I’ve never been one to back away from books about difficult topics, including true crime, dystopian societies, ghosts and monsters, wars, abusive childhoods. I’ve enjoyed books about all of these. However, I’ve recently craved some happy endings. Maybe I’ve been reading and watching too much news lately, or maybe I’ve been confined to my house for three months. Or maybe both.
Last week I read “Hag-Seed” by Margaret Atwood. It made me
smile, laugh, and feel a little bit better for a while.
If all you know of Margaret Atwood is “The Handmaid’s Tale,”
this is nothing like it. “Hag-Seed” is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s
comedy “The Tempest.”
Washed up and half-mad theater director Felix Phillips,
alias Mr. Duke, takes a job working with convicts in a medium-security prison.
Each winter he selects a group of inmates to produce one of Shakespeare’s
works, usually one with lots of battles or swordfights and few women’s roles.
However, when he learns that his nemesis (and usurper) and
other corrupt government officials will attend his next production, he quickly
chooses “The Tempest” and uses it to exact revenge on his tormentors and regain
his job as artistic director of a small-town theater.
There is plenty of physical comedy and irony in this clever
adaptation, including Ariel (a spirit) and Caliban (a monster). Readers do not
have to be familiar with Shakespeare’s play in order to enjoy and appreciate
“Hag-Seed.” However, for those who are interested, Atwood includes a detailed
summary of “The Tempest” at the back of the book.
The novel is also layered. In addition to being comical and
histrionic, Felix also evokes our pity at the loss of his young wife and then
his three-year-old daughter, aptly named Miranda. In his grief he imagines
Miranda with him at whatever age she would have been had she lived. He talks to
her at home and even imagines her accompanying him to the prison to rehearse the
play. His imagination is so vivid, he nearly conjures her into being.
And Felix, like most teachers, quickly establishes trust and
rapport with his students, their criminal backgrounds notwithstanding. He
allows the cast to rewrite lines they find troubling and add their own rap
songs to the script. He rewards their successes with cigarettes he smuggles
into the prison.
“Hag-Seed” is a fun story in which the good-hearted are
rewarded and the black-hearted are punished. It was just what I needed.
