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A review by scytmo
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
3.0
Hag-Seed is a retelling of The Tempest, as part of the Random House “Hogarth Shakespeare” series. Although I knew it was a retelling of The Tempest when I bought it, I’m not familiar with The Tempest, and I had hoped that it would stand up as a novel in its own right. I had high hopes from an author of the calibre of Margaret Atwood.
The quality of the writing and the characterisation are excellent. The main character, Felix, has complexity and depth in the portrayal of his emotions around the production of the play, and for his daughter. The supporting women - Anne-Marie and Estelle - also feel alive and distinct, and I enjoyed all of their interactions. The supporting cast of in-mates was solid, but lacked a little variation - possibly due to the need to include so many characters due to the source material.
However, I found the plot a little slow moving and uninspired (which is ironic, given the inspiration). A lot of time is taken in the middle of the book around the development of the play which seems somewhat repetitive and slow moving, and the resolution of the main plot seems hurried, with the ultimate outcome slightly difficult to believe.
I suspect that my dissatisfaction with the plot was due to the author’s desire to echo elements of The Tempest in the plot (although I’m not sure about this, due to my unfamiliarity with The Tempest). And while this may have drawn knowing appreciation from those familiar with the source material, any in-jokes and clever parallels were lost on me.
So overall, engaging and interesting characters, but a disappointing plot.
The quality of the writing and the characterisation are excellent. The main character, Felix, has complexity and depth in the portrayal of his emotions around the production of the play, and for his daughter. The supporting women - Anne-Marie and Estelle - also feel alive and distinct, and I enjoyed all of their interactions. The supporting cast of in-mates was solid, but lacked a little variation - possibly due to the need to include so many characters due to the source material.
However, I found the plot a little slow moving and uninspired (which is ironic, given the inspiration). A lot of time is taken in the middle of the book around the development of the play which seems somewhat repetitive and slow moving, and the resolution of the main plot seems hurried, with the ultimate outcome slightly difficult to believe.
I suspect that my dissatisfaction with the plot was due to the author’s desire to echo elements of The Tempest in the plot (although I’m not sure about this, due to my unfamiliarity with The Tempest). And while this may have drawn knowing appreciation from those familiar with the source material, any in-jokes and clever parallels were lost on me.
So overall, engaging and interesting characters, but a disappointing plot.