Play Book Tag discussion

A modern retelling of Hamlet. Hamlet is a fetus. You can probably guess what happens... It's a creative idea. Hamlet is kind of an ass. Extraordinarily smart--educated by podcasts. Which makes me wonder how his mother is so dumb since she must also listen to the same podcasts. Don't even bother reading this on paper, you will need the kindle dictionary. McEwan used words I couldn't even guess the meaning of. There are definitely clever parts where he subtlety alludes to Hamlet and other literature but it came off as pretentious to me.

The story never really came together for me. I often felt the author had some political/social statements he wanted to make and forced them in.

That said, there are some truly brilliant insights. "We’ll always be troubled by how things are—that’s how it stands with the difficult gift of consciousness." And then there are some similes that made my eyes roll they were so...lame..."What’s said hangs in the air, like a Beijing smog." gag.

It's my understanding that this was originally going to be apart of the Hogarth series (http://hogarthshakespeare.com/) of retellings, but then McEwan backed out and published on his own. Now Gillian Flynn will be handling Hamlet for Hogarth. I will also be interested in reading that.

McEwan is a British author, which is why this is "foreign" for me.

It is really hard, IMHO, to find retelling of classics that are well done.

Regina wrote: "It is really hard, IMHO, to find retelling of classics that are well done."

I totally agree. I did enjoy Margret Atwood's Hag-Seed though.

I looked at this at the library today. The concept sounded interesting, but McEwan is a bit hit or miss for me. I think I may skip this one.

It was a 3 star book for me. I enjoyed it at times and found parts of it quite intriguing but, when all is said and done, it shook out as average.

It's saving grace was that it was short.

This book got quite a bit of hype, but the premise just sounds like so unusual that I'm not sure I'd get into it . . .I'm more of a realistic fiction kind of person. Your two star review is not urging me to pick it up anytime soon.

Anita wrote: "This book got quite a bit of hype, but the premise just sounds like so unusual that I'm not sure I'd get into it . . .I'm more of a realistic fiction kind of person. Your two star review is not urg..."

My sense is that you would not like it Anita. It's definitely not realistic.

Jennifer P. wrote: "Anita wrote: "This book got quite a bit of hype, but the premise just sounds like so unusual that I'm not sure I'd get into it . . .I'm more of a realistic fiction kind of person. Your two star rev..."

Just took it off the TBR - - a rare event, removing a book instead of adding one! Feels good.

Anita wrote: "Jennifer P. wrote: "Anita wrote: "This book got quite a bit of hype, but the premise just sounds like so unusual that I'm not sure I'd get into it . . .I'm more of a realistic fiction kind of perso..."

Congratulations! Too many fish in the sea.

So far I have not found any of the Hogarth series reviews to be anything but so so. I so wanted this to be good. It's such a good idea.

Kristel wrote: "So far I have not found any of the Hogarth series reviews to be anything but so so. I so wanted this to be good. It's such a good idea."

Have you read Hag-Seed? I thought that was pretty good. This one actually isn't Hogarth, I believe it was originally but then McEwan pulled out.

I liked Winterson's book: A Gap of Time but not sure I'd recommend it to you Kristel.

Gillian Flynn is the official Hogarth Hamlet writer. I'm very curious what she will do with it.

I really want to read the series but not sure when, even Winterson's.