Review: Hag-Seed

Felix is a much-revered director who is ready to present his vision of The Tempest at the Makeshiweg Festival. But his devious assistant convinces the board to fire him, so he can take Felix's place as artistic director. Felix descends into depression and isolation with only his imagined daughter Miranda. Years later, he takes a job teaching Literacy through Literature at the Fletcher County Correctional Institute. Felix teaches the inmates about Shakespeare, with the goal of finally bringing his Tempest production to life. And maybe in the process, he can finally get revenge against the men who ruined his career.

As an English and Theatre major in college, I am very familiar with The Tempest. It must be difficult to re-imagine a classic play that is so beloved by so many people, but Margaret Atwood is an excellent choice for the job. While this story is not a direct update of its source material, there are obvious parallels; Felix is reeling from loss and betrayal and he deeply loves his daughter Miranda, although in this version, she has been dead for many years.

I would have read a Margaret Atwood story about a man's fall from grace and the power of the arts all on its own, but finding all of the ways the story references and intersects with its source material makes a great reading experience a lot of fun too. We even get to imagine what happened after the final words of the play. Felix is committed to teaching the inmates just how much Shakespeare has to say about their lives, explaining that the play they will perform is all about power and prisons. As Felix watches his cast experience The Tempest, we see that even the most seasoned of Shakespeare performers and scholars can find new things each time they open the text. As we read Hag-Seed, whether it's our first time with Propsero or the fiftieth, we have that chance to discover it anew too.



Hag-Seed is a part of Hogarth's collection of Shakespeare re-tellings. Here are my thoughts on Vinegar Girl, a retelling of Taming of the Shrew.

Hag-Seed
By Margaret Atwood
Hogarth October 2011
301 pages
Read via Netgalley

Mini-Reviews: Alias Grace and Maine

In July of 1843, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy were brutally murdered. Two of Kinnear's servants, Grace Marks and James McDermott, were apprehended fleeing through the United States. Grace insisted that she had no memory of the day of the murder and went with McDermott because she feared for her own life. The press and the prosecution in the murder trial insisted she was complicit in the whole thing. In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood imagines what might have really happened with Grace Marks and one of the most notorious murder cases in Canadian history.

Alias Grace is a novel that requires the reader to commit. Atwood leaves no stone unturned, as she imagines what her protagonist may or may not have done. A lot of the novel is concerned with the small moments of one woman's life, as she grows up, tries to care for her family, and learns her place as a servant in a rich household. Grace is a woman without agency; a woman whose life is controlled by her father, her boss, her jailers, the judge who presides over her case, and then by Doctor Jordan, a man who tries to discover if she is crazy or criminal. This book seems like an amalgamation of so many genres: it's a mystery, historical fiction, and an examination of what has changed and what remains the same when it comes to our expectations for women. Like all of Atwood's books that I have read, I'm sure that there are layers and layers to uncover for the book lover who embarks on a re-read.

Alias Grace
By Margaret Atwood
Anchor October 1997
468 pages
From my shelves

Maine is both a place of beauty and wonder and a place that is taken for granted by the Kelleher family. Ever since patriarch Daniel won a plot of land on the beach, the family has descended each summer to swim, lie on the sand, enjoy each other's company, and drive their relatives crazy. This year, things will be a little different. Grandmother Alice is a bit lost after the death of her husband and considering what should happen to the summer house when she's gone. Her daughter-in-law Ann Marie is coming to look after Alice due to a misplaced sense of duty. She would much rather dream about winning first place in an upcoming dollhouse competition or finally having a romantic moment with her neighbor. Granddaughter Maggie is pregnant, but she hasn't told anyone yet (including her own mother).

Sullivan excels at showing women in very different stages in their lives: Maggie is a bit reckless because she hasn't yet experienced consequences. Ann Marie bends over backwards to please the others in her life, neglecting her own happiness in the process. Alice has had decades of hiding her pain behind appearances, doing good deeds, and a good drink or five. She is finally at the point of not caring anymore what her children, grandchildren, or anyone else thinks of her.

I've seen several readers say that they were deceived by the cover and expected a fun, light beach read. Maine is certainly not that book. The anger has been simmering for years in the Kelleher household and each of the women do some really mean or stupid things during this story. This is not the book for you if you hope that everyone makes the logical choice or that every character will be likable. But our understanding of each woman builds as the author effortlessly dips into each woman's perspective of their past and their present and this story will certainly make you think about (or be thankful for) your own family.

Maine
By J. Courtney Sullivan
Knopf June 2011
388 pages
From my shelves

Review: The Heart Goes Last

Charmaine and Stan are running low on options. They have been living in their car and surviving off the tips Charmaine makes as as bartender. When they hear about the town of Consilience, it seems like it could be a literal life saver. The community has a lot of strict rules though. The couple will live in relative luxury for a month at a time. But then, every other month, they switch and they will become voluntary inmates in the local prison. Another couple will live in their home, go to work, and live their normal lives. Despite Stan's brother warning them not to go, they decide it is the best choice. For a few months, everything is fine. But then Charmaine and Stan both start wondering about the alternates who live in their house when they are gone. Their hypothetical and actual affairs will have irrevocable consequences for the couple, their alternates, and the whole community.

Margaret Atwood is Margaret Atwood, right? A new story from her brain is always reason to rejoice and she can write a bizarre and scary future like few other writers. That being said, this wasn't my favorite of her books and I think a big part of that had to do with our main characters. There are times when authors choose to make characters types in order to make a point. Every time I thought Atwood had written caricatures, something happened to make me think they were actually supposed to be well-developed characters who happened to fall short of that. As we read this story, we are supposed to be rooting for Charmaine and Stan to end up together, in spite of everything that happens to them and everything they do to each other. But I think many readers will actually be hoping that they just go their separate ways - they are so cruel and thoughtless to each other.

The setup of the town itself is fascinating and I loved finding out the little details. The town is divided in half and each side takes a month in either the town or the prison. Each person has a job in each location and a locker in their home to store their clothing and personal items when their alternates live there. I loved the little details, like the music and television choices that were available to the residents and the day-to-day minutiae of their lives.

Because this is a book by Atwood, there are big themes to ponder here about love, sex, power, and commerce. But The Heart Goes Last intertwines those ideas with a sort of campy bad romance about a couple who has no idea what their spouse wants. Neither seems to care too much to find out, which makes it difficult for readers to care either.


The Heart Goes Last
By Margaret Atwood
Nan A. Talese September 2015
320 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: Stone Mattress

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales

By Margaret Atwood

Nan A. Talese September 2014

273 pages

Read for review via Netgalley

Margaret Atwood is known and admired for her exceptional talent as an author. Her stories explore friendship, aging, and what humanity looks like at the end of the world. In Stone Mattress, readers are treated to her writing at its height as she tells a compelling story in just a few pages with wit, understanding, and just a touch of malice. 

Atwood does a careful dance here between connecting stories and those that stand alone. She has three stories that are linked, as characters from the others star in a tale of their own. She also has one story that brings back characters from The Robber Bride, one of her early novels. It was wonderful to unexpectedly run into old friends. Many of these stories seem to draw moments from Atwood's own well of knowledge and feeling, as many of the characters are writers themselves. They grapple with both success and failure, high literature and pulp fiction.

One of the themes that runs through the stories is looking back at your life. It is refreshing to read about characters who have some years and experience under their belts. In almost every story, the specters of age and death loom large. In the first tale, entitled "Alphinland," our elderly protagonist is facing her first winter storm without her husband. She is somewhat forgetful about the things she should be doing to prepare. While her husband's voice gives her gentle reminders from the afterlife, it is heartbreaking to see this woman stumble literally and metaphorically. "Torching the Dusties," the last story, is perhaps the most plausible and the most terrifying. Wilma and Tobias are residents of a senior citizen home that is under siege from an organization seeking to eradicate the elderly. Their usual problems of aging are put in juxtaposition with people trying to escape a hostile situation.

Theses stories are just a bit fanciful - everything seems normal except for the voice of your deceased husband, or a daughter who is an outcast because she rather resembles...well, a vampire. It's fascinating to watch characters who wouldn't describe themselves as bad decide to do some very bad things. The idea of a villain is deconstructed to become someone who needs revenge or finds an opportunity too good to pass on (regardless of the consequences). Stone Mattress is a collection for all readers - those who love short stories and those who avoid them, those who love horror stories and those who love literary fiction, the readers who adore Margaret Atwood and those who are lucky enough to be discovering her amazing writing for the first time.

My reviews of Atwood's Oryx and Crake and Surfacing

Review: Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake

By Margaret Atwood

Anchor Books 2004

374 pages

From my shelves

Snowman is the last human on earth. Well, the last human of our kind. He is the guardian to a group of modified humans known as Crake's children. Snowman must set out on a journey to supplement his rapidly dwindling supplies. As he travels back to the place where the world changed forever, he thinks about his past and his love for a beautiful girl named Oryx and a brilliant and dangerous boy named Crake. 

We know from the beginning of the novel that the world has forever changed, but it takes a long time for us to understand exactly what those events were and how they came to pass. As Snowman goes back to his memories, he goes all the way back to his life as a small boy named Jimmy. He recalls living with a father married to his job as a scientist while his mother spirals into depression. He lives in a world divided, where the brilliant live tucked away in compounds where they can create new species and new medication. The rest of society lives in squalor controlled by the decisions of the elite. Although Jimmy does not excel in science, he becomes friends with a young man who goes by the name Crake. After college, Crake is drafted into the highest echelons of science and takes Jimmy with him. 

Oryx and Crake is, at times, not as compelling as some of Atwood's other stories. It lacks urgency, since we know what the end result will be from the first pages of the novel. But that doesn't mean it's not interesting. In the present, we see Snowman grapple with his humanity. What does it mean to be human in a world where you are the only one?  Can Snowman hold on to his sanity as he is haunted by the mocking whispers of those he loved best? In the past, Jimmy's world seems so distant but still eerily similar to our own. As scientific discovery increases, human interaction seems to be less of a priority for their society. 

I think what makes this story most gripping and terrifying is that it seems completely plausible. I could see how things could spiral out of control just as they do in this story. It gives its readers a lot to think about with regards to the ways in which power is held by a select few and the ways they can use that power to affect everyone. Can the same science meant for good also be used for evil? Who makes that distinction? Oryx and Crake may not be a novel you will speed through, but it is a story that will leave you thinking for a long time after you close its covers. 

P.S. If they are reading this, I'm wishing a very happy birthday to my best friend Becca and my sister Ashley! 

               

Review: Surfacing

Surfacing

By Margaret Atwood

Anchor March 1998, Original 1972

208 pages

From personal library 

I must say from the beginning that I think Margaret Atwood is a genius. The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin were excellent. I am trying to complete my Atwood collection and received this one for Christmas. (Thanks sis!) Unfortunately, this was not my favorite of her novels.

Surfacing follows an unnamed female narrator as she heads back home into the forest of Quebec. Her father has gone missing and she must find out if he is still alive. She is accompanied on this trip by her boyfriend and by another couple. 

This is a strange book and not a good entry point if you are picking up your first Atwood. This is a deeply psychological novel chronicling the descent of a young woman into madness. She is far removed from other people, at times seeming like a conspiracy theorist, convinced that the American tourists and even her friends are out to get her. The themes here are strong - what it means to be a woman, the destruction of nature by the rise of the city and technology. 

“They know everything about each other, I thought, that’s why they’re so sad; but Anna was more than sad, she was desperate, her body her only weapon and she was fighting for her life, he was her life, her life was the fight: she was fighting him because if she ever surrendered the balance of power would be broken and he would go elsewhere. To continue the war.”

The unfortunate thing is that there is not a lot of story here to hold up the themes. There is a great feeling of stagnation throughout the novel. The characters are often bored and unsure what to do since they are isolated, essentially stranded in the narrator's childhood home until the boat returns to take them home from the island. This does, however, give Atwood room to render some beautiful description of nature. 

I was also struck by the bitterness of women towards men, as well as society in general. The narrator is so bitter towards everyone - her boyfriend who she doesn't feel as much for as she wishes, the man she really did love, her father, the other man accompanying them on their trip. The vitriol caught me off guard and in some cases, seemed completely unearned. 

Finishing this novel  left me feeling very unsettled and in that respect, I think Atwood succeeded with Surfacing. It's a bizarre read, but one that will linger in your memory for a long time.