Maggie O'Farrell: Hamnet
This was a wonderful book. The prose is poetic, vivid and jewelled without one ever feeling that it is style taking over substance.
One of the (many) powerful elements in the book is the extent to which death was such a natural and expected part of life at that time and O’Farrell is wonderful at suggesting the fear that any sign of illness could bring, particularly if it was anything associated with the Plague.
In the first part, the intelligence, sensitivity and awareness of young Hamnet, very much his father’ son, was very finely conveyed and while it was not in any way made explicit, on reflection and re-reading, one could see the elements of Hamlet, in an early and somewhat unformed way, in the boy. Shakespeare himself, actually somewhat in the background, was also wonderfully shown as very much an outsider but the greatest triumph of the book is the picture of Agnes (more commonly known as Anne) his wife. Her powers and ability to be aware fully of what and who everyone was and to be connected with them in some inexplicable way was marvellously conveyed - and of course the link to Shakespeare and what he revealed he knew about human nature and relationships provided a marvellous parallel. The picture of their marraige was wonderfully done and utterly convincing - for me at least.
Allsuions to the play were relatively infrequent and always subtle - and so much the more effective for that. It would have been too easy for the whole story to have heavy-handedly referenced the play all the time. And I loved the allusion to the ‘second-best bed’ towards the end.
I found it very effective to have the second part of the book (after Hamnet’s death). Not breaking it up structurally, in the way Part 1 was, strongly helped convey the incessant pain that Agnes felt from his death - and the depiction of depression in the light of death was superbly done and was, I suspect, a very true portrayal. A psychologist’s view ould be interesting on this.
The climax of the book was searingly impressive and one of gthe most sustainedly powerful pieces of writing I have read for a VERY long time. Its tricky to say much but let’s be content in that Agnes finally realises that Hamnet’s death had as powerful, an effect if not more so, on William as on her. A an absentee husband, she agonised over this until she went to the theatre…and Ive probabaly said too much now.
So, absolutely stunning. But, Shakespeare scholars, is it REALLY true, as the author says in her note at the end, that Shakespeare nowhere in all his work mentions the Black Death…?
