Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“The rest of his life. How long that time had once felt to him. How quickly it has sped by. How much of it has been wasted. How soon it will be over.”- Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood

When Felix is deposed as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival by his devious assistant and longtime enemy, his production of The Tempest is canceled and he is heartbroken. Reduced to a life of exile in rural southern Ontario—accompanied only by his fantasy daughter, Miranda, who died twelve years ago—Felix devises a plan for retribution.

Eventually he takes a job teaching Literacy Through Theatre to the prisoners at the nearby Burgess Correctional Institution, and is making a modest success of it when an auspicious star places his enemies within his reach. With the help of their own interpretations, digital effects, and the talents of a professional actress and choreographer, the Burgess Correctional Players prepare to video their Tempest. Not surprisingly, they view Caliban as the character with whom they have the most in common. However, Felix has another twist in mind, and his enemies are about to find themselves taking part in an interactive and illusion-ridden version of The Tempest that will change their lives forever. But how will Felix deal with his invisible Miranda’s decision to take a part in the play?

Prior to this book, I've never read anything by Margaret Atwood. Actually, that's not entirely true; I do really like her poem They Eat Out- there's a musical quality about it that I enjoy, even if the message behind it is fairly obvious if you've ever heard of her. But I've never read The Handmaid's Tale, nor any other novel by her simply because feminist lit just isn't my thing, and that particular book has always struck me as, well, reactionary isn't the right word but kind of like Atwood decided the best way to destroy an ant hill was to break out the blowtorch and gasoline. But I digress. 

I decided to read Hag-Seed though because I always wanted to read something by her, if for no other reason than she's a famous modern day literary icon whose name is known by basically anyone involved in literature. Even though it was both a retelling and Shakespeare, two things I am not as crazy about as a lot of people are. While I have no excuses nor regrets about not really liking retellings, Shakespeare is a point of shame with me and I do fully intend on reading Shakespeare voluntarily someday, but that day just hasn't come yet. Still, this was the least likely of her books to be filled with tired ideology, so I was willing to give it a go, and decided to keep an open mind and not go in with any expectations about her writing or the story.

One thing I noticed is that Atwood lacks subtlety. The connections between The Tempest and Felix's life were always fairly obvious, even without her explicitly pointing that out to us several times, and even to someone like me, who has just enough knowledge of the play itself to be able to understand references to it and make them myself, thank you TS Eliot. And even if you know nothing about the play, don't worry, this book basically tells you everything you need to know about it.

It's almost like Atwood just wanted to write about The Tempest, and then she remembered that she had to make it a retelling. Because a lot of this book is Felix teaching the inmates and putting the production on and not a lot is retelling. Which I liked, but it made the retelling parts feel like afterthoughts, and I had a hard time getting into the actual climax with Felix's revenge plot and Freddie and Sal and Tony and Anne-Marie because it was transparently obvious it was only in there to fill some requirement. 

In some places this novel reads more like a No Fear Shakespeare or a teaching guide for The Tempest. Seriously, she lays everything out for you, from the plot to the characters to the theme to everything. And if you missed all that, the story is rehashed in the back. I liked those parts, don't get me wrong, mostly because I am a bibliophile and like to read and talk and analyze books, but at the same time there's, again, very little subtlety. 

I also was reminded a lot of movies like Dead Poets Society or Stand and Deliver or whatever that movie was about that LA teacher who inspired her students to leave gangs and write. This isn't necessarily good or bad, just an observation.

So what did I like? While Atwood isn't as skillful a writer as I thought she would be- which genuinely surprised me- her descriptions were very well done, and I liked the absurdist elements in her characters. They seemed to live in their own weird world and it was nice way of adding whimsy to the novel without it smacking you in the face. The best parts of the book, though, were the parts with Felix and his daughter. Wonderfully, tragically done. 

I mean, I'm sure if you're a diehard Atwood or Shakespeare fan you'll love Hag-Seed. As it is, I'm happy I read it; even though it underwhelmed me, I was sufficiently entertained. It's not what I would consider perfect literature, or even good literature, but it's an okay read.

6.5 out of 10