THIS BOOK!
I would really like to be in a book club discussion of Maggie O’Farrell’s “HAMNET”. But–no offense–with teachers and scholars and pretty serious fans of Shakespeare. Because I want to get really geeked out about the specific choices O’Farrell made about Shakespeare’s life and family.
First off, let me confess, I think she not only came up with a beautiful backstory, I feel like she was somehow divinely inspired and actually received through a wormhole in the universe the TRUE STORY OF SHAKESPEARE!!! Yes! Sorry, I know, I sound MAD but I don’t think I am. I think somehow, finally, magically, we know the truth.
O’Farrell’s depiction of the unnamed (such a crafty choice!) William Shakespeare, his wife, and the extended family on both sides, rings SO MUCH MORE true than anything I’ve read or seen depicting the possible life of Shakespeare. And I’m a HUGE fan of Shakespeare fan fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed “Shakespeare in Love” and appreciated the way in which Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard blended what we know of Elizabethan England, the scant biographical details we have of the lives of Shakespeare and his extended family, and the plays themselves, to come up with an engrossing, fun, and fully believable story.
But I believe “HAMNET” more! O’Farrell’s Shakespeare is so much more in line with the man who had the humanity and depth to write the works he did. O’Farrell’s Agnes (Anne Hathaway) is so much more believable as a supernatural force of strength and empowerment to her husband than is the resigned-eyeroll-to-a-youthful-discretion treatment Shakespeare’s wife in Strafford-upon-Avon gets in “Shakespeare in Love” (a movie I still adore and appreciate, and will keep showing clips of in my Shakespeare Classes, by the way!). Figuring her pregnancy as an intentional plan to help them both escape abusive households rings true.
I want to go on and on but don’t want to be a spoiler.
If you’ve read “HAMNET”, or think you’d like to, then you will probably enjoy listening to the wonderful interview on “Shakespeare Unlimited” the Folger Shakespeare Library’s fabulous podcast. Check it out!
https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/maggie-ofarrell-hamnet
And please reach out if you’ve read it and want to talk about it! Just don’t try to convince me that it’s not real!
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