A review of Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. Post may contain affiliate links.
Before I review Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, I must confess that I have never read The Tempest by William Shakespeare. I don’t know how I managed to make it through high school and two Bachelor of Science degrees without it, but I did. So, even though i enjoyed the book, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it much more if I was more familiar with The Tempest.
The main character of the story is Felix Phillips. Felix is a theatre director about to put on The Tempest for the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. He has huge plans and hopes for it, which are dashed when he finds that he is being let go from his position. His removal is a great act of betrayal by his colleague, Tony.
While plotting his revenge, he takes on a part time job at a prison in a Literacy through Literature Program. He sets about produce Shakespeare plays using the convicts. One of my favorite parts is that as they take apart the play and make it their own, the inmates must only curse using language from the play.
He finally finds an opportunity to exact his revenge on his old colleagues, using the play, The Tempest.
Once again Margaret Atwood’s writing is excellent and descriptive. The story was creative and I’m sure probably even better than I can imagine since I can’t judge it by the original The Tempest.
I received an advanced copy of this book.
Ellen Pilch says
That does sound like a good book. I have never read The Tempest either.
Marjie says
I'm sure reading The Tempest wasn't required to fully enjoy the book, since there are a large number of us who read the minimum Shakespeare possible in high school and college. Sounds like a good premise for the book!