching methods. I know this play and I figured that there was not much that she could tell me about the characters. I have seen the play in performance about twenty times from local productions to the RSC and Royal National Theater. I have a copy of The Tempest with Richard Burton playing Caliban to bring tears to the viewer’s eyes. Reading Hag-Seed, I felt as though I was meeting The Tempest for the first time.
Felix’s idea of teams for each character: The men discuss and decide what makes their characters tick and see that character through their own experiences. The Native-Canadian sees Caliban very differently than others on his team. Caliban has his land taken away and is made a slave. Some members of Team Antonio see him as a gangster; others as an opportunist. Team Ariel’s backstory actually brought tears to my eyes.
After the production the teams reveal what they believe happened to their characters. I don’t usually appreciate the afterstory of plays but in Hag-Seed it works because the conclusions are totally based on the text. Caliban’s story has more than one possible outcome and all are believable depending on the teller’s personal experience.
There is so much more. The music to complement the story (Caliban and the Hag-Seeds rappers!), The goddesses as Disney princess dolls. The importance of goblins.
The novel, like the play, has tragedy and comedy, revenge and redemption. I hope for two things: That the play will be adapted by the RSC and performed at the Swan Theater in Stratford and that Atwood adds another Man Booker Prize to her list of accolades.
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her take on The Tempest Atwood does this and so very, very much more.Did she update the plot successfully? Yes. Prospero’s island becomes a prison and Prospero is Felix Phillips a brilliant interpreter of Shakespeare who is fired from his position as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival. His Miranda is his daughter who died at the age of three but who is still present in his life as an essence (in his mind? in reality?) and who ages until she is 15 when the novel opens. Felix, now Mr. Duke, seeks revenge on the men who ended his career and they easily become Antonio, Alonso, Sebastian and the kind Gonzago. Caliban and Ariel? They have no parallel in Felix’s life yet. So the story, updated to 2013 Canada, works well, as have many other Shakespeare modern adaptions.
But that is only the first layer of this book. For Atwood sets the scene in a prison where Felix who is Prospero is directing The Tempest which is his story. His actors are the prisoners who sign up for his literacy course. These men, for the most part, are intelligent but without formal education. Felix opens up Shakespeare to them and the men put their unique spin on the play, taking the themes and viewing them through their own life experiences.
And here is where I became totally awed by Atwood’s achievement. She unlocks the Tempest through Felix’s teaching methods. I know this play and I figured that there was not much that she could tell me about the characters. I have seen the play in performance about twenty times from local productions to the RSC and Royal National Theater. I have a copy of The Tempest with Richard Burton playing Caliban to bring tears to the viewer’s eyes. Reading Hag-Seed, I felt as though I was meeting The Tempest for the first time.
Felix’s idea of teams for each character: The men discuss and decide what makes their characters tick and see that character through their own experiences. The Native-Canadian sees Caliban very differently than others on his team. Caliban has his land taken away and is made a slave. Some members of Team Antonio see him as a gangster; others as an opportunist. Team Ariel’s backstory actually brought tears to my eyes.
After the production the teams reveal what they believe happened to their characters. I don’t usually appreciate the afterstory of plays but in Hag-Seed it works because the conclusions are totally based on the text. Caliban’s story has more than one possible outcome and all are believable depending on the teller’s personal experience.
There is so much more. The music to complement the story (Caliban and the Hag-Seeds rappers!), The goddesses as Disney princess dolls. The importance of goblins.
The novel, like the play, has tragedy and comedy, revenge and redemption. I hope for two things: That the play will be adapted by the RSC and performed at the Swan Theater in Stratford and that Atwood adds another Man Booker Prize to her list of accolades.
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LibraryThing member Cariola
Overall, I haven't been too enthusiastic about the Hogarth Shakespeare series, updated novelized versions of some of The Bard's best-known plays, but this one is my favorite. Felix, the long-time artistic director of a Canadian theatre festival, is forced from his position by two greedy underlings
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and retires to a rather shabby cottage to mourn the loss of his position and the continuing loss of his daughter, Miranda, who died in an accident ten years earlier--and to plot his revenge. He offers to teach a class on Shakespeare at the local penitentiary, eventually putting on performances with a cast of inmates. The novel focuses on his piece de resistance: The Tempest. Atwood's characterizations of the inmates, as well as the 'handles' she gives them (Bent Pencil the embezzler, for example), are amusing, and Felix's interactions with them are the best part of the story. After all, how do you get hardened, incarcerated criminals to agree to play "girls" and "fairies"? The author does a great job of paralleling situations, characters, and themes of Shakespeare's original play. It's pretty impossible to outdo Shakespeare or even to update him successfully, but Atwood has given us a novel that, taken on it's own, is a fun read with the same important messages as the original. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookwormshawn
If you’ve never heard of Margaret Atwood , welcome to the planet Earth. Please allow me to show you around. I jest, but the woman has nothing short of 40 major works under her belt, ranging from dystopian fiction, to children’s books, to literary criticism and other non-fiction books on writing
Hag-Seed is Atwood’s modern spin on The Tempest, the genre-defying tragicomedy that is believed to be the bard’s final play. In it, the betrayed sorcerer Prospero, trapped on a deserted island with his young daughter Miranda, erects a storm at sea to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Yet, Prospero is no innocent victim that audiences wholeheartedly root for. He is deeply flawed- controlling, ego-maniacal, petty, callous, and cruel at times. Throughout the work, he plays puppet master with the elements and life on the island, eventually achieving his desire, but is still not altogether content and seeks forgiveness and redemption from the gods (and the audience) for the tortures he has inflicted upon others. In Atwood’s spin, Felix, a disgruntled former artistic director, well-known for his extreme interpretations and performances of classic productions, plays our modern Prospero, in all his narcissistic glory.
As a protagonist, Felix is not an easy character to like, nor should he be. Like Prospero, he must grow from a completely self-absorbed master of his art into a being who makes decisions based on the well-being of others. Thus, the further one gets in Hag-Seed, the more one comes around to old Felix. What is particularly endearing, especially to my book club crew of English teachers, is Felix’s transformation from ivory-tower elite artist to humbled prison theater teacher, thereby beginning his substantial character arc and creating another “play within a play” for readers.
If you’ve never read The Tempest, fear not. Atwood does a great job of referencing it throughout the novel in a way that is helpful without being irritating and even includes a full 5-page plain English synopsis in the back of the book, for those who are so inclined. Though this was not my favorite Atwood novel- I absolutely adored Alias Grace and was thoroughly creeped out by Oryx and Crake– it is still quite good and I would certainly recommend it, even outside of literary buff circles.
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and even has a show on Hulu based on her masterwork The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s enough to make you question what you are doing with your life. (Not enough, apparently.) So when I read that she was prepping to release a title for Hogarth Shakespeare, a series of modern re-tellings of Shakespeare’s classics, I immediately sold my book club on it and eagerly awaited its release date.Hag-Seed is Atwood’s modern spin on The Tempest, the genre-defying tragicomedy that is believed to be the bard’s final play. In it, the betrayed sorcerer Prospero, trapped on a deserted island with his young daughter Miranda, erects a storm at sea to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Yet, Prospero is no innocent victim that audiences wholeheartedly root for. He is deeply flawed- controlling, ego-maniacal, petty, callous, and cruel at times. Throughout the work, he plays puppet master with the elements and life on the island, eventually achieving his desire, but is still not altogether content and seeks forgiveness and redemption from the gods (and the audience) for the tortures he has inflicted upon others. In Atwood’s spin, Felix, a disgruntled former artistic director, well-known for his extreme interpretations and performances of classic productions, plays our modern Prospero, in all his narcissistic glory.
As a protagonist, Felix is not an easy character to like, nor should he be. Like Prospero, he must grow from a completely self-absorbed master of his art into a being who makes decisions based on the well-being of others. Thus, the further one gets in Hag-Seed, the more one comes around to old Felix. What is particularly endearing, especially to my book club crew of English teachers, is Felix’s transformation from ivory-tower elite artist to humbled prison theater teacher, thereby beginning his substantial character arc and creating another “play within a play” for readers.
If you’ve never read The Tempest, fear not. Atwood does a great job of referencing it throughout the novel in a way that is helpful without being irritating and even includes a full 5-page plain English synopsis in the back of the book, for those who are so inclined. Though this was not my favorite Atwood novel- I absolutely adored Alias Grace and was thoroughly creeped out by Oryx and Crake– it is still quite good and I would certainly recommend it, even outside of literary buff circles.
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LibraryThing member gendeg
Margaret Atwood’s retelling of The Tempest in Hag-Seed is a romp. I mean this in the best way. The parallels in Atwood’s Hag-Seed to the Shakespeare play are so on-the-nose that you can practically see her gleefully smirking as she was writing this (especially while coming up with those rap
Felix was once the artistic director of the prestigious Makeshiweg Festival before he was ousted by his scheming assistant, Tony. Aggrieved and kicked to the curb, Felix spends twelve years retreating from the public eye, nursing his bruised ego in noble exile, living like a hermit, until he comes upon an unlikely gig as the director of a prison theatre program at Fletcher Correctional. Professionally, it’s a fall from grace for him, but Felix graciously takes the job and performs as a teacher with gusto and genuine enthusiasm. Eventually he comes to some well-deserved renown and earns the admiration from the prison administration, even catching the eye of the upper echelons of government. He’s the charismatic English professor we all wished we had.
Meanwhile, we learn that being fired and backstabbed by his peers isn’t the only pain Felix has been nursing. He carries the burden of a bigger tragedy, too, namely the sudden deaths of his wife and then daughter Miranda at the tender age of three. The death of his daughter hits him really hard. Throughout his isolated existence, he regularly hallucinates and has conversations with her conjured ‘ghost’. She even ages and grows up alongside him, becoming a young teen by the time Felix finds himself working at Fletcher. Felix isn’t crazy; he knows Miranda isn’t real, and yet she stays lovingly by his side, as real as can be.
Through a series of fortuitous twists, Felix finds himself in a position to mete out justice to those who’ve wronged him. He’ll do it with the help of the Fletcher Correctional Players. Here’s the elusive chance he’s been waiting for. The staging of The Tempest will be his retirement piece de resistance, his reason for living again, and a much needed blood-letting for all those wrongs.
Much of the fun in reading Hag-Seed is in seeing the antics of a bunch of hard-knock convicts get ready for their theatre performance and learning how to unpack Shakespeare. At times the plotting can feel a bit like a generic feel-good, Dead Poets Society-kind of redemption story, but Atwood, to her credit, manages to elevate it with her golden prose and talent for pacing a story around a satisfying character arc. It helps that Felix is a wonderful teacher, a well-armored theatre nerd, and that his actors are enthusiastic and have hearts of gold. There’s a rule that Felix puts out to his students: no curse words except those used in the play. The classroom banter scenes are filled with expressions like ‘whoreson’ and ‘malignant thing’ and ‘poxy’ and ‘red plague’.
When Felix eventually gets his chance to confront his enemies, it’s no longer just personal. The literacy project that makes the prison theatre group possible is now under threat to be axed in budget cuts. To make it all fall into place, Atwood really stretches the imagination, but it’s still fun to see it all play out so brazenly hitch-free. Does Felix get his revenge? Will the Fletcher Correctional Players keep going? I won’t say, though the actual play should give you a hint of what’s to come.
Hag-Seed does miss some big opportunities, though. The book’s title makes a reference to the monster character Caliban, but Caliban in the book gets little treatment in Atwood’s retelling. Imagine the possibilities of unpacking Caliban—who has in modern times become a revisionist symbol of postcolonial rebellion and rage—in essentially a revenge plot acted out inside a prison system. I feel like Atwood could have deepened the retelling that way.
After the final performance, and in the aftermath of Felix’s revenge, the participants give their final presentations on what they think is the fate of their assigned characters. It’s their last class assignment. They are asked to imagine a future for them. What they each come up with is poignant and breathes new life into the retelling of the play.
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ditties…). Atwood gets away with it by channeling the opaque theme of revenge through one of the most charmingly sympathetic characters in Felix Phillips. There’s an earnestness to Felix that cuts through the bitter edge of his life that you can’t help but root for him. Felix was once the artistic director of the prestigious Makeshiweg Festival before he was ousted by his scheming assistant, Tony. Aggrieved and kicked to the curb, Felix spends twelve years retreating from the public eye, nursing his bruised ego in noble exile, living like a hermit, until he comes upon an unlikely gig as the director of a prison theatre program at Fletcher Correctional. Professionally, it’s a fall from grace for him, but Felix graciously takes the job and performs as a teacher with gusto and genuine enthusiasm. Eventually he comes to some well-deserved renown and earns the admiration from the prison administration, even catching the eye of the upper echelons of government. He’s the charismatic English professor we all wished we had.
Meanwhile, we learn that being fired and backstabbed by his peers isn’t the only pain Felix has been nursing. He carries the burden of a bigger tragedy, too, namely the sudden deaths of his wife and then daughter Miranda at the tender age of three. The death of his daughter hits him really hard. Throughout his isolated existence, he regularly hallucinates and has conversations with her conjured ‘ghost’. She even ages and grows up alongside him, becoming a young teen by the time Felix finds himself working at Fletcher. Felix isn’t crazy; he knows Miranda isn’t real, and yet she stays lovingly by his side, as real as can be.
Through a series of fortuitous twists, Felix finds himself in a position to mete out justice to those who’ve wronged him. He’ll do it with the help of the Fletcher Correctional Players. Here’s the elusive chance he’s been waiting for. The staging of The Tempest will be his retirement piece de resistance, his reason for living again, and a much needed blood-letting for all those wrongs.
Much of the fun in reading Hag-Seed is in seeing the antics of a bunch of hard-knock convicts get ready for their theatre performance and learning how to unpack Shakespeare. At times the plotting can feel a bit like a generic feel-good, Dead Poets Society-kind of redemption story, but Atwood, to her credit, manages to elevate it with her golden prose and talent for pacing a story around a satisfying character arc. It helps that Felix is a wonderful teacher, a well-armored theatre nerd, and that his actors are enthusiastic and have hearts of gold. There’s a rule that Felix puts out to his students: no curse words except those used in the play. The classroom banter scenes are filled with expressions like ‘whoreson’ and ‘malignant thing’ and ‘poxy’ and ‘red plague’.
When Felix eventually gets his chance to confront his enemies, it’s no longer just personal. The literacy project that makes the prison theatre group possible is now under threat to be axed in budget cuts. To make it all fall into place, Atwood really stretches the imagination, but it’s still fun to see it all play out so brazenly hitch-free. Does Felix get his revenge? Will the Fletcher Correctional Players keep going? I won’t say, though the actual play should give you a hint of what’s to come.
Hag-Seed does miss some big opportunities, though. The book’s title makes a reference to the monster character Caliban, but Caliban in the book gets little treatment in Atwood’s retelling. Imagine the possibilities of unpacking Caliban—who has in modern times become a revisionist symbol of postcolonial rebellion and rage—in essentially a revenge plot acted out inside a prison system. I feel like Atwood could have deepened the retelling that way.
After the final performance, and in the aftermath of Felix’s revenge, the participants give their final presentations on what they think is the fate of their assigned characters. It’s their last class assignment. They are asked to imagine a future for them. What they each come up with is poignant and breathes new life into the retelling of the play.
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LibraryThing member banjo123
This is Margaret Atwood’s modern version of The Tempest, written for Hogarth’s Shakespeare series. I found it totally enjoyable.
One problem with Shakespeare adaptations, is that the plots are so unlikely that it requires a certain suspension of disbelief, which we aren’t accustomed to in the
Felix Phillips is our Prospero, and the center of this book, starting the story as the Artistic Director of a regional theater company. Atwood has fun describing Felix’s artistic visions:
“…the playgoers and even the patrons had grumbled from time to time. The almost-naked, freely bleeding Lavinia in Titus was too upsettingly graphic, they’d whined; though, as Felix had pointed out, more than justified by the text. Why did Pericles have to be staged with spaceships and extraterrestrials instead of sailing ships and foreign countries, and why present the moon goddess Artemis with the head of a praying mantis.”
Felix loses his job, due to the conniving of Tony, (Antonio); his assistant to whom he has given much power and little oversight. He ends up teaching Shakespeare to inmates in a nearby prison. This leads to many fun scenes, as Felix allows his students to swear, but only if they take their swear words from the Shakespeare play they are studying.
But despite all these antic events; there is a serious side to Hag-Seed. It’s a story of love and loss; revenge and redemption, and in Atwood’s hands, it is touching as well as hilarious.
One problem with Shakespeare adaptations, is that the plots are so unlikely that it requires a certain suspension of disbelief, which we aren’t accustomed to in the
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modern age. Atwood makes this a little easier by setting the story in a theatrical setting, making over-the-top drama by various characters seem more natural.Felix Phillips is our Prospero, and the center of this book, starting the story as the Artistic Director of a regional theater company. Atwood has fun describing Felix’s artistic visions:
“…the playgoers and even the patrons had grumbled from time to time. The almost-naked, freely bleeding Lavinia in Titus was too upsettingly graphic, they’d whined; though, as Felix had pointed out, more than justified by the text. Why did Pericles have to be staged with spaceships and extraterrestrials instead of sailing ships and foreign countries, and why present the moon goddess Artemis with the head of a praying mantis.”
Felix loses his job, due to the conniving of Tony, (Antonio); his assistant to whom he has given much power and little oversight. He ends up teaching Shakespeare to inmates in a nearby prison. This leads to many fun scenes, as Felix allows his students to swear, but only if they take their swear words from the Shakespeare play they are studying.
But despite all these antic events; there is a serious side to Hag-Seed. It’s a story of love and loss; revenge and redemption, and in Atwood’s hands, it is touching as well as hilarious.
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LibraryThing member BLBera
[Hag-Seed] is Margaret Atwood's take on [The Tempest] for the Hogarth Shakespeare series, and it's my favorite one yet. Atwood reimagines Prospero as Felix Phillips, the Artistic Director of a Shakespeare Festival. As in the original, Felix is deposed and spends years in exile plotting revenge. He
The modern retelling is brilliantly done, following the motifs of the original without forcing it. Atwood even manages to add ideas about the original play and the value of educating prisoners. And she organizes her story into five acts.
This novel would be satisfying even for those unfamiliar with [The Tempest]. As Felix is going through prison security, he thinks: "It is the words that should concern you...That's the real danger. Words don't show up on scanners." Atwood recognizes the depth of ideas and the lovely language perfectly. A wonderful homage to the Bard.
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finally gets a vehicle for it when he starts to teach Shakespeare and stage plays at a prison. The modern retelling is brilliantly done, following the motifs of the original without forcing it. Atwood even manages to add ideas about the original play and the value of educating prisoners. And she organizes her story into five acts.
This novel would be satisfying even for those unfamiliar with [The Tempest]. As Felix is going through prison security, he thinks: "It is the words that should concern you...That's the real danger. Words don't show up on scanners." Atwood recognizes the depth of ideas and the lovely language perfectly. A wonderful homage to the Bard.
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LibraryThing member Tanya-dogearedcopy
"The Tempest is a play about a man producing a play - one that comes out of his own head..."; and 'Hag-Seed' is a novel about Felix Phillips, the former artistic director of the Makeshewig Theater Festival, who finally gets to mount a production of The Tempest, albeit with the Fletcher Correctional
Atwood uses this re-telling as exposition of her own understanding of the play; and cleverly up-cycles the Bard's material both in structure and content. Felix becomes the avatar for Atwood's research, teaching a class about the play to the would-be actors and the readers of the novel too. The FCP's re-constructed Tempest raps out lines from the play and re-interprets the figures into modern understanding. The book itself is set up into five parts, mirroring the five acts of Shakespeare's play.
If there is to be any quibble, it is only this: There is no magic. The original play contains mostly unlikable characters. With the exception of Ariel and Gonzalo, they are best described as manipulative, incredibly naive, homicidal, rapacious, scheming, lying... The appeal of much of the play are the spells that Prospero casts, casting illusions on epic scale. With 'Hag-Seed', that magic is reduced to special effects, which shears off the glamour of the story.
The novel is well executed and deserving of study alongside the Classic play, especially in discussions about modern or contemporary relevance and revisionist Shakespeare.
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Players instead of a professional acting company. Felix is also using the play to enact his own real-life drama of revenge.Atwood constructs an interesting meta form: The novel is the re-telling of The Tempest; The director has the players re-write Shakespeare's Comedy; and the director himself is living out an alternate version... Depending on how involved the reader is in the novel, it could be argued that Atwood has added another layer into the story by capturing the reader as the audience.Atwood uses this re-telling as exposition of her own understanding of the play; and cleverly up-cycles the Bard's material both in structure and content. Felix becomes the avatar for Atwood's research, teaching a class about the play to the would-be actors and the readers of the novel too. The FCP's re-constructed Tempest raps out lines from the play and re-interprets the figures into modern understanding. The book itself is set up into five parts, mirroring the five acts of Shakespeare's play.
If there is to be any quibble, it is only this: There is no magic. The original play contains mostly unlikable characters. With the exception of Ariel and Gonzalo, they are best described as manipulative, incredibly naive, homicidal, rapacious, scheming, lying... The appeal of much of the play are the spells that Prospero casts, casting illusions on epic scale. With 'Hag-Seed', that magic is reduced to special effects, which shears off the glamour of the story.
The novel is well executed and deserving of study alongside the Classic play, especially in discussions about modern or contemporary relevance and revisionist Shakespeare.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
I have now read three of the four re-imaginings of Shakespeare's plays and this is my favorite to date, by far. Atwood and I have had an on and off again relationship but here she has outdone herself. The Tempest, a sorry of magic and fantasy, revenge and hatred performed in a correctional
What Atwood has accomplished here is original, humorous, magical and absolutely delightful. She writes rap songs performed in the play, reimagines lines and characters, updates the dialogue and puts on a play, with a few surprises, that I would love to attend. The characters are amazing, lessons are learned and friendships are made. Absolutely brilliant in my estimation.
ARC from publisher.
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institute, by non violent offenders, their stage manager Félix. Félix has known his share of heartbreak and loss, most recently betrayed by his assistant and ousted from a prominent position.What Atwood has accomplished here is original, humorous, magical and absolutely delightful. She writes rap songs performed in the play, reimagines lines and characters, updates the dialogue and puts on a play, with a few surprises, that I would love to attend. The characters are amazing, lessons are learned and friendships are made. Absolutely brilliant in my estimation.
ARC from publisher.
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LibraryThing member sleahey
Former theater director Felix has been waiting for ten years to get revenge on the men who plotted his ousting from the job he loved. In his role as director of a prison theater program, he sets the stage with his cast for a dramatic retaliation based on a creative version of The Tempest. The
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strength of this book is the development of the cast of inmate characters as they add their own flair to the play, particularly their description of what happens to Shakespeare's characters 10 years after the time of the play. I found some of the backstory of Shakespeare's Tempest didactic, Show Less
LibraryThing member browner56
Suppose a celebrated novelist receives the following proposal from a prestigious publishing house: Pick your favorite Shakespearean play and produce a modern re-telling of the story, in any way you choose. At first glance, that might seem like an incredible opportunity for any current author—how
So, how did Margaret Atwood approach the assignment of reimagining The Tempest, that complex tale of deceit, magic, revenge, and forgiveness? By jumping in with both hands and both feet to produce Hag-Seed, which is, for the most part, an effort of remarkable creativity. One of the challenges that comes with updating this particular piece is that The Tempest can actually be viewed as a play nested within another play. In the production itself, Prospero, who has been cheated out of his rightful title as Duke of Milan and stranded on a remote island with his young daughter Miranda for 12 long years, uses some good fortune along with his magical powers to create the illusions necessary (i.e., the second play) to exact revenge on his enemies and create a happy ending for Miranda.
In , Atwood manages to take this artifice to the next level by employing a play-within-a-play-within-a-play format. Felix, the artistic director of a regional theater company, has been ignominiously deposed by his scheming assistant and banishes himself to the Canadian wilderness, comforted only by the memory of his daughter who died at a tragically young age. He reemerges from his hermitic existence some years later to teach drama classes to the inmates of a nearby correctional facility. Providence supplies the opportunity for revenge when his arch enemy, who has now risen to a position of power in the government, visits the prison to observe a production of The Tempest that Felix is staging with the convicts. So, Felix—who is the modern Prospero in the story—assumes the role of Prospero in the play in order to create the ruse needed to execute his real-life revenge in the manner of, well, Prospero!
If that sounds convoluted—or, at least, overly plotted—it really isn’t. In fact, Hag-Seed was an engaging and satisfying reading experience, although one that was very different in tone from the author’s past work that I know (e.g., The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace). For one thing, this novel has a tidy, feel-good ending in which the nice people win and the bad people lose. This final section, where the imprisoned actors offer their imagined versions of what happens to the characters in the play after they leave the island, is actually the strongest part of the book. Conversely, the front-end of the story in which the author provides details of Felix’s 12-year exile was cumbersome and somewhat implausible (which may be why Shakespeare skipped over this part altogether in the original tale). Overall, while it may never rank near the top of Atwood’s considerable catalog of work, Hag-Seed is recommended for its inventiveness and stylish word play. I mean, where else are you going to see the monster Caliban (i.e., the Hag-Seed of the title) breaking off hip-hop lyrics backed by his own troupe of dancers?
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many times in life does one receive an explicit challenge (and get paid) to improve upon Shakespeare? But then reality sets in and the devils emerge from the details of the project. Since the story you will be telling is, by design, not wholly your own, how exactly do you put your unique mark on it and still stay true to the original work?So, how did Margaret Atwood approach the assignment of reimagining The Tempest, that complex tale of deceit, magic, revenge, and forgiveness? By jumping in with both hands and both feet to produce Hag-Seed, which is, for the most part, an effort of remarkable creativity. One of the challenges that comes with updating this particular piece is that The Tempest can actually be viewed as a play nested within another play. In the production itself, Prospero, who has been cheated out of his rightful title as Duke of Milan and stranded on a remote island with his young daughter Miranda for 12 long years, uses some good fortune along with his magical powers to create the illusions necessary (i.e., the second play) to exact revenge on his enemies and create a happy ending for Miranda.
In , Atwood manages to take this artifice to the next level by employing a play-within-a-play-within-a-play format. Felix, the artistic director of a regional theater company, has been ignominiously deposed by his scheming assistant and banishes himself to the Canadian wilderness, comforted only by the memory of his daughter who died at a tragically young age. He reemerges from his hermitic existence some years later to teach drama classes to the inmates of a nearby correctional facility. Providence supplies the opportunity for revenge when his arch enemy, who has now risen to a position of power in the government, visits the prison to observe a production of The Tempest that Felix is staging with the convicts. So, Felix—who is the modern Prospero in the story—assumes the role of Prospero in the play in order to create the ruse needed to execute his real-life revenge in the manner of, well, Prospero!
If that sounds convoluted—or, at least, overly plotted—it really isn’t. In fact, Hag-Seed was an engaging and satisfying reading experience, although one that was very different in tone from the author’s past work that I know (e.g., The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace). For one thing, this novel has a tidy, feel-good ending in which the nice people win and the bad people lose. This final section, where the imprisoned actors offer their imagined versions of what happens to the characters in the play after they leave the island, is actually the strongest part of the book. Conversely, the front-end of the story in which the author provides details of Felix’s 12-year exile was cumbersome and somewhat implausible (which may be why Shakespeare skipped over this part altogether in the original tale). Overall, while it may never rank near the top of Atwood’s considerable catalog of work, Hag-Seed is recommended for its inventiveness and stylish word play. I mean, where else are you going to see the monster Caliban (i.e., the Hag-Seed of the title) breaking off hip-hop lyrics backed by his own troupe of dancers?
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Twelve years after Felix Phillips was relieved of his role as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Festival, he has an opportunity for revenge. Felix is teaching theater to medium security prison inmates. This year they'll be producing Shakespeare's Tempest, the same play that Felix was preparing
Margaret Atwood's modern retelling of The Tempest doesn't feel constrained by Shakespeare's plot. It's imaginative and suspenseful, with just a touch of the supernatural that leaves readers wondering if it's real or imagined. Readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare's original will learn the basic plot along with the Fletcher Correctional Players. The epilogue provides a summary of the play. Atwood's skill as a literary critic infuses the story as Felix and the cast think about and discuss the characters and their motives, make staging decisions, and adapt the script for their audience and setting. This novel will please both Atwood fans and Shakespeare fans. Enthusiastically recommended.
This review is based on an electronic advance reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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for the Makeshiweg Festival a dozen years ago. Felix's life uncannily mirrors the plot of The Tempest.Margaret Atwood's modern retelling of The Tempest doesn't feel constrained by Shakespeare's plot. It's imaginative and suspenseful, with just a touch of the supernatural that leaves readers wondering if it's real or imagined. Readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare's original will learn the basic plot along with the Fletcher Correctional Players. The epilogue provides a summary of the play. Atwood's skill as a literary critic infuses the story as Felix and the cast think about and discuss the characters and their motives, make staging decisions, and adapt the script for their audience and setting. This novel will please both Atwood fans and Shakespeare fans. Enthusiastically recommended.
This review is based on an electronic advance reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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LibraryThing member MaowangVater
Atwood creates a delightfully book of literary legerdemain in this novel rewrite of Shakespeare’s “Tempest.” Felix Phillips, the protagonist is cunningly portrayed as just manic enough in his thought process to turn his sudden and unexpected dismissal director of the Makeshiweg Theatre
Ambiguity is a significant part of the stagecraft of this book. The Makeshiweg Theatre Festival is a recognizable stand in for the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. But what kind of a word is Makeshiweg? Some have speculated that it’s an indigenous Canadian word for fox, but could it also just be a rushed verbalization of Make a Wish? It’s hard to say for sure. Is Felix mourning the death of his young daughter Miranda so much that he actually thinks her ghost is present, or is he aware that it’s a just an imaginary symptom of grief, even when he thinks she’s whispering in his ear? Is it just the stuff that dreams are made of? Again, the answer is maybe. Would it really be possible to isolate some Canadian Cabinet Ministers away from the rest of play’s audience to work vengeance and blackmail upon them? Whatever you might think about those questions, the response to the book should truly be sustained clapping, a standing ovation, and a cry of “Author!”
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Festival in Ontario from shock to depression into a crafty plot for revenge on those who deposed him. He plays Prospero in the novel putting on the play he’d originally planned a dozen years ago, served cold of course, to capture the conscience of his betrayers. But the real magician is the novel’s author who writes her spells in words that conjur up fast paced plotting with metatheater, ambiguity, and word play to make the whole rewrite of the play both believable and pleasing to her audience.Ambiguity is a significant part of the stagecraft of this book. The Makeshiweg Theatre Festival is a recognizable stand in for the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. But what kind of a word is Makeshiweg? Some have speculated that it’s an indigenous Canadian word for fox, but could it also just be a rushed verbalization of Make a Wish? It’s hard to say for sure. Is Felix mourning the death of his young daughter Miranda so much that he actually thinks her ghost is present, or is he aware that it’s a just an imaginary symptom of grief, even when he thinks she’s whispering in his ear? Is it just the stuff that dreams are made of? Again, the answer is maybe. Would it really be possible to isolate some Canadian Cabinet Ministers away from the rest of play’s audience to work vengeance and blackmail upon them? Whatever you might think about those questions, the response to the book should truly be sustained clapping, a standing ovation, and a cry of “Author!”
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LibraryThing member TadAD
This is Shakespeare’s The Tempest retold by Margaret Atwood as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series: re-imaginings of the plays by contemporary authors.
I don’t think this is Atwood’s best story but, honestly, I’m not sure she could write a bad book.
The beginning didn’t resonate with
That changed when Felix sees a change to exact revenge on those who stabbed him in the back and he, and the plot, kick into high gear. Atwood’s play-within-a-play-within-a-play worked for me and I found myself sinking into the story. Where I had originally seen a bit of silliness, I started to see some black humor. Where originally what was happening seemed cut-and-dried, I now wondered.
Felix cast his Tempest from a prison population and, to make it more relevant to the other inmates, he allows them to rewrite some of the speeches: the resulting rap made me laugh. The interpretations and insights into Shakespeare’s work that emerge from both Felix and the prisoners are thought-provoking and occasionally hilarious.
This is worth reading.
I don’t think this is Atwood’s best story but, honestly, I’m not sure she could write a bad book.
The beginning didn’t resonate with
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me. I found Felix, the obsessed and “alternative” director who is betrayed and fired from his job as director of a major festival, less than convincing as an artistic visionary. While I had this sense that I was supposed to question the nature of his visions of his dead daughter, I didn’t, not really.That changed when Felix sees a change to exact revenge on those who stabbed him in the back and he, and the plot, kick into high gear. Atwood’s play-within-a-play-within-a-play worked for me and I found myself sinking into the story. Where I had originally seen a bit of silliness, I started to see some black humor. Where originally what was happening seemed cut-and-dried, I now wondered.
Felix cast his Tempest from a prison population and, to make it more relevant to the other inmates, he allows them to rewrite some of the speeches: the resulting rap made me laugh. The interpretations and insights into Shakespeare’s work that emerge from both Felix and the prisoners are thought-provoking and occasionally hilarious.
This is worth reading.
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LibraryThing member AnneWK
Atwood has a clever, creative idea here -- make The Tempest's Prospero an avant-guard stage director/producer who's ousted from his job by ambitious underlings and ends up teaching literature in a prison (think remote island). Felix is the director-turned-Prospero whose beloved daughter Miranda
Sadly, the cleverness of the plot does not make up for the thinness of the characterization. I love Margaret Atwood's work and was disappointed by this fluffy take on a classic.
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dies young altho Felix continues to imagine her alive for years. He want revenge and he teaches his student-convicts that that's the message of The Tempest.Sadly, the cleverness of the plot does not make up for the thinness of the characterization. I love Margaret Atwood's work and was disappointed by this fluffy take on a classic.
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LibraryThing member janeajones
Atwood’s retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest is absorbing, clever, but finally a bit disappointing. Having recently lost his wife and small daughter, Miranda, Felix Phillips has been deposed of his Artistic Directorship of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival by the machinations of his trusted
He’d chosen the plays carefully. He’d begun with Julius Caesar, continued with Richard II, and followed that with Macbeth. Power struggles, treacheries, crimes: these subjects were immediately grasped by his students, since in their own ways they were experts in them.
But this year, he’s plotting his revenge with a production of The Tempest.
Atwood’s research into both the techniques of Shakespearean acting and directing as well as prison college programs teaching literature and drama serves the novel well. Her details of prison bureaucracy and regulations and the challenges of theatrical production give the story a necessary grounding in authenticity. As always, she draws the reader into the world of the novel with lucid, precise writing and an intriguing premise. Anyone familiar with The Tempest will admire her skillful manipulation of the play’s twists and turns into the novel’s plot. And she adds her own bit of magic with the inclusion of the spirit of Miranda, who has grown in a young woman, haunting Felix in his woodland retreat.
So why was I a bit disappointed? I wanted to know the prisoner-actors more fully, especially 8Handz/Ariel and Leggs/Caliban. Felix is a fully-developed character as is his chosen Miranda, a dancer-actress named Anne-Marie Greenland. Tony and Sal are appropriately slimy politicians. But the people on the inside of the prison seem merely agents for Felix’s grand plan. And perhaps that is justifiable given that The Tempest is Prospero’s final magic.
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assistant, Tony Price, and the Heritage Minister, Sal McNally. After a decade of self-imposed exile in the Canadian backwoods, he answers an advertisement for a teaching position for the Literacy through Literature program at Fletcher County Correctional Institute. He sets up a performance course with his medium-security prisoners creating video productions of Shakespearean dramas. He’d chosen the plays carefully. He’d begun with Julius Caesar, continued with Richard II, and followed that with Macbeth. Power struggles, treacheries, crimes: these subjects were immediately grasped by his students, since in their own ways they were experts in them.
But this year, he’s plotting his revenge with a production of The Tempest.
Atwood’s research into both the techniques of Shakespearean acting and directing as well as prison college programs teaching literature and drama serves the novel well. Her details of prison bureaucracy and regulations and the challenges of theatrical production give the story a necessary grounding in authenticity. As always, she draws the reader into the world of the novel with lucid, precise writing and an intriguing premise. Anyone familiar with The Tempest will admire her skillful manipulation of the play’s twists and turns into the novel’s plot. And she adds her own bit of magic with the inclusion of the spirit of Miranda, who has grown in a young woman, haunting Felix in his woodland retreat.
So why was I a bit disappointed? I wanted to know the prisoner-actors more fully, especially 8Handz/Ariel and Leggs/Caliban. Felix is a fully-developed character as is his chosen Miranda, a dancer-actress named Anne-Marie Greenland. Tony and Sal are appropriately slimy politicians. But the people on the inside of the prison seem merely agents for Felix’s grand plan. And perhaps that is justifiable given that The Tempest is Prospero’s final magic.
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LibraryThing member thornton37814
Margaret Atwood did a remarkable job re-imagining Shakespeare's The Tempest. Since his release as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival, Felix Phillips has been going by the name Mr. Duke and teaching theatre to a group of prisoners at a medium security institution. He calls his group the
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Fletcher Correctional Players. The class is more than simply theatre, but he uses theatre as a means to teach other material and critical thinking to the inmates. When the person who had him ousted is set to visit the facility in his official governmental role, Felix sees his opportunity for revenge. He decides to perform The Tempest. He chooses the role of Prospero for himself, gets the woman who was to play Miranda before he was ousted to portray her in this version, and assigns the inmates their roles. This work is certain to please Shakespeare enthusiasts as well as those who love Atwood's writing. I received an electronic copy for review purposes from the publisher through NetGalley. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gail.C.Bull
"A retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest" is how this book was promoted, but really it's more like an examination of the character of Prospero. The revenge story doesn't really feel satisfying as we don't experience enough of Tony's cruelty to really want to see his downfall. He shows up in the
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first scene in the book and again at the end, but is absent through the rest of the book. Felix has reason to hate him but as a reader, I didn't feel I knew him well enough to hate him even though I knew I was supposed to. Show Less
LibraryThing member PaperbackPirate
Hag-Seed is a retelling of The Tempest by William Shakespeare. I tried reading The Tempest first because I thought it would help me understand Hag-Seed. I hadn't read any Shakespeare since high school, and it wasn't as easy as I remembered. So I abandoned The Tempest and started Hag-Seed.
Hag-Seed
On its own it is an enjoyable story. I loved how it kept me guessing about how you could really exact revenge on some people with a play.
After reading the book I went back to The Tempest and the play made more sense. Although the book helped me understand the play, reading the play after helped me appreciate a few of the details that I at first felt were a little tidy at the end of the book. I had way too much fun figuring out which character in the book was which character in the play.
I am thankful for The Hogarth Shakespeare project for keeping Shakespeare alive and loved.
Hag-Seed
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is the story of a man who has been usurped as artistic director of a theatre festival. He goes into a self-imposed exile and begins planning his vengeance on the men responsible for his downfall. After several years he gets a new job teaching prisoners Shakespeare, where he finally realizes how he can give retribution with a production of The Tempest.On its own it is an enjoyable story. I loved how it kept me guessing about how you could really exact revenge on some people with a play.
After reading the book I went back to The Tempest and the play made more sense. Although the book helped me understand the play, reading the play after helped me appreciate a few of the details that I at first felt were a little tidy at the end of the book. I had way too much fun figuring out which character in the book was which character in the play.
I am thankful for The Hogarth Shakespeare project for keeping Shakespeare alive and loved.
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LibraryThing member drewsof
It's perfect, really - it's exactly what I was hoping for, as a lover of theater and Shakespeare and Margaret Atwood. In many ways, this is the most theatrical of the Hogarth Shakespeares so far and it succeeds in a way that novels about theater so often fail: it remembers that the play might be
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the thing... but that it is the people, the players, who make it so. Atwood brings a theater-lover (nay, an arts-lover)'s eye to this story and creates a tale that manages to refresh Shakespeare while also paying perfect homage to the play that is, in many ways, the most overtly theatrical of the canon. For what is Prospero's last speech other than a heartfelt thank you and goodbye by Shakespeare himself, a moment of humble gratitude for the gift of art that had been bestowed upon him? Atwood is conscious of that to the last - and the thrilling potency of that speech rings throughout the entire novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood's contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which are retellings of Shakespeare plays set in contemporary times. (Previously, I read The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterston, also in this series.) Atwood takes on one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, The Tempest,
This was a mostly light-hearted retelling of The Tempest, and I like that Atwood managed to include a play within a play by staging The Tempest itself at the prison--how very Shakespearean of her. The prisoners themselves were affable and sympathetic, if somewhat indistinguishable, while the politicians were, of course, buffoons. Felix is a bit of a pathetic character, but Atwood deepens the story by adding the ghost of his daughter to the cast of characters. If you don't know much about The Tempest before you begin, you will after you finish, as Atwood mixes in plenty of literary criticism. While somewhat gimmicky, and therefore feeling a trifle forced, this was overall an entertaining read.
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locating it in the world of small-time Canadian politics. Felix (Prospero), an avant-garde director at a local theatre festival, is betrayed and booted from his position by his partner Tony (Antonio). Felix exiles himself to a hovel in the middle of nowhere for twelve years, dreaming of revenge, but when he begins to see shades of his dead daughter Miranda (who grows older as time passes), he realizes he needs to get out of the house more. He takes a job teaching Shakespeare to medium-security prisoners, when the opportunity for revenge presents itself.This was a mostly light-hearted retelling of The Tempest, and I like that Atwood managed to include a play within a play by staging The Tempest itself at the prison--how very Shakespearean of her. The prisoners themselves were affable and sympathetic, if somewhat indistinguishable, while the politicians were, of course, buffoons. Felix is a bit of a pathetic character, but Atwood deepens the story by adding the ghost of his daughter to the cast of characters. If you don't know much about The Tempest before you begin, you will after you finish, as Atwood mixes in plenty of literary criticism. While somewhat gimmicky, and therefore feeling a trifle forced, this was overall an entertaining read.
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LibraryThing member jveezer
I’ve been reading a fair amount of Margaret Atwood lately, having made a vow to read more women writers, and having been very impressed with The Handmaid’s Tale. So when I saw her on the Librarything Early Reviewers, I jumped right in. This was my first inkling of the Hogarth Shakespeare
Hag-Seed is a retelling of The Tempest, or more specifically, of the staging of The Tempest. Atwood does her usual great job of creating a cast of misfits to put on the play. The setting is a literacy and arts program at the local medium security prison. The bitter washed up director is dreaming of revenge on the ex-board members of the Shakespeare Festival he used to lead and who are now politicians with the power to kill the funding of the prison program. The actors are all cons with records of embezzlement, hacking, assault, drugs, scamming, etc. In short, actors. (One of the epigrams quotes David Thomson’s Why Acting Matters: “…the actor is often said to be a shady or disreputable character”)
I would say that you will enjoy this book regardless of whether or not you are a Shakespeare fan, but especially if you are already familiar with Atwood’s books. And if you are a Shakespeare fan, you will appreciate the thought and ingenuity that Atwood put into this. The Bard himself would be impressed, methinks.
Note: This book was reviewed as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
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project. Launched in 2015, this is a series of the Bard’s works retold by acclaimed and bestselling novelists. I love Shakespeare in the theater and am tolerant of all the re-imagining that goes on there, so I’m totally down with reading how Atwood might handle him. Spoiler alert: after reading Hag-Seed, I’ve already purchased two of the other three books previously published in the series. Hag-Seed is a retelling of The Tempest, or more specifically, of the staging of The Tempest. Atwood does her usual great job of creating a cast of misfits to put on the play. The setting is a literacy and arts program at the local medium security prison. The bitter washed up director is dreaming of revenge on the ex-board members of the Shakespeare Festival he used to lead and who are now politicians with the power to kill the funding of the prison program. The actors are all cons with records of embezzlement, hacking, assault, drugs, scamming, etc. In short, actors. (One of the epigrams quotes David Thomson’s Why Acting Matters: “…the actor is often said to be a shady or disreputable character”)
I would say that you will enjoy this book regardless of whether or not you are a Shakespeare fan, but especially if you are already familiar with Atwood’s books. And if you are a Shakespeare fan, you will appreciate the thought and ingenuity that Atwood put into this. The Bard himself would be impressed, methinks.
Note: This book was reviewed as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
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LibraryThing member Neftzger
Atwood's modern interpretation of Shakespeare is engaging and intellectually satisfying. She's managed to take a familiar story and make it fresh by creating a concoction that is Shakespeare within Shakespeare within Shakespeare. In other words, the story has multiple levels with plays nested
Atwood has placed the story inside of a literal prison while using the characters to teach the audience and other characters in the book about the different types of prisons - one of the themes within the play The Tempest, upon which the story is written. The writing is as clever and engaging as we've come to expect from Atwood's work. Highly recommended for those who enjoy a good story, and more so for those who enjoy well written literature that references the classics.
Note: I was given a free ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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within plays. Atwood has placed the story inside of a literal prison while using the characters to teach the audience and other characters in the book about the different types of prisons - one of the themes within the play The Tempest, upon which the story is written. The writing is as clever and engaging as we've come to expect from Atwood's work. Highly recommended for those who enjoy a good story, and more so for those who enjoy well written literature that references the classics.
Note: I was given a free ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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LibraryThing member GarySeverance
Hag-Seed is a novel of loss, patience, illusion, completion, and revenge. It is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project that has Shakespeare’s works rewritten as novels by contemporary writers. I have read two of the excellent novels, Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson (Merchant of Venice) and
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Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (Taming of the Shrew). Hag-Seed (The Tempest) continues the well-written, interesting, and entertaining series. Shakespeare’s Prospero the magician is replaced by Margaret Atwood’s Felix the Artistic Director. Having lost his young daughter Miranda, grieving Felix is removed from his job unfairly and isolates himself haunted by loss and memories. Felix begins to concentrate on ways to honor his daughter’s memory and methods to administer revenge on the two men responsible for his firing. Working in a prison system, he believes that staging The Tempest involving prisoners would bring a kind of completion in his honoring of Miranda, reward his patience in finding retribution, make use of the play’s magic and illusion, and provide revenge for his years of resentment. Hag-Seed is an excellent novel, and I will continue reading volumes in the Hogarth series. Show Less
LibraryThing member tloeffler
This is a re-telling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Felix is artistic director of a theater, and he plans to put on "The Tempest" with a modern (maybe too modern) bent. He is sacked from his job (for which he blames his sneaky assistant Tony) and he drops out of society. Eventually, he takes on a
I did enjoy the book, but the characters were just too far out for my taste, and I found most of the plot difficult to believe. Entertaining, but not very deep and it felt a bit throwaway.
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position giving a theater course to inmates of a nearby prison, and here he finds the perfect venue for his Tempest, both the play and in his real life.I did enjoy the book, but the characters were just too far out for my taste, and I found most of the plot difficult to believe. Entertaining, but not very deep and it felt a bit throwaway.
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Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2017)
Books Are My Bag Readers Award (Shortlist — 2016)
NPR: Books We Love (2016)
The Observer Book of the Year (Fiction — 2016)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Teen — 2016)
Language
Original publication date
2016-10-11
ISBN
9780099594024
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DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |