I actually really enjoyed this retelling of The Tempest*, particularly since I had just re-read the play as a refresher, so it was a lot easier to catch all the references and parallels. This is actually only my third Margaret Atwood book, which feels weird, since she is everywhere, and also because I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale three times. About time I branched out! (I’m sorry, Malin, I still haven’t read The Blind Assassin, which is a book I know you love.)
*Thanks to andtheIToldYouSos yet again for a good recommendation! She is two for two so far in my 2020 Book Exchange gifts. (I still have to get to Midnight Riot. I’ll probably start that after I finish Kate Daniels.)
Atwood both playfulness and pathos to this retelling. The writing is very familiar, yet still retaining beauty. Atwood can get a bit too poetic for me at times, so this was the perfect blend for me. She cleverly sets this retelling in a world where The Tempest also exists, and our Prospero is a theater director, fresh off being fired due to a colleague’s betrayal, and the death of his wife and young daughter. The daughter thing really threw me, because why does she need to be dead? Miranda is alive in the play! But I think it makes enough sense in the end , in the way it ties in to our Ariel counterpart, and how Miranda’s part of the story is given to another character who is in fact alive, that I’m willing to overlook it.
Unfortunately, this book did suffer for me not really being in the mood for it, and being sandwiched in between books (and fanfic) that was consuming my mind utterly. I think I need to revisit this one in a couple of years when I am more in the mood for it, and I think I will like it even more.
[3.5 stars, rounded up]