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Hag-Seed: Hogarth Shakespeare
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Hag-Seed: Hogarth Shakespeare
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Hag-Seed: Hogarth Shakespeare
Audiobook8 hours

Hag-Seed: Hogarth Shakespeare

Written by Margaret Atwood

Narrated by R.H. Thomson

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

William Shakespeare's The Tempest retold as Hag-Seed

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 also brewing revenge.

After twelve 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?

Margaret Atwood's novel take on Shakespeare's play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 11, 2016
ISBN9780735286580
Unavailable
Hag-Seed: Hogarth Shakespeare
Author

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

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Reviews for Hag-Seed

Rating: 4.019264425919439 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Atwood brings us a modern retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest through the vengeful machinations of the boundary-pushing theater director, Felix. After losing his wife in childbirth, and their beloved daughter Miranda to a sudden illness at age three, Felix throws himself into a challenging production of The Tempest at the prestigious theater where he is entrenched. Entrenched, that is, until he is unceremoniously fired by the board through a coup led by his second-in-command and helped along by a local culture minister. Felix secludes himself in a small cabin with his thoughts of revenge, eventually bringing his artistic talents (under an assumed name) to a literacy-in-prison program in which he teaches Shakespeare to a select group of inmates, leading to the staging of a very popular filmed production each term which is shown throughout the prison complex. When he finds out that the men who betrayed him years ago have risen up in the world of Canadian politics and are going to be visiting the prison, he decides that the prisoners will stage his interrupted version of The Tempest, and he will play Prospero himself.As you might imagine, this is really a fun book. Atwood masterfully weaves the structure of a play within a book retelling a play, and her connections back to the original text are both surprising and satisfying. Written in a crisp, fast-moving style, the narrative has time for some careful observation and just enough internal reflection to keep Felix from becoming overpowered by his need for revenge. The various Mirandas also get a little more to do and say than you might expect, and the men in the prison are active contributors to both the staging of the play and the narrative of the story, not mere pawns in Felix's scheme. Even if you haven't read The Tempest, or haven't read it in awhile, this is a great read. And if you are a Shakespeare fan, then you should definitely add this to your list.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Given the fact that I was never a huge fan of The Tempest, I should have known Atwood's modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's classic would leave me unimpressed. There's no disputing that this is a well-written work that introduces a number of intriguing and memorable characters. But I feel compelled to make a clumsy comparison. In my estimation, "Hag-Seed" is like a sandwich made with scrumptious bread. I was captivated by the book's beginning and conclusion. Unfortunately, the stuff in between was downright boring in spots. I almost didn't finish it. I agree with some reviewers who suggest that "Hag-Seed" simply isn't up to Atwood's standards.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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 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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood is the fourth book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. In this series, today’s authors offer their own interpretation of Shakespeare’s classics. In this case, Margaret Atwood tackles The Tempest.

    Felix is the artistic director of a local theater group. After a personal tragedy he delegates much of his work to his protege, Tony. Tony can not be trusted, and arranges for Felix to be fired, and for Tony to take his place. Felix is devastated, and goes into a self imposed exile for many years, until he emerges to teach a class on Shakespeare at the local prison. While putting on the play The Tempest, with his students in the prison, Felix learns that Tony, now a local politician, will be attending the performance with other dignitaries. Felix takes the opportunity to put into motion his plans for revenge.

    I read The Tempest in high school, but really didn’t remember much of the story. But that is ok, because as Felix is teaching his students about the play, he is also teaching the reader. This is one of the things I enjoyed most about the book. It never felt boring, and I liked hearing an analysis of the original play. It helped me to see the parallels between The Tempest and Felix’s story.

    Felix is both a sympathetic character and an unlikable one. His plan for revenge seems a little over the top, but when taken in the context of the play, it makes sense.

    This is a great book, and I am very happy I had the chance to read it. I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free review copy of this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Margaret Atwood's bestselling novel Hag-Seed is now out in paperback. It is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which contemporary novelists reimagine the classic plays for a new age.The brilliant, original, artistic director Felix was about to direct The Tempest when he was disposed from his job by self-seeking men. He retreats to an isolated primitive cabin, his only companion his sensing of the presence of his deceased daughter Miranda. After many years he takes a job under a false name and becomes Mr. Duke, literacy teacher in a local prison, teaching inmates Shakespeare through performance of the plays. When Felix learns his old enemies are now Ministers who want to end the prison literacy program he decides the time has come for him to take his revenge. The Ministers come to the prison to see a video of The Tempest performed by the inmates. But Felix and his prisoner actors plot a live theater experience that will bring his enemies under his power.I loved the play within a play structure, so Shakespearean. The intricate structure of the novel knocked my socks off. The prisoners become essential characters. Hag-Seed, a Shakespearean curse, is their name for Caliban, and the actor playing Caliban writes his own lines:My name's Caliban, got scales and long nails,I smell like a fish and not a man--But my other name's Hag-Seed, or that what he call me;He call me a lotta names, he play me a lotta games:He call me a poison, a filth, a slave,He prison me up to make me behave,But I'm Hag-Seed!"The last three words in the play are 'set me free'," says Felix." Felix has identified nine prisons within the play, and so we understand how Atwood conceived of Hag-Seed.I received a free book through Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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 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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hag-Seed is the 4th book in the Hogarth Shakespeare Series - a commissioned series of retelling of Shakespeare plays for the modern reader. Margaret Atwood's contribution is based on The Tempest. As to be expected, Atwood’s take on the play is wildly imaginative and subversively funny. She creates a play within a play as a fired theater director takes his revenge on those who ruined him years before. I thought the middle section dragged a bit, but as a whole, Hag-Seed was inventive and fun. And for the record, I’ve never read The Tempest but I did read a quick online synopsis.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant! Works whether you've experienced the original play The Tempest or not before. I have and got a real kick out of this very contemporary adaptation set in a Canadian correctional facility. Hail Margaret Atwood! :-)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This novel hit every note perfectly. The characters were perfect. I loved the prisoners, with their swearing and humor, and their depth. Felix was a wonderful protagonist with his strong desire for revenge and his regrets over his daughter. The story itself was spun masterfully: you've got the actual production of The Tempest happening but the more you read, the more you realize that Felix might already be (or always has been) Prospero. This is why I love reading Atwood's books; she makes you think, makes you see side connections, and that just takes the story to a whole other level. It was just a masterful re-telling of a wonderful Shakespearean play. I cannot wait to read the rest of the books that are part of the Hogarth series!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Here's a truly creative (duh, consider the source and the interpreter) take on The Tempest, one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies. Felix, a Canadian avant garde theatrical producer, has been usurped from his throne by an underling right before the opening of the very same play. Haunted by the decade old death of his young daughter Miranda (aha), Felix retreats into a tumbledown shack in the countryside and takes on a position teaching drama at the local prison. The Tempest is uniquely suited for a large cast of unruly men. Atwood takes us inside the vengeful head of Felix and also shows us the creativity of his teaching methods, which have already made grand successes of the Scottish play, Richard III, and Julius Caesar productions. I've read three of the Hogarths, and this is the first where the actual play is performed, rather than the author re-interpreting it as a novel set in modern times. Atwood is spectacular here, so worthy of this tumultuous multi-layered play, adding even more depth of her own. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    After seeing a production of The Tempest at Loch Ard Gorge, I was right into this tale - very clever of Atwood to combine a prison production of the Tempest with revenge of a usurped theatre director.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This novel was one of a series by various authors commissioned to mark the four hundredth anniversary in 2016 of the death of Shakespeare.Felix Phillips seems well-established as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival in Canada, and is making arrangements for a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. He has, however, has bargained without the duplicity of his assistant, Tony Price, who has schemed with the Theatre's Board to have Felix removed. Removed from his post at a moment's notice, Felix is resolved to seek revenge, though he is prepared to play a long game to secure it.Several years later, Felix is working under an assumed name at the Fletcher Correctional Institute where he givens dram training to several of the prisoners. The inmates are initially resistant to the very idea of drama, and particularly when they learn that Felix will be concentrating exclusively on the works of Shakespeare. They are, however, gradually won over, and some to enjoy and even benefit from the programme that Felix delivers.His opportunity for revenge comes when Tony Price, now an ambitious politician and Minister for Culture, and along with some other figures of hate from Felix's past, is invited to attend a performance at the Correctional Institute. Felix starts to form his plan, which he will achieve through a new production of The Tempest, performed by his band of prisoners.Felix's discussions of the themes and historical context of the play offer Margaret Atwood the opportunity to dissect the work with her sharp, writer's acumen. Themes of revenge, liberty and enslavement prove particularly pertinent to the prisoners, and provokes their close engagement with the project.This is an impressive demonstration of Atwood's great flexibility as a writer. My previous experience of her novels had been principally among her dystopian novels, which I had found compelling. The ending of this novel was not what I had expected, and came as a slight disappointment, but I was still impressed with her dexterity in a completely different field.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Some of the most well-known authors of our generation have joined together to create the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Each author is retelling one of Shakespeare's most well-known plays. It's a brilliant idea and one that I'm loving so far. Tracy Chevalier wrote New Boy, the story of Othello set in a Washington D.C. grade school in the 1970s. Anne Tyler tackled The Taming of the Shrew in Vinegar Girl, turning the soured Kate into the daughter of a scientist looking for a green card marriage for his lab assistant. In Margaret Atwoods' Hag-Seed we meet Felix, a modern-day Prospero. He's the eccentric director of a theatre festival, but after being betrayed, he exiles himself as he plots his revenge. With the other two books I've read in the series I couldn't help but compare them to the original the entire time I was reading them. With Hag-Seed I kept forgetting that it is a remake of The Tempest, even though they are talking about the original play through the novel. The plot and the characters are strong enough that they stand on their own. I kept getting sucked into the story, which is exactly what you want. I love that every aspect of the retelling is not literal. Miranda is his daughter, but she passed away when she was little. He is not stranded on an island, but instead he's trapped in an isolation of his own making. He takes a job teaching Shakespeare to inmates at a local prison. I love how he has to introduce Shakespeare to them and in doing so, we as the readers are able to appreciate some of the primal aspects of the Bard's work. We often treat Shakespeare as high-browed and far above lay people. In reality he was often crass and played to the commonest level of humor. I love that Atwood manages to embrace that while still highlighting his deeper message. BOTTOM LINE: Loved the book and the whole premise of the series. It's such a treat to see Shakespeare's work through a new lens. Just as every director of a film or play brings their interpretation to each piece, so do these authors. I can't wait to read the rest of them!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am a sucker for Margaret Atwood and for Shakespearian rewrites, so this was an automatic choice for me. It was a slow start, which is not atypical for Atwood, but while the plot eased in, the character development ramped up quickly. I didn't know whether I was about to read a story about madness, revenge, or a downward slide into despair (or possibly all three), but I wanted to find out. It's been about 15 years since I've read The Tempest, so I spent less time trying to read that storyline into this novel and more time just enjoying the quirky characters and setting; by the end, though, Atwood had done an excellent job of filling in the holes in my memory while still twisting and modernizing. She doesn't ram this rewrite down your throat, but there are a few moments ("The Tempest is about a play within a play", "Prospero is imprisoned within his own story", etc.) where you can't miss what she's doing. I loved that Atwood ended the story with multiple options, without that seeming forced. However you want to read this, happy ending, brutal ending, mix of the two, you can find room to do that within the options the characters give you. Personally, I'm choosing a combination of Miranda's ending and Caliban's ending. I can't wait to read more in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, or more Atwood.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have read several books in the series of books that are modern retellings of Shakespeare, and this is the best. The way that Atwood takes The Tempest and spins it into a modern revenge-romance plot is brilliant. Her Prospero manages to keep the focus on the revenge he seeks, and the way she brings in the use of technology to stand in for the magic is a stroke of genius. All in all, highly recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A Shakespearean director, with out-there interpretations of the plays - gets pushed aside but I nasty, ambitious younger man. He has also suffered terrible personal losses, and is rather unstable. He starts teaching Shakespeare in a prison and comes up with a mysterious plan for revenge. It's often bizarre, amusing, and not too credible. Atwood is a master, but this is not one of her masterpices.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    while the novel is based on Shakespeare's the tempest it's novel that stands on it's own. this different from many of margaret wood's novel, that it has a happy ending. a nice study in characters fun read
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm a little shamed to admit it, but I'm not really a Shakespeare fan. I'm a fan of Shakespearean soundbites, and I occasionally like singing one of his sonnets set to music, but for the most part, I find the Bard...boring. Even the brief summary of the play at the end had me glazing over. I feel awful about it, but confession's good for the soul, right?But before you take away my English degree, let me clarify that although I'm not a fan of his full plays, I really like the meat of what Shakespeare does, especially his use of language and the way he tackles universal themes. As such, a re-work like Hag-Seed is a great fit. Add in the fact that I've been developing a passion for prison reform and a slight crush on Canada over the past several years, and this is a great novel for me. And it's always a pleasure to read Atwood's virtuoso and sparsely, accurately emotional prose.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got this as an early reviewer book. Without giving away too much, I really liked the way the original plot of the play worked through multiple levels of this telling of it. I recommend being a little familiar with the original work (or at least reading the plot synopsis on wikipedia or something) before reading this. It'll make for a better read- I promise.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I normally approach modern retellings of Shakespeare classics with a good deal of trepidation. This time I was rewarded by Atwood's ingenious, elegant, and delightful retelling of The Tempest. There are multiple layers to this version: The Tempest is itself a play within a play, and rather than restaging/telling the play as it's own story set in present time, Atwood puts the play itself within the novel, mirrored brilliantly by the story of the stage director who decides to stage the play within a prison, himself a self-conscious Prospero with his own Tempest narrative to play out. Margaret Atwood is a legend. (Brian)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this updating of "The Tempest," but it isn't my favorite. The whole plot line of the prisoners performing Shakespeare seemed to be utterly original, but it somehow just fell flat for me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Confession time: I have had a crush on actor R. H. Thomson since 1974 when he performed in several plays put on by the Manitoba Theatre Centre. He has gone on to do lots of films and TV since then but I'll always remember him in the farce by Peter Shaeffer called Black Comedy. He is terrific actor and Canada should be proud of him. I learned that he narrated Hag-Seed and immediately put a hold on the download at my library. And he is as good an audiobook narrator as he is an actor. Teaming him up with Margaret Atwood's wryly comic writing makes an unbeatable combination.Hag-Seed is another name for Caliban, the monster who inhabits the island Prospero and his daughter Miranda are shipwrecked upon. Felix was a high-flying artistic director in a major theatrical festival (think Stratford) and was about to direct The Tempest when he is unfairly fired in order to put someone else into the directorship. The Tempest is a very special play to Felix; his daughter, dead at the age of three, was named Miranda and he saw mounting the play as a eulogy for her. Licking his wounds he becomes a virtual hermit in a shack until he sees a job posting for someone to teach literature to inmates in a medium-security prison. He gets the job and proceeds to the class of prisoners perform a Shakespearean play each year. He started with Macbeth and Richard III but in his third year he had the class perform The Tempest. The people who were responsible for his firing are now political bigwigs and they are coming to the prison to see the performance. Felix sees his opportunity for revenge as life copies the play. His cast has to help with the plot but they are all for it and it comes off brilliantly.If you don't know the play you might want to read it or watch a film adaptation before reading the book. Atwood, like Shakespeare before her, has lots of subtleties worked into the book and the reading experience will be all that richer if you can understand them. This is Atwood at her comic best. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book, as I've come to expect from Margaret Atwood, is very good. It is good enough that I was not able to get the full effect of the book. I ended up reading this book while keeping myself at a remove, like looking at something from the corner of your eye, whereas I normally prefer an immersive emotional experience. But since Atwood writes about things at the heart of life, instead of external fripperies, this means that an immersive emotional experience is by necessity an intense thing to undertake with an Atwood book. And as a first-time mother to a six-month-old daughter, if I had allowed myself to engage fully with the story of a man who lost his three-year-old daughter to meningitis, I would have probably lost myself.I imagine I will return to this book someday, and be better able to appreciate it. For now, I'm appreciating it from a distance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood's retelling of The Tempest, part of the Hogarth's series of modern takes on Shakespeare plays. As with Atwood's other work, the writing here is clean and smooth, the characters are well written, and there is no shortage of sly humor.The plot follows disgraced theater director Felix Phillips, who 12 years ago was ousted from his job to make way for his assistant's budding political career. After this blacklisting, Felix moves to a shack in the woods and takes a job running an educational program at a local prison: teaching inmates tech and theater skills by staging Shakespeare plays. When he finds out the politicians who wronged him will be touring the prison and threatening to cut the educational program, Felix decides to use the play to take revenge.The climactic revenge is a little undercooked, but only because it follows Shakespeare's original plot beats so closely. The fun part is watching Felix and his inmate players analyze and remake The Tempest to suit themselves, complete with rap rhymes, creative costuming, and some modern critical sympathy for Caliban and Ariel. Familiarity with The Tempest might make the book more enjoyable, but also makes it obvious exactly how the climax will play out (and there's a summary of the original included at the back of the book, for readers who need a crash course or refresher).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Atwood's sly sense of humor really shines through in Hag-Seed, resulting in a compelling book about topics (Shakespeare festivals--nominally, The Tempest) that would normally leave me cold. (I'm not sure Atwood would care for the comparison, but she reminds me of Updike in this way; I enjoyed the Rabbit books, even though the character was somewhat loathesome.) When I was in college, and reading through Atwood's earlier work (pre-Handmaid's Tale) in one long binge, I found her very serious and, really, hideously depressing. (Although that never kept me from continuing to read her books.) That was over 20 years ago, so I only have the memory of my analysis from the time to go on--maybe I would feel differently if I read them now. I think that she's still just as political, but less didactic, and a better read for it. This is the second Hogarth Shakespeare edition I've read, and I do like what they've done with the bard.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A delightful re-telling of Shakespeare's The Tempest by one of the great storytellers. Ms. Atwood's Prospero is the director of theater festival who is thrown out by Tony. Prospero plots his revenge from exile during a prison play of The Tempest.It's far from her dystopian tale in The Handmaid's Tale that is getting so much attention these days, but this is a more enjoyable book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this! It is the re-telling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" by Margaret Atwood for the Hogarth Shakespeare project.It is the story of Felix, the director for a local theater, who puts on wonderful plays for the yearly Shakespeare festival, that plays an important role in the community. Until Tony, one of his assistants, becomes too ambitious and has Felix fired, and Tony becomes the new director.So, Felix mopes around for awhile until he is offered a job as instructor of the "Literacy through Literature" program at a local prison.He begins by having the inmates put on Shakespeare plays, and the program becomes very popular. It is considered a privilege to be accepted into his class and perform in one of these plays. During this time Felix is trying to figure out how to get revenge on Tony & others who were behind his firing, all of whom have gone on to become government officials.As "The Tempest" was to be Felix's grandest production and pet project right before he was ousted from his previous job, he puts on this play, with the help of the inmates, as a way to get his revenge on these official (his arch enemies!) since they are coming to view the play at the prison.They do put on the play, but Felix's whole life is also based on "The Tempest" story, so there are kind of two "Tempest" stories going on at the same time. Also, the aura of Felix's daughter "Miranda," who died at the age of three, hovers within Felix's sphere of consciousness. She is a very important part of his life, even though she is not there (or is she?).It helped me a lot to have just read "The Tempest," and "Hag-Seed" helped me to understand the play better. It was very enjoyable, fun to see Felix get his revenge, and a really easy read. I didn't want to stop reading!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm a big fan of Margaret Atwood, so I was thrilled to receive this book. It reads as though it was extremely fun for her to write, to delve into The Tempest in such a deep way. The buildup to Felix's move out to prison theater director is less interesting than the play itself, but once you get into the prison acting troupe's cast of characters -- complemented by Felix's own obsessions -- the novel really carries you through a delightful and occasionally very meaningful journey. I had never read The Tempest before reading this novel, and while I imagine reading it would add to the experience, it isn't required to get a lot out of Atwood's version.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am not a Shakespeare aficionado, but in spite of that, I found this story to be amazing. The concept of reinventing classic Shakespeare plays in new and modern settings is extraordinarily done with the concept of a play within a play, and in a prison no less. There was a touch of fantasy in the story that seemed a bit odd at first, but by the end of the story I was swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. Bravo! This one comes highly recommended.Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    *I received a copy of this book though LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*I feel bad for judging this book so harshly, but I've read such great stuff from Margaret Atwood that this book just didn't measure up to. Still, it is a good book with characters acting both unexpectedly and unexpected for a Shakespearean retelling. The Tempest is one of the few Shakespeare plays I've seen in person, and I enjoyed this retelling as it was true to the play itself.