William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold - A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare)

Margaret Atwood's story woven around Shakespeare's The Tempest, is a unique, entertaining tale. It is the story of a play, within a story, within a play, within a story. It is an enjoyable read, and great choice for the Hogarth Shakespeare series.

This is an intricate tapestry of play and present, acted out by a cast of characters that come to live, on and off the stage. Magical and thought-provoking, it made me see The Tempest in new and glittering focus.

Margaret Atwood is perhaps the best choice to participate in the Hogarth Shakespeare challenge for famous authors to re-create a play by the great bard, because she is also a poet. Her prose is so lyrical and perfectly suited to the task. In "Hag-Seed", Atwood succeeds beautifully in homage to "The Tempest", perhaps Shakespeare's most "musical" work. In it, her protagonist Felix (Prospero), plots ingenious revenge on his usurpers via a performance of "The Tempest" in a prison.

Atwood is a celebrated literary talent because she has a magnificent imagination and a luscious way with words. For example, describing the prison's smell: "Unfresh paint, faint mildew, unloved food eaten in boredom, and the smell of dejection, the shoulders slumping down, the head bowed, the body caving in upon itself. A meager smell. Onion farts. Cold naked feet, damp towels, motherless years. The smell of misery, lying over everyone within like an enchantment."

"Unloved food", "Motherless years"! The trouble with reading an Atwood novel is that the reader is so often treated to her genius that one must pause to read passages over and over in wondering admiration. How does she keep doing this? Her oeuvre is huge! (Nobel Prize anyone? Seriously!)

A working knowledge of "The Tempest" is a plus, but not essentially required to enjoy this wonderful re-imagining. Particularly delightful were features such as Felix' admonishment that his prisoner-actors only curse or swear with words from the text...so no "F-bombs" but plenty of "pox". Also Atwood deals hilariously with the fact that prisoners would not want to portray a fairy (Ariel). But perhaps my favorite Atwood twist is that she has Felix require the actors to imagine their character's fate after the play is finished. I adored their imagined endings, even though some of them were quite horrific.

I highly recommend "Hag-Seed" - an amazing tour de force!

I think Margaret Atwood can be brilliant. I adore the MaddAdam series and I love THE PENELOPIAD. I was expecting something like THE PENELOPIAD when I selected this book -- but it's entirely unlike that book.

Instead Atwood takes THE TEMPEST in a different direction. An interesting take, for sure. And yet I can't find it in me to give this book more than three stars.

Here are my thoughts. THE TEMPEST is, at first, just a tool that the main character uses. It's not until the last part of the book Shakespeare's story comes alive. This book is entirely worth reading JUST FOR THIS LAST SECTION. It is brilliant. I'm going to go back and reread it so I can be blown away again.

**(Special note: there's a summary of the action of Shakespeare's play at the back of the book. If you haven't just read it, or you want to know what the author thinks happened in the original, or you otherwise just want to refresh your memory, read this before beginning the book.)

So why only 3-STARs? Essentially the rest of the book lacks the drive it should have. The main character isn't interesting to me. I couldn't identify with his plight. And to tell you the truth I had the same problem with the last Atwood book I read, which was THE HEART GOES LAST --the Positron series. I just didn't care one wit about any of these characters. And unlike HAG-SEED, the Heart Goes Last had no redeeming ending.

tl/dr - If you liked the Positron series you'll probably love this book. I adored the ending and the various 'takes' on THE TEMPEST. The rest of the book failed to connect with me emotionally.

I got my first opportunity to act in Shakespeare when I was 71. I played Prospero in The Tempest. Needless to say, I loved every minute of it. It turned out to be one of the easiest plays I had acted in to sink into character, so well composed was it. It was easier than I had anticipated to believe in the world it evoked, no matter how exotic it appeared at first glance.

Shakespeare’s autumnal comedy shows no sign of any diminishing of the bard’s talents. It’s a mix of everything. It’s a revenge play but equally a romance. The most ravishingly beautiful poetry is presented side by side with low farce and the play includes some of Shakespeare’s most memorable roles. There’s something in The Tempest for everyone –just abandon yourself to its magic. And if you’re an actor, it’s an impossible play to resist.

Now poet-novelist-critic Margaret Atwood, author of forty some books and winner of multiple prizes, including the Man Booker Award, has undertaken to retell the story, not ‘modernizing’ it in any trendy way (Shakespeare’s best plays don’t need to be ‘made’ relevant –they already are) but making it her own work, taking advantage of its playfulness. This time, Prospero is Felix, formerly the artistic director of the prestigious Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His Antonio is Tony Price, Felix’s former right-hand man, who committed treason against his boss and brought him down utterly. No more Felix as artistic director --Tony’s that now. And no chance to redeem himself because Tony has allied with a government minister, Sal O’Nally, and together it’s in their best interest to block Felix from getting a start again elsewhere –after all, Felix mustn’t get the chance to outshine Tony! “Devious, twisted … evil-hearted, social-clambering, Machiavellian foot-licker” –these are Atwood’s for bootlicker Tony. They don’t match Shakespeare’s curse words but they’ll do. Twelve years after his fall, Felix gets his chance for revenge. The wheres and why fors of what happens are complicated: Felix had slunk away, had lived as a hermit for a while, but then came back to teach one course a year in theater to the convicts of a high security prison. (He teaches under an assumed name.) The course is a hit. Convicts line up to get in. In past years, they’ve put on Richard III and MacBeth and Julius Caesar. But Tony and Sal are coming to the prison to watch their next play so it’s time for The Tempest, the play Felix was mounting when Tony stabbed him in the back. Felix will play Prospero. He brings back Anne-Marie, the actress he’d picked years ago to play Miranda. For the rest, the cast will be all cons, with names like 8Handz, Bent Pencil, Red Coyote, SnakeEye, Leggs and Wonder Boy. And what role will the conniving Tony and Sal play in all this? Not the role they thought they would.

There are twists and turns all along the way, kind of like a complicated caper movie or television show. The characters are well fleshed and definitely their own selves. And the language? Great! It doesn’t echo Shakespeare, except when the actors literally read Shakespeare’s lines. Often, the cons make adjustments to plot and verse. They transpose passages into rap and action into street dance. (It works, I can’t complain.) They jazz up the most boring spot in the original play (Prospero’s exposition of how he wound up on the island) and update the least probable and most awkward-feeling scene (where the three goddesses dance and speak –this time it’s a puppet show, presented Japanese style, and the puppets are Disney dolls). The cons didn’t like Ariel as a girl, so she’s a boy –but hey, the original Ariel was neither, rather an elemental, neither male nor female, so this too works. If you like theater, one of the plusses of Atwood’s retelling will be following the scenes where Felix half-teaches, half-directs his cast. He has creative ideas about how to ease along an enthusiastic but untutored cast of social rejects. The class’s last exercise for them is a post mortem. They’ve been organized into teams, and each team–from Team Ariel to Team Caliban (aka Hag-Seed)— lays out what the team thinks the post-play history of its character would be.

Hag-Seed is continuous pleasure, as any retelling of a story this wondrous should be.

When we were in London last year, as I was meandering around the airport when I saw a new-to-me book by Jeanette Winterson: The Gap of Time. When I came home, I had to wait because the American edition was slower to reach here. When I finally read it, I devoured it. I was fascinated by Winterson’s reinterpretation of The Winter’s Tale. Then I had a chance to read Shylock is My Name, Howard Jacobson’s retelling of A Merchant in Venice. Both retellings were immediately compelling reads, fascinating in how they modernize the stories, and was especially intrigued by Jacobson’s ability to make Shylock a sympathetic character, something which is too often not attempted.

So naturally I wanted to read Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, an author whose writing always compelled me to read just-on-more-chapter before bed. I had devoured, and highly recommended, Atwood so many times, I just knew this novel would blow me away. Which is why I was surprised to find myself struggling to care for Felix Phillips, the protagonist of Atwood’s retelling of The Tempest. I often went a day or two without even opening the book, not really caring about Felix’s self-exile after he is forcefully removed from his position as director of a festival where he often leads productions about Shakespeare. The fact that Felix, who has lost his only child, is preparing a production that will, in some way, heal the wounds of loss he’s suffering adds some pathos but I didn’t care.

The novel is structured in five parts, much as a Shakespearean play is divided into five acts. For me, the novel didn’t take root until Felix finds himself working in a prison, training the prisoners in theater production, from acting to video editing. It is possible that part of the reason this is where I became more engaged with the novel is that I expected the author, who is known for her nearly prescient nightmare visions of futures that seem far to real and realized, would address the understandable concerns regarding privatization of prisons, prisoner recidivism, and such within the overarching focus of revenge and redemption.

In other words, I wanted to love this novel and had expectations for it based on a familiarity with Atwood’s illimitable talent and yet, even when I felt more involved with the story, I never truly cared for anyone. I didn’t care about Felix or his need for revenge. I didn’t care about the prisoners or their production. I just didn’t care. And one thing I can say with confidence is that, even when Shakespeare told a story that didn’t immediately engage me, at least I cared about the characters. So this novel, although well written and masterfully crafted, left me disappointed.

Some years ago, there was a television series from Canada called Slings and Arrows. It was set mostly in the theater where a Shakespeare festival was located, and involved (over several seasons) both satirical and sometimes almost gothic portrayals of the behind-the-scenes conflicts, petty backstage politics, and interactions among administrators of the festival, actors, directors, and others, some comical, some sharply satirical, occasionally moving and even tragic. I mention this memorable television series because for the first fifty or so pages of Margaret Atwood's new "adaptation" of Shakespeare's The Tempest, called Hagseed, I was constantly reminded of it and began wondering if Atwood had somehow decided to write a proposal for a new season of the show.

Because I am a longtime fan of Margaret Atwood's novels, having read Surfacing when it first came out and every subsequent novel (even including her odd non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, and several of her children's books), I was feeling some concern as I read the beginning of Hagseed. This seemed like a clever enough idea of how to do an adaptation of The Tempest, but as the unraveling of the life and career or Felix Phillips, the actor, director, and artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival was revealed--complete with an ambitious and ruthless young "assistant," Tony, who behaved precisely as did the young woman assistant in All About Eve (and maybe we should assume, as Prospero's younger brother Antonio behaved around his court), I began to wonder whether I was reading evidence of a failure of imagination on Atwood's part. Felix, whose only child and subsequently his wife, had died, leaving him with mostly painful memories of a happy marriage,is deposed from his directorship, with his production of The Tempest cancelled, and withdraws into a kind of self-imposed exile following Tony's successful takeover of the festival, and "finds" that his daughter, Miranda, already dead for several years, has become his imaginary companion in the hovel he has chosen for his hermitage.

It is only when Felix applies to take over a "literacy project" in a nearby prison, disguising himself as "Mr. Duke," (though the woman who hires him knows perfectly well who he really is, or was), and proceeds to develop a small theatrical company composed entirely of inmates of the prison who sign up for his course, producing one play each year, which is videotaped and broadcast, when complete, to the rest of the inmates of the prison, that the brilliance of Atwood's conception begins to emerge.. Although Atwood never mentions the well-known prison drama projects such as the one portrayed in the excellent documentary, Shakespeare Behind Bars, the successful productions Felix/Mr. Duke mounts in the prison follow similar paths, culminating in this narrative with a production of The Tempest, with Felix playing Prospero and an actress from his former festival company playing Miranda. And in this narrative, we realize that though Felix is a creative and sometimes innovative director, it is his interaction with the inmates--the actors--who create the challenges and new insights that make the production exciting and revelatory.

There is more, and that is fortunate. Some of the "more" is strangely awkward and does not contribute to the success of the novel, but the very successful "more" comes in the form of the characterizations of the inmates/actors and their interaction with Felix and, much more importantly, with Shakespeare and The Tempest. Atwood's brilliance (on several levels) flashes forward in the second half of this novel and especially in the final sequences involving the actors and their understanding of the play they have performed. The energy, insights, and comedy, both satirical and buffoonish, that come from the inmates' interpretations and understanding of the play are more than enough reward for the occasional clumsiness and even the uncomfortable familiarity of the opening sequences and the rather laborious exposition of Felix's situation in the world.

I fully expected when I started reading to have a slam-dunk five star novel to review--that is what I expect of Margaret Atwood (even though I disliked the Oryx and Crake trilogy--I still thought it was brilliant)--but my first reactions were negative and I actually took the trouble to re-read the first 100 pages after finishing the novel to see if I had been wrong. Not so. This is not up to Atwood's best work by a long way, but she so fully redeems it in the final two-thirds that I found myself responding with both elation and very deep sadness at the end--not so much because of Felix's "success," but because of the power of Atwood's insights into The Tempest, as filtered through the wonderful range of characters she creates for us in presenting not only the cast and crew of the production, but the wonderful re-written passages used by the actors to present and interpret their understanding of the play. The Tempest is, like most of Shakespeare's plays, open to a range of interpretations, and Atwood exploits that richness to rescue her novel and make it a thing of fascination, even with its flaws.

This probably will not be the best of the Hogarth Shakespeare series of novels based on Shakespeare's plays, written by a variety of contemporary writers, but it is well worth reading and especially worth persevering through the opening section to reach the power and beautify of the finale.

In Margaret Atwood's retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Felix has been cheated out of job as artistic director at the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival and starts a theater program at a prison, ultimately hoping to use the program to exact revenge.

While Atwood's writing is as great, her characters interesting, and the idea of this theater program is really amazing, it didn't work for me as a book. Watching these plays and hearing these creative rap songs would be a a captivating experience to be sure--but reading song lyrics and descriptions of staging ideas just didn't hold my attention--and the end of the book turns into pretty much a lesson in creative interpretations of Shakespeare's characters. There was not enough of the characters and their stories to really draw me in. Maybe those who are studying or really into Shakespeare would enjoy this novel, but it wasn't for me.

Having much enjoyed Jacobson's funny, philosophical, and imaginative take on "Merchant of Venice" for the Hogarth series), Atwood's take on "The Tempest" aroused a great deal of interest. Atwood, an able poet, playwright, and critic in addition to being an extraordinary novelist, was an inspired choice for this, one of Shakespeare's most self consciously theatrical creations. To avoid any false suspense, Atwood's riff doesn't disappoint. Instead, she shines.

Taking full advantage of the themes, setting, and substance of the Tempest, Atwood sets much of the action in her story in an actual prison (a prison in her native Canada, but a prison nonetheless). A Shakespearean actor/director abused (even exiled) by the world, takes refuge in the prison where he teaches Shakespeare, producing plays with the inmates. A turn of events delivers those who've wronged our protagonist into his power. The plan he hatches -- no surprise here! -- involves a production of the Tempest.

A lesser writer would have recognized that this conceit could go wrong in any of a dozen ways. Atwood, fortunately, is in no sense "lesser." Instead, she avoids the pitfalls and cliches, creating an engaging story and offering thoughtful criticism of Shakespeare's original without every lapsing into pretension. Atwood uses her full array of gifts to create something evocative and beautiful. Unfortunately, much more detail would hinder a reader's enjoyment of Atwood's inventive narrative. What I can say, is that once again I am reminded why Atwood remains one of the English reading world's great literary lights.

In 2015 at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre I attended a production of THE TEMPEST with magical magic designed by the estimable Teller. It was both fun and properly integrated to enhance not detract from the text, the drama, the production. Also the Caliban created by Zach Eisenstat and Manelich Minniefee of Pilobolus was a monster I will never forget. But unfortunately theatre’s true magic - “acting” - while forcibly present in the secondary characters was sadly absent in the gent playing Prospero. Worse yet the songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan were, as one expected, beneath contempt. Way beneath.

Here the magic comes from Margaret Atwood pulling rabbit after rabbit from her hat. I am new to the Hogarth Shakespeare project. Have no idea what criteria the writers labor under. If any at all. But HAG-SEED (a witch’s offspring, such as Caliban) is Atwood at her most playfully comic. This isn’t high hurdles like ALIAS GRACE but low hurdles that Atwood clears without breaking a sweat.

Felix Phillips, a cutting-edge Artistic Director at a Canadian theatre festival whose chainsaw MACBETH was noteworthy, is deposed and sent packing by a smarmy, ambitious underling. Anyone who has ever been fired will share the revenge fantasies Felix (aka, Mr. Duke) wishes to perpetrate. Eventually he lands a job in a prison producing Shakespeare plays with inmates filling the roles. Atwood’s adroit plot gives Felix the chance to exact revenge on those who betrayed him with a behind-the-bars adaptation of THE TEMPEST. That revenge is so meticulously planned and so triumphantly executed that, truly, it is the stuff that dreams are made on. Only in chapters 40 through 45, when Atwood the novelist gives way to Atwood the academic, does the narrative turn sluggish. Otherwise this is a most amusing read, especially if you love theatre. Or even if you don’t.

Tempus fugit moment after Felix gets the axe:
“Then Felix climbed into his unsatisfactory car and drove out of the parking lot, into the rest of his life. 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.”

Margaret Atwood rewrites Shakespeare’s “The Tempest?” You’ve got me right there. In fact, you had me at “Margaret Atwood.”

The book begins with Felix, king of his little corner of Canadian Theater, getting deposed by his conniving assistant, his plans for a fabulous, avant-garde Tempest thrown on the trash heap. Felix finds himself living as a hermit out in the country for twelve years, slowly going mad, cyber-stalking his enemies, and relying on Miranda, his (dead) daughter for emotional support.

Felix eventually finds himself teaching Shakespeare and theater to convicts at the local prison as part of a Literacy through Literature program. In this environment he manages to return to some semblance of normality and sanity, but when he learns that he may have a chance to get the men who ruined him in his power, all stops are pulled out and a sweeping plan for revenge begins to take shape.

The book is great. The plot itself is “The Tempest,” important guy marooned in the middle of nowhere left with nothing but dreams of revenge (and spirits and monsters), when after many years the objects of his ire traipse unknowingly into his grasp. But at the same time, we’re watching our Prospero (Felix) put on his version of the play, a Tempest within a Tempest. The whorls and machinations of both stories weave in and out of one another like spirits, and we are treated to a great deal of Margaret Atwoods horrifyingly black (I swear this is a compliment) sense of humor. And don’t worry if you’ve never read the Tempest, or (like me) haven’t read it since school, the original story is explained beautifully within the plot, so even those unfamiliar with any of the Bard’s stories won’t find themselves lost.

In other words, this book was a crazy amount of fun. I read it in one sitting (sleep be damned), since putting it down honestly didn’t feel like an option.

A free copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Hag-Seed is currently available for purchase.

Oh, Margaret Atwood, how dost thou do it? You’ve taken one of my most beloved Shakespeare plays – The Tempest – and breatheth new life into it. In doing so, you’ve done the bard proud.

Picture this, if you will: Felix is the risk-taking artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, whose productions have blazed new ground. But a treacherous rival double deals Felix, who soon finds himself living in a prison of his own making, a backwoods hut where he is accompanied by memories of his deceased daughter, Miranda. An opportunity presents itself: teaching a theatre course at the Fletcher Correctional prison . Felix is determined to stage The Tempest, a play he was in the middle of producing before he was unceremoniously dumped at Makeshiwig.

There is so much to commend this book that I don’t even know where to start. First, there are the parallels between Felix and Prospero (his The Tempest role): both are in thrall with daughters named Miranda, and both are castaways, hoping to one day achieve their rightful place. Both are, in ways, in the midst of their own tempest, using their creative powers to reach redemption.

Then there is Margaret Atwood’s intimate knowledge of the play, which presents interpretations that I had not even considered (with a grad degree in English Literature, I have read the play several times and have seen it produced often as well). Each of the inmates will eventually reveal what they believe happens to the character they play after The Tempest ends. The interpretations are beyond fascinating.

Felix’s own production of The Tempest also illuminates what the bard was doing. By viewing characters such as Caliban and Ariel through the prism of prison life, the roles take on whole new meanings….because, as Felix says, The Tempest is loaded up with images of prisons (some real, some imaginary, and some fanciful).

Even those who aren’t remotely familiar with The Tempest will delight in the story of a wronged man who seeks his just revenge. Somewhere, Will must be smiling broadly.

I received a copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quick note---if you haven’t read or seen The Tempest recently, or if you want a quick refresher, or certainly if you haven’t read or seen the play—skip straight to the end and read the synopsis of the Shakespeare play. It isn’t necessary but I wish I had known about it and done it because the last time I read The Tempest was my Sophomore year in college (1982) so to say I was foggy on the plot would be a huge understatement. All I remembered was there was an island in there somewhere. I was about as prepared as Trump for a presidential debate.

This is the second in the Hogarth series that I have read and Ms. Atwood takes the Shakespeare connection quite seriously. Rather than writing a tale that follows, more or less, a play from the Bard and gives it a modern twist---Hag-Seed dives deep into the play itself, creating a multi-layer literary feast.

A play within a play all contained in a novel about both plays. This one is deep. Starting at the center we have a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which has special importance for the director, as you will see. The Tempest is all about prisons (there are 9 in the play—12 if you add the novel) and it is appropriate that the play itself is to be performed in a prison by prisoners. Interesting considering that the players in Shakespeare’s play are also imprisoned, by geography, by politics, by circumstances of their birth, or by prejudice—as are, in different ways, the characters in this novel. Some are of their own choosing and grief can be as confining as iron bars. Moving outward we watch the creation of the production and the imprint each of the various players has on the play and its director. Our learned director has problems of his own—and not just how to smuggle in props into a prison. He is a very damaged man, alone in a self-imposed isolation and shackled by grief, this play has significance beyond merely the theatrical accomplishment. To him putting on this play is about validation, vindication, and even revenge…

Most if not all of the novel’s characters have counter-parts in Shakespeare’s play and the sheer brilliance of Ms. Atwood’s intricate plotting is astounding. I have found myself noticing new levels days after reading as I kept returning to the story in my mind. Of special delight to anyone who is a fan of Shakespeare are the final few chapters, which take the action of the play beyond where Shakespeare left it off as well as insightful discussion by the prisoners (the players) and novel variations on a 400 year old play, which even today finds new interpretations and relevance.

5 stars. Wow…just wow.

This was my first Margaret Atwood book, and I fell in love with it! This was such a creative reimagining of William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tempest”!

The books not exactly a retelling of “The Tempest” as it follows Felix Phillips, a deposed Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival by his assistant. He is essentially exiled, and over the years, he begins to plot his revenge. Nine years into his exile, he begins to work at the nearby correctional facility with the medium-risk prisoners, in the literacy program. Completely disregarding the program that previous educators had used for the inmates, he decides that Shakespeare is the ultimate tool for learning, and proceeds to have them put on plays of Shakespeare, while interpreting the characters. They film it in scenes to be shown to the whole jail, and thus 3 years go by. 12 years after being deposed, he learns that his nemesis is going to be touring the jail with his co-conspirator, and he begins to enact his revenge.

This is ultimately, like the play, a revenge story, where Felix can finally get even with the man who exiled him at a weak point in his life to the boonies. It was unputdownable! I blew through this brilliantly told tale.

This book is part of the Hogarth Shakepeare project, which are retellings of Shakespeare’s plays. I can’t wait to read the ones that have already been released, and look forward to those coming out!

I once saw a production of "Julius Caesar" set in the Kennedy administration era, and I have a feeling that the hero of "Hag Seed," would feel right at home if he, too, saw it. Felix Phillips is the "avant garde" director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, who is eagerly planning to put on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," which he imagines will contain such features as a transvestite Ariel, a paraplegic street person as Caliban, with Felix himself as Prospero in a cape of stuffed animal heads. At least he is planning this, until his colleague, Tony, to whose duplicity he has not been paying attention, manages to oust him and take his place. Under the pseudonym "Mr. Duke," Felix retreats to a crude countryside cottage to lick his wounds and plot revenge on Tony and several other of his newfound foes, with only the ghost of his daughter, Miranda (who died as a three-year-old) for company.

Eventually out of financial need, he takes a job, still under "Mr. Duke," as the literacy teacher for a nearby correctional facility, where he arranges for the inmates in his class to put on a production of "The Tempest," although that means overcoming numerous obstacles, such as who will play Ariel (no one wants the role of a "fairy"). Felix himself takes the role of Prospero, and after bringing in a veteran actress to play Miranda, decides to use the play as a way of enacting revenge on Tony and the rest, who will be there in the audience. Though there are plenty of risks involved (including the fact that Miranda seems to no longer be just a figment of his imagination), especially as one "production" involves much illegal activity, Felix is determined to take his rightful job back, as well as ensure that the theater program does not fall victim to budget cuts.

"Hag Seed," is part of a series of Shakespeare's plays re-written by modern-day authors and published by the former press of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. (Hag Seed is also another name for Caliban.) I'm a fan of Atwood's novels, and I enjoyed this a great deal more than "MaddAdam," the last book I read by her. Like Shakespeare's work, the characters here are colorful and engaging, the dialogue witty, and the overall themes of revenge, redemption and forgiveness well-explored.

I have been anticipating this novel ever since it was announced. The Tempest is my favorite Shakespeare play and Atwood is a genius. I especially loved her re-telling of The Odyssey in The Penelopiad. Although my high expectations were not exactly met--I wouldn't call this a brilliant novel--it was thoroughly entertaining and quite witty.

I haven't read other books in this Hogarth Shakespeare series, but I get the sense that the theme is to modernize Shakespeare in today's setting, but also learn from the wisdom of the original play as well. In Hag-Seed, at least, we get plenty of original Shakespeare infused with modern Shakespeare because it involves incarcerated inmates performing the Tempest.

While the Shakespeare infusion was clever throughout, I did not get the sense that Atwood had pored over the Tempest quite as much as she did The Odyssey for the Penelopiad. It felt a little bit like the old Wishbone episode of the Tempest, where the PBS dog weaves lesson learned from classic literature into the lives of teenagers. Some of the weaving was brilliant, others were less remarkable. If you consider the novel more of an entertainment piece--like Wishbone--and less of a literary commentary, it goes down more enjoyably.

OVERALL: For a quick, entertaining read, I thought Hag-Seed was great. I probably won't put it on my top-shelf of Shakespeare-related literature, but the characters were great and when the revels ended I did feel sad, as if departing from dear friends. Theater fans well know this feeling whenever it is time to strike the set. The jail metaphor for Tempest is fitting and there is plenty to gain from this book, whether you have a PhD in Shakespeare or if you're just a fan. I would recommend being well-versed in The Tempest before picking it up although it isn't required exactly. Definitely willing to try other books in this series.

I’m a big fan of Margaret Atwood’s novels. I haven’t read everything she’s written, but I have a shelf full of her books and have loved all but one (sorry, The Heart Goes Last). I always watch for her new releases, and she’s one of the rare exceptions I’ll make to buy hardcover. When Hag-Seed came out a few years ago, I was all excited and ready to buy, until I looked at the cover blurb and saw that it was a modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a play that I wasn’t familiar with. And so I deferred, waiting to buy until it was released in paperback, and now it’s been on my shelf for over a year because I didn’t want to read it without reading The Tempest first.

In Atwood’s modern re-telling, Prospero’s part is taken by Felix, artistic director at a summer Shakespeare festival who is set to stage his avant-garde take on The Tempest, until he’s usurped by his treacherous assistant, Tony. Felix takes a self-imposed exile, where he despairs and grows mad, thinking he’s been joined by the spirit of his dead daughter, Miranda. He eventually gets a job at a nearby prison to teach literacy, choosing Shakespeare as his vehicle. After a few successful years with the program, he learns his old nemeses are now in high-ranking positions with the national government and plan to visit the prison to observe his program in action. Felix decides to finally stage his Tempest as a way to exact revenge and save the prison’s literacy program.

Atwood introduces several layers of The Tempest in her telling. There are multiple references to the different characters, multiple meanings behind the different plot points. She doesn’t just tell the story in her own way but instead creates a novel-as-study-guide. Felix stages the play, but he also teaches a class, so we get his explanations to his class of the characters, background, and action. And then they stage their own version, often using their own words to make it easier for their audience — the other prisoners — to understand the meaning. It’s all filmed and then edited together into a video presentation show on closed-circuit television to the prisoners, guards, administrators, and their honored guests. But Felix has his own magic and hijinks in mind for the honored guests, who revert to form when they think there’s been a riot and lockdown.

As a standalone novel, it’s preposterous and not exactly canonical Atwood, but as a modern companion to Shakespeare, it’s bloody brilliant. Shakespeare’s stories are often preposterous themselves, and Atwood plays along and then some. We know it will all work out in the end, of course, because this is a comedy, yet the telling is smart and exciting enough to keep us in doubt until the very end. I didn’t think much of the play itself until I read the novel, which made it so much more vivid. Atwood is clever enough to make only some references obvious, forcing us to think for ourselves to get the full benefit. I’m now tempted to read more of this Hogarth Shakespeare series as a way to get back into reading and enjoying Shakespeare. There’s a reason his works are still being told (and re-told), 400 years later. After all: “What’s past is prologue.”

(This review was originally posted as part of Cannonball Read 10: Sticking It to Cancer, One Book at a Time.)

For me, Margaret Atwood is one of those writers who quietly keeps invading the literary world, transforming fiction and storytelling and leaves an indelible imprint on the reader's soul. I don't seek out her works the way I should (and the way I do for a few other writers) which is why she seems so quiet to me. But of course that's really on me and no one else.

I was drawn to this not only because it's an Atwood novel but because of the Shakespeare theme - the description of this as a re-telling or re-imagining of Shakespeare's <em>The Tempest</em>. When not reading and writing my blog, I work for a Shakespeare festival and have an affection for Shakespeare's works. I applaud any opportunity to bring his stories to a new audience.

Atwood is a remarkable and gifted writer and she takes this story and puts her magic touch on it, bringing it to a very modern world.

The story is about Felix - an artistic director at a major theatre who very suddenly is given the ol' heave-ho and replaced by his assistant. Understandably, Felix is upset and wants to make the theatre regret their decision but finding a way to make a bold, theatrical statement is hard to do without a theatre company.

Felix becomes involved with a program called Literacy Through Theatre where he teaches and stages theatre productions at a local correctional facility (prison). His current production? <em>The Tempest</em>.

In a rather unique manner, Atwood retells the story in multiple layers. There is the straight-forward manner of Felix's teaching the story to the inmates, but we also see the parallels of the story to the characters inside Atwood's story. Felix isn't just playing Prospero ... he is a modern Prospero - discarded, lost, looking for revenge. In fact, <em>all</em> the characters are the characters that they are portraying in some way. It's a brilliant bit of writing.

I can't say that I've ever seen <em>The Tempest</em> where I felt so connected to the characters as much as I did with this book, and I feel I've seen some very good productions.

One small touch that I just loved was the idea that Felix presented to his inmate cast - that they could not swear during their rehearsals unless they did so using Shakespeare's words.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and can be enjoyed on so many different levels. It is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? <em>Hag-Seed</em> shows why Margaret Atwood is a true powerhouse as a writer and why Shakespeare's plays are still relevant to us today.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Hag-Seed is a book for fans of The Tempest. I’m sure it can be enjoyed by readers who are unfamiliar with the play, but its great value lies in its exploration of the play’s themes and characters. That exploration will likely resonate more deeply with readers who appreciate the play.

Felix starts Hag-Seed as the artistic director of a summer theater company in Makeshiwig. Felix’s life has been falling apart since his wife left him, leaving him to parent their daughter Miranda, who died from meningitis at age 3. But Felix refuses to believe that Miranda has vanished from the universe. Felix decides to perform a sort of reincarnation by staging The Tempest and making Miranda “the daughter who had not been lost.” This evasion of death will give Felix a chance to glimpse, through his art, the adult daughter he will never know.

Unfortunately for Felix, his artistic concepts (Caliban as a paraplegic) don’t go over well with the Board, although he fears he has been undermined by Tony, to whom he always delegated interaction with the theater’s patrons. Tony, of course, has been maneuvering behind the scenes to replace Felix. After that happens, Felix finds himself teaching Shakespeare in prison, and producing plays with a cast of prisoners.

Eventually, circumstances (and the plot) dictate that Felix will produce The Tempest in prison. The prisoners like Macbeth because of its sword fights. They like Julius Caesar because they understand betrayal. They like Richard III because they can relate to power struggles. But the prisoners (and government officials) have some qualms about The Tempest, which seems a little gay to them. Felix nevertheless convinces them to see Ariel as a space alien, not a fairy (or air-spirit), and the show goes on.

The play is modernized a bit with the addition of rap and some contemporary language so that the prison audience can follow it, but fans of The Tempest should love this book for the pithy analysis of key scenes and characters offered by Felix and the inmates. There’s always a schemer in a Shakespeare play, and so it is in this book about the production of a Shakespeare play. Felix hatches a scheme that might be worthy of the Bard. It might not be credible, but the credibility of a plot never bothered Shakespeare, so why should it concern Margaret Atwood?

The situation in Hag-Seed sets up as a comedy and much of the story is amusing, but it’s impossible to read Shakespeare without learning something, and Felix learns something about himself as the story unfolds. Felix is haunted (or comforted) by the ghost (or memory, or fantasy) of his dead daughter, and the play teaches something about the power of illusion ... and about the need to set illusions free. And of course, the prisoners learn something, because The Tempest is (as the novel reveals) a play about prisons and the different ways of living within them. And, as the last line of The Tempest reveals, the play is about pardons, which must be earned. The modern illustrations of the lessons taught by one of Shakespeare’s best plays make Hag-Seed a fun and informative read.

I’m ashamed that I hadn’t heard about the Hogarth Shakespeare series – a retelling of Shakespeare’s popular works by popular authors – until I stumbled on Margaret Atwood’s contribution, Hag-Seed. Initially I just thought it was a new Atwood book, which is an automatic read for me. But I was even more thrilled to discover that this is part of a series that has been happening for over a year now. I’m going to have to go back and find these other pieces of work. But first, Hag-Seed, the retelling of The Tempest.

I am not all that familiar with The Tempest. I never had to read it in school and didn’t pick it up on my own, so this is really one of my first introductions to it. But this was an interesting way to familiarize myself with the story, I think Atwood has done an incredible job of weaving this vengeful story into a modern theatrical setting. Not to mention it surrounds a production of The Tempest, so I’m learning about the original work while learning about it through an interpretation. Layers upon layers of literature.

I liked that this gave an indepth focus to the play and the inmates rehearsing, but a lot of time was spent, in detail, reciting all of this and I grew a little bored with it after a while. I thought maybe it didn’t have to take up such a large portion of the body, but my lacking Tempest knowledge wonders if maybe that’s all part of it and it represents something bigger. Either way, I interest faded slightly, though it grew back with a vengeance the closer we got to Felix’s vengeance.

I’ve always found Atwood to be an incredibly clever writer. Her ideas and viewpoints and how she approaches certain subjects never seem too out in left field, but they always stop and make the think and reconsider certain things. I really enjoyed reading her reimaging of Shakespeare and allowing her to introduce me to The Tempest. I’d happily go back and read the rest of the Hogarth series, but something tells me I’ve started at the top.

Originally posted on citygirlscapes.com

I like Margaret Atwood, but I don't think she does well when she's using "source" material, in this case "The Tempest" (The Robber Bride fell short for me as well.)

The whole thing was just uncomfortable reading, like I was reading an assignment for a creative writing class full of freshmen. The story is about revenge. Atwood views the time on the island in the Tempest as a prison of sorts, and uses a modern day prison and Shakespeare class to craft the revenge scenario. The prisoners were so unrealistic - their dialog painful. Maybe Canadian prisons are different, but it painfully awkward.

I don't want to spoil the Miranda situation, but that was a really strange choice.

Didn't enjoy it at all. I'll stick with Atwood originals from now on.

“Clever” best describes Margaret Atwood’s contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare project. Clever as in employing Shakespeare’s The Tempest itself as a tool of revenge. Also clever as in reinterpreting the magic and sorcery of Prospero as Felix’s through his use of cunning and modern electronics; as in setting the play and the revenge in a real prison; and, as in a bonus, providing interesting interpretations of the play along the way. And, not so much clever as enlightening, setting forth an intriguing way to teach this or any play.

On this level, that of admiring Atwood’s treatment, many will derive the most enjoyment from her effort. Cleverness, however, doesn’t always make for a captivating novel, particularly one featuring baser human instincts, not even in the hands of a master like Atwood, not even when reinventing Shakespeare.

For many, the most basic problem here will be that Atwood chose to depart entirely from the play, unlike previous contributors, such as Jeanette Winterson’s fine The Gap of Time: A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare), as an example. And then populate her reinterpretation of the theme with characters of far lesser interest. So, unfortunately, Atwood fans approaching the effort with high expectations may find themselves disappointed. Assuage yourself, then, by exploring other titles in the series, or settle back and watch a quite modernization of Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library) in Scotland, PA.

For me, Margaret Atwood is one of those writers who quietly keeps invading the literary world, transforming fiction and storytelling and leaves an indelible imprint on the reader's soul. I don't seek out her works the way I should (and the way I do for a few other writers) which is why she seems so quiet to me. But of course that's really on me and no one else.

I was drawn to this not only because it's an Atwood novel but because of the Shakespeare theme - the description of this as a re-telling or re-imagining of Shakespeare's <em>The Tempest</em>. When not reading and writing my blog, I work for a Shakespeare festival and have an affection for Shakespeare's works. I applaud any opportunity to bring his stories to a new audience.

Atwood is a remarkable and gifted writer and she takes this story and puts her magic touch on it, bringing it to a very modern world.

The story is about Felix - an artistic director at a major theatre who very suddenly is given the ol' heave-ho and replaced by his assistant. Understandably, Felix is upset and wants to make the theatre regret their decision but finding a way to make a bold, theatrical statement is hard to do without a theatre company.

Felix becomes involved with a program called Literacy Through Theatre where he teaches and stages theatre productions at a local correctional facility (prison). His current production? <em>The Tempest</em>.

In a rather unique manner, Atwood retells the story in multiple layers. There is the straight-forward manner of Felix's teaching the story to the inmates, but we also see the parallels of the story to the characters inside Atwood's story. Felix isn't just playing Prospero ... he is a modern Prospero - discarded, lost, looking for revenge. In fact, <em>all</em> the characters are the characters that they are portraying in some way. It's a brilliant bit of writing.

I can't say that I've ever seen <em>The Tempest</em> where I felt so connected to the characters as much as I did with this book, and I feel I've seen some very good productions.

One small touch that I just loved was the idea that Felix presented to his inmate cast - that they could not swear during their rehearsals unless they did so using Shakespeare's words.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and can be enjoyed on so many different levels. It is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? <em>Hag-Seed</em> shows why Margaret Atwood is a true powerhouse as a writer and why Shakespeare's plays are still relevant to us today.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Hag-Seed is a book for fans of The Tempest. I’m sure it can be enjoyed by readers who are unfamiliar with the play, but its great value lies in its exploration of the play’s themes and characters. That exploration will likely resonate more deeply with readers who appreciate the play.

Felix starts Hag-Seed as the artistic director of a summer theater company in Makeshiwig. Felix’s life has been falling apart since his wife left him, leaving him to parent their daughter Miranda, who died from meningitis at age 3. But Felix refuses to believe that Miranda has vanished from the universe. Felix decides to perform a sort of reincarnation by staging The Tempest and making Miranda “the daughter who had not been lost.” This evasion of death will give Felix a chance to glimpse, through his art, the adult daughter he will never know.

Unfortunately for Felix, his artistic concepts (Caliban as a paraplegic) don’t go over well with the Board, although he fears he has been undermined by Tony, to whom he always delegated interaction with the theater’s patrons. Tony, of course, has been maneuvering behind the scenes to replace Felix. After that happens, Felix finds himself teaching Shakespeare in prison, and producing plays with a cast of prisoners.

Eventually, circumstances (and the plot) dictate that Felix will produce The Tempest in prison. The prisoners like Macbeth because of its sword fights. They like Julius Caesar because they understand betrayal. They like Richard III because they can relate to power struggles. But the prisoners (and government officials) have some qualms about The Tempest, which seems a little gay to them. Felix nevertheless convinces them to see Ariel as a space alien, not a fairy (or air-spirit), and the show goes on.

The play is modernized a bit with the addition of rap and some contemporary language so that the prison audience can follow it, but fans of The Tempest should love this book for the pithy analysis of key scenes and characters offered by Felix and the inmates. There’s always a schemer in a Shakespeare play, and so it is in this book about the production of a Shakespeare play. Felix hatches a scheme that might be worthy of the Bard. It might not be credible, but the credibility of a plot never bothered Shakespeare, so why should it concern Margaret Atwood?

The situation in Hag-Seed sets up as a comedy and much of the story is amusing, but it’s impossible to read Shakespeare without learning something, and Felix learns something about himself as the story unfolds. Felix is haunted (or comforted) by the ghost (or memory, or fantasy) of his dead daughter, and the play teaches something about the power of illusion ... and about the need to set illusions free. And of course, the prisoners learn something, because The Tempest is (as the novel reveals) a play about prisons and the different ways of living within them. And, as the last line of The Tempest reveals, the play is about pardons, which must be earned. The modern illustrations of the lessons taught by one of Shakespeare’s best plays make Hag-Seed a fun and informative read.

I’m ashamed that I hadn’t heard about the Hogarth Shakespeare series – a retelling of Shakespeare’s popular works by popular authors – until I stumbled on Margaret Atwood’s contribution, Hag-Seed. Initially I just thought it was a new Atwood book, which is an automatic read for me. But I was even more thrilled to discover that this is part of a series that has been happening for over a year now. I’m going to have to go back and find these other pieces of work. But first, Hag-Seed, the retelling of The Tempest.

I am not all that familiar with The Tempest. I never had to read it in school and didn’t pick it up on my own, so this is really one of my first introductions to it. But this was an interesting way to familiarize myself with the story, I think Atwood has done an incredible job of weaving this vengeful story into a modern theatrical setting. Not to mention it surrounds a production of The Tempest, so I’m learning about the original work while learning about it through an interpretation. Layers upon layers of literature.

I liked that this gave an indepth focus to the play and the inmates rehearsing, but a lot of time was spent, in detail, reciting all of this and I grew a little bored with it after a while. I thought maybe it didn’t have to take up such a large portion of the body, but my lacking Tempest knowledge wonders if maybe that’s all part of it and it represents something bigger. Either way, I interest faded slightly, though it grew back with a vengeance the closer we got to Felix’s vengeance.

I’ve always found Atwood to be an incredibly clever writer. Her ideas and viewpoints and how she approaches certain subjects never seem too out in left field, but they always stop and make the think and reconsider certain things. I really enjoyed reading her reimaging of Shakespeare and allowing her to introduce me to The Tempest. I’d happily go back and read the rest of the Hogarth series, but something tells me I’ve started at the top.

Originally posted on citygirlscapes.com

I like Margaret Atwood, but I don't think she does well when she's using "source" material, in this case "The Tempest" (The Robber Bride fell short for me as well.)

The whole thing was just uncomfortable reading, like I was reading an assignment for a creative writing class full of freshmen. The story is about revenge. Atwood views the time on the island in the Tempest as a prison of sorts, and uses a modern day prison and Shakespeare class to craft the revenge scenario. The prisoners were so unrealistic - their dialog painful. Maybe Canadian prisons are different, but it painfully awkward.

I don't want to spoil the Miranda situation, but that was a really strange choice.

Didn't enjoy it at all. I'll stick with Atwood originals from now on.

“Clever” best describes Margaret Atwood’s contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare project. Clever as in employing Shakespeare’s The Tempest itself as a tool of revenge. Also clever as in reinterpreting the magic and sorcery of Prospero as Felix’s through his use of cunning and modern electronics; as in setting the play and the revenge in a real prison; and, as in a bonus, providing interesting interpretations of the play along the way. And, not so much clever as enlightening, setting forth an intriguing way to teach this or any play.

On this level, that of admiring Atwood’s treatment, many will derive the most enjoyment from her effort. Cleverness, however, doesn’t always make for a captivating novel, particularly one featuring baser human instincts, not even in the hands of a master like Atwood, not even when reinventing Shakespeare.

For many, the most basic problem here will be that Atwood chose to depart entirely from the play, unlike previous contributors, such as Jeanette Winterson’s fine The Gap of Time: A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare), as an example. And then populate her reinterpretation of the theme with characters of far lesser interest. So, unfortunately, Atwood fans approaching the effort with high expectations may find themselves disappointed. Assuage yourself, then, by exploring other titles in the series, or settle back and watch a quite modernization of Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library) in Scotland, PA.

Just about a year ago, Hogarth Shakespeare launched an ambitious new project, commissioning acclaimed contemporary novelists to write prose retellings of Shakespeare’s plays. Beginning with Jeanette Winterson, Howard Jacobson and Anne Tyler, the series now continues with Margaret Atwood, who offers her contemporary take on “The Tempest” with HAG-SEED.

Atwood opens her novel at a prestigious Canadian Shakespeare festival, similar, one imagines, to the real-life Stratford Festival. In recent years, the artistic director, Felix, has thrown himself entirely into his art, hoping to submerge his grief over the sudden deaths of his beloved wife and young daughter, Miranda. But his dedication to his art may be at his own peril. While he turned his attention away from administrative matters, the festival’s executive director has been plotting how to get rid of Felix, claiming that he has been losing his edge. He’s summarily fired, just as he was beginning rehearsals for a new, cutting-edge production of “The Tempest.”

Adrift and alone (except for Miranda’s spirit, which accompanies and at times prompts him), Felix finds himself as a tenant in a remote cabin, eventually taking a part-time position teaching literacy through Shakespeare at the nearby correctional facility. He operates under an assumed name (“Mr. Duke”) so that he won’t be recognized. But when it turns out that two federal government officials responsible for renewing the program’s funding will be coming to see the inmates’ new production of “The Tempest,” and that those officials are the self-same gentlemen responsible for Felix’s fall from grace, he begins to plot his revenge.

Like “The Tempest” itself, Atwood’s creative retelling begins in a moment of chaos --- a prison riot --- but then steps back to explain the events leading up to that moment, so that when we revisit that scene a couple hundred pages later, we more or less understand what’s going on, even if some of the characters’ motivations --- not to mention Felix’s sanity --- remain ambiguous. At first, it can be difficult to discern exactly how Atwood is repurposing Shakespeare’s original play, beyond the obvious “play within a play” aspect of the plot. She even appears at points to play with readers’ expectations about the retelling: “For a time, Felix tried to amuse himself by casting [his new neighbors] in his own personal ‘Tempest’--- his ‘Tempest’ of the headspace --- but that didn’t last long. None of it fitted: Bert the husband wasn’t the devil, and young Crystal, a podgy, stubby child, could not be imagined as the sylph-like Miranda.” When readers at last realize the form Atwood’s retelling is taking, it is both surprising and satisfying, a moment when they say not only “aha” but also “of course.”

Themes of imprisonment and freedom run throughout HAG-SEED, as they do more or less literally in Shakespeare’s play. There are also themes of forgiveness and redemption, of the hollowness of revenge and the healing power of artistic creation, whether through music, dance or theater. Atwood closes her novel much as Shakespeare concludes his play, and although the volume ends with a traditional synopsis of “The Tempest,” readers will likely find they don’t even need to read it. Thanks to Atwood, they’ll already understand.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

** Trigger warning for rape. **

He’s been chewing over his revenge for twelve years – it’s been in the background, a constant undercurrent like an ache. Though he’s been tracking Tony and Sal on the Net, they’ve always been out of his reach. But now they’ll be entering his space, his sphere. How to grasp them, how to enclose them, how to ambush them? Suddenly revenge is so close he can actually taste it. It tastes like steak, rare. Oh, to watch their two faces! Oh, to twist the wire! He wants to see pain. “We’re doing THE TEMPEST,” he said.

###

Felix Phillips’s life – or at least his life thus far – is like something out of a Greek tragedy. As the Artistic Director (and sometimes-director/actor/star) of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, he pushes the envelope, rides his actors hard, and produces some pretty edgy fare – which often puts him in the crosshairs of the Board. Like many of the creative types he works with, Felix is more or less married to his job. That is, until he meets Nadia and is sucked into a late(r)-in-life romance. In the span of just four years, Felix got married; had a child; lost Nadia to a staph infection after childbirth; lost his daughter Miranda to meningitis; and lost his job at the Makeshiweg Festival.

Felix blames his assistant Tony Price for that last. According to Felix’s line of reasoning, Tony waited until Felix was vulnerable – distracted by grief – to swoop in and steal his job. A scheme made easier by Felix himself: too caught up in the magic of the theater, Felix was more than happy to hand over the more mundane tasks – boozing and schmoozing the donors and patrons, for example – to his assistant. Much like Prospero – the protagonist of THE TEMPEST, which Felix was producing when he was unceremoniously canned – he paved the way for his own betrayal.

Devastated, in more ways than one – for the now-cancelled THE TEMPEST was to be staged in his late daughter’s honor – Felix assumes an alias (F. Duke), moves to a hovel in the middle of nowhere, and becomes a recluse. A recluse visited by the apparition of his dead daughter, who mysteriously ages alongside Felix.

After nine years, he takes a part-time job teaching literature to medium-security inmates at the nearby Fletcher County Correctional Institute. They study Shakespeare, of course, writing, staging, performing, filming, editing, and screening one play a year: JULIUS CAESAR, RICHARD III, MACBETH. His courses are fun, challenging, innovative, and wildly popular: “To his credit there’s always a waiting list.”

The guys love Felix: He encourages them to swear, but only using terms pulled from the current year’s text. He cultivates and celebrates their unique talents, from singing and acting to writing and costume design. The course is nothing if not dynamic: participants are allowed to rewrite the play to make it more contemporary (the only rule being that the plot must stay intact) and, at the end of the course, each team must give a presentation about their character’s life after the play. They compete and amass points, which translate into illicit cigarettes at the end of the semester. There’s even a cast party and a prison-wide screening. Felix’s students get to be stars, if only for a time. Felix still pushes the envelope, but in a much healthier way.

Now it’s Year Four, and Felix has just learned that Tony – excuse me, “Heritage Minister Anthony Price” – will be visiting the screening at the prison this year, along with Justice Minster Sal O’Nally, who Felix believes facilitated his downfall. What better play to form the backdrop to his revenge than THE TEMPEST?

“The island is many things, but among them is something he hasn’t mentioned: the island is a theatre. Prospero is a director. He’s putting on a play, within which there’s another play. If his magic holds and his play is successful, he’ll get his heart’s desire. But if he fails …”

I really had no idea what to expect of HAG-SEED, other than it’s Margaret Atwood and she can do no wrong. (Okay, almost: the casual animal abuse in MORAL DISORDER was THE WORST. I can’t even with Tig and Nell, okay.) If I had to summarize HAG-SEED short and sweet, it would be this: Margaret Atwood makes Shakespeare better. Margaret Atwood makes *everything* better.

Even though you know the plot, it’s hella trickier than it first appears. It’s not entirely clear whether Felix is a reliable narrator: he’s mad with grief and having visual and auditory hallucinations of his dead daughter Miranda. Who, serendipitously, is named after a main character in a play that’s proven central to his life. (But I digress.) But even before this, something seems not-quite-right. Felix is self-centered – narcissistic, even – and paranoid. Is Tony a back-stabbing opportunist, or is the plot to get Felix all in his head? Some of the theater folks seem nice enough; maybe Tony’s right, and the Board’s just had it with Felix’s flair for drama and danger. Paper-pushers and controversy don’t make for the coziest bedfellows.

The exact form that Felix’s revenge will take also remains a mystery for most of the book. The way he’s talking – raving, really – you picture something rather bloody and gory. Lure Tony and Sal to the inmate screening room and let them have at it? Blackmail? Assault? Murder? But what will become of Felix? Does he even care? And how will he manipulate the inmates into doing his bidding? After all, as he points out to his Miranda – the actress/former child gymnast, Anne-Marie Greenland, who was similarly cast in the original production – these are not violent criminals.

The parallels between HAG-SEED and THE TEMPTEST are both compelling and skillfully crafted as well. I guess this is where it helps to have already read THE TEMPEST or, better yet, actually studied it in some depth. Atwood provides a handy little summary in the back matter, which I wish I knew beforehand (I consulted Wikipedia instead). The play in the book mirrors the play the players are playing, with Felix assuming the role of Prospero both in the Fletcher County Correctional Institute’s production of THE TEMPEST – and in real life itself. Initially meant to give new life to Miranda, THE TEMPEST does just that, chaining her spirit to that of her grieving father. She cannot rest until Felix has seen the play – and his revenge – through to the bitter end.

And what of Caliban? I feel like there’s a message buried somewhere in here about him – after all, the book bears his name – but I’m not entirely sure what it is: that Caliban was maligned and misunderstood? A product of his environment? A representation of the monstrous present in us all?

We’re presented with so many different interpretations of Hag-Seed – of all the MCs, really – that I don’t know which we’re meant to assume. All of them, at various points in time, perhaps? (Maybe the same goes for Felix and his compatriots?) Like I said, this is probably where advance knowledge would come in handy. Handy but not necessary: I loved the story just the same.

With a compelling plot; complex and nuanced characters; a really innovative inmate education program (seriously, someone should take Atwood’s curriculum and run with it!); and a peek inside a prison that humanizes those imprisoned out of sight and out of mind, Hag-Seed is a must read: for fans of Margaret Atwood, fans of Shakespeare, and fans of inspired storytelling.

** Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. **

Felix Phillips is still mourning the death of his wife and three-year-old daughter. At least he still has his job as the Artistic Director at the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. That is until he’s undermined and given the boot by a cutthroat politically minded coworker named Tony. Felix knows that revenge is a dish best served cold, so he waits a full dozen years before putting his plan into action. Working incognito, Felix secures a job teaching acting to a group of minimum-security inmates at the Fletcher County Correctional Institute. What deliciously devious comeuppance will Felix exact upon Tony and his cronies?

I’m painfully embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read one of Margaret Atwood’s books. Shame on me. I love her writing style. It’s intelligent and wonderfully engaging. I’ve read the reviews for Hag-Seed and several reviewers have said that this isn’t one of Ms. Atwood’s best works. I’ll definitely be reading more, since I really did enjoy this one.

Felix’s character is well developed and likable. I could feel his pain and loss. It was easy for me to connect with him. And, the plot of treachery and deceit is one that many of us can relate to. I wanted Tony and his political buddies to be punished for what they’d done to Felix.

As for the inmates themselves, I had a bit of trouble envisioning inmates behaving the way some of the characters in this book behaved. Yet, my experience with the prison system is non-existent so I can’t say for sure how credible it is. I did like the way Ms. Atwood portrayed them, however. She made them human and even likable to an extent.

The ending was wonderfully satisfying – although it was a little difficult to imagine Felix pulling off what he actually did. However, this is fiction and it makes for captivating reading. There were several touching parts, particularly at the end, which I enjoyed immensely. I highly recommend reading Hag-Seed! Thanks to NetGalley and Blogging for Books for providing me with complimentary electronic and print copies of this book!

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Margaret Atwood, and Crown Publishing Hogarth in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

I had a difficult time getting into this novel. About 20% in I re-read The Tempest by William Shakespeare - it has been a LONG time since I first read it - and that helped, but at 48% in there is a chart of the actors portraying the characters, and that made it all come together. The second half of the book flowed to a satisfactory ending. It is not my favorite Margaret Atwood but is an interesting slant on revenge and forgiveness.

When I was offered the opportunity to review this book, I knew I had to give my copy to my college English professor, Carol Daeley, who I knew was eagerly anticipating its release. This is her review:

Before saying anything else about this novel I should say that first, I am by way of being a Margaret Atwood groupie. I re-arranged a November schedule in England so I could hear her talk about Hag-Seed at Oxford. Though I do not like all her novels equally, I like a number of them so well that they are among my favorite novels of the 20th century, of the 21st century, of Canada, by women novelists, and several other categories. Second, The Tempest is my favorite Shakespeare play. I’ve seen a number of versions of it, but nowhere nearly enough. The night before Atwood’s talk at Oxford I will be seeing the RSC production with Simon Russell Beale, an actor who awes me. As I read Hag-Seed, I kept being reminded of a memorable version directed by Yukio Ninagawa, which set the play on the Japanese island of Sado in the mid-15th century during the exile of the Noh playwright and actor Zeami, who was sent there after a disagreement with the Shogunate. Ninagawa’s premise, in his 1980s production, was that Zeami is trying to direct his own tempest play during his island exile.

With this context, my expectations of Hag-Seed were so high that for a couple of days I was almost afraid to read it. A production of The Tempest in a prison, created by an “exiled” director named Felix, like “Prospero” a name oddly meaning fortunate, with a nemesis named Tony like Prospero’s Antonio—enough on the names. They are fun but, as with any adaptation, the real question is how well the author uses character and setting parallels to create a new vision, convincing in the terms of its own time and place, a vision that explores, questions, and alters, illuminating the original and bringing its power to bear in a different form. An adaptation at its best sends us back to the earlier work with new insights and at the same time speaks to our own condition. It is not a parasite but a new life form entwined with, yet independent of, the old form.

I was a bit dubious that even Atwood could meet my hopes about her novel, but I needn’t have been. Her many voices—dry wit, exasperation with human beings, deep understanding of human beings and our need for grace, ribald comedy, wrenching tragedy, vivid realism and just as vivid evocation of what lies beyond realism, all have their place in the story she weaves around and through Shakespeare’s story. Her multiple ways of handling the character Miranda are a triumph. So is her portrayal of Felix’s struggles with the impossibly complicated Prospero as he tries to avoid trying to make him “fit,” trying, in the prison language that permeates both play and novel, not “to confine Prospero within . . . calculated perimeters.” Among other things, Hag-Seed is a powerful exploration of the nature of freedom, as is The Tempest.

In case anyone who doesn’t know The Tempest well has read this far, not much knowledge of the play is necessary to read Atwood’s brilliant novel with pleasure. It’s a compelling story, a witty commentary on contemporary politics in the broadest sense of the word, filled with funny and touching characters. Virginia Woolf once wanted to talk with Thomas Hardy about one of his novels. She had a lot of questions, but he had a single question for her: “Did it hold your interest?” No novel holds every reader’s interest, but I’d call The Hag-Seed a very good read.

Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood's update of The Tempest gets off to a bumping start. It is not so much challenging as it is slow to get out of the gate. For the first half of the book her Prospero, Felix Phillips, (later Mr. Duke) is the rather unappealing and disagreeable head of a repertory company staging Shakespeare's masterpiece. In a story thread that owes more to All About Eve than the Bard, Felix is undermined and undone by an assistant in some not very convincing circumstances that send his career into a death spiral and send him into a self-imposed exile. Where do managing directors go when they lose their companies? To jail of course, to nurture the unpolished gems found there and plumb the population's emotional depth. Most irritatingly, the only irony here seems to be in the main character's name...Felix.

I can't imagine any fan of Shakespeare or Ms. Atwood finding pleasure in the first half of the book and one might, as I did, cringe at the setting for the second half of Hag-Seed. To do so is to underestimate the author's imaginative powers which are on full display throughout the rest of the story. It is here that Hag-Seed finally seems successfully anchored to The Tempest and unquestionably soars. Felix (now incognito as Mr. Duke) works with inmates to uncover the pleasures, the challenges and the joys of language that unfold for the players and for the reader. It is really a stunning accomplishment, and I strongly suggest high schools across America lift a few of her Shakespearean "raps" when introducing the Bard to recalcitrant 16 year olds. Equally delightful are the discussions among "players" sparked by Mr. Duke as they sort through the author's intent and its meaning for them.

That the author redeems a very unpromising beginning so terrifically makes her more than a bit of a magician, too. Atwood's Hag-Seed is an always welcome reminder of the magical power art has to enliven and enrich us all. If it requires patience, remember dear reader, patience is a virtue.

I've enjoyed all the Margaret Atwood books I've read (though "enjoyed" is perhaps the wrong word for something as dystopian as The Handmaid's Tale). So I was very much looking forward to Hag-Seed, her take on Shakespeare's The Tempest. It's part of a series in which well-known authors take on Shakespeare.

Atwood didn't disappoint, as Hag-Seed is full of funny takes on theater, cultural arts, human behavior. The Tempest is retold through the lens of Felix Phillips, the artistic director of a Canadian theater festival, who is known for his audacious and outre productions. He's planning his Tempest when he is summarily fired, thanks to the machinations of his assistant, who wanted his job and was in kahoots with the minister of cultural arts. Felix moves to a remote hovel, where he stews for several years until he has a chance at a part-time job teaching literature in a prison. Instead of reading books, however, he converts it to a Shakespeare class, culminating in a videotaped production of a play, performed by the inmates, all of whom have adopted stage names, at Felix's suggestion. At first he chooses plays he knows his actors can relate to, but when he learns that his former nemeses are planning a visit to the prison, he quickly decides to resurrect his production of The Tempest and to use it as a vehicle for revenge.

There's a lot more, of course--his relationship with his daughter, who died at age 3 and whom he imagines remains with him as some sort of wraith, and his recruitment of an actress to play Miranda in the prison production, for example. His own story has many parallels to the plot of The Tempest, particularly that of Prospero, whom he plays in the production. And parts, like the daughter (which reminded me of imaginary friends that kids sometimes have) and the way he exacts revenge, are frankly implausible. But by then, Atwood has seduced you with her writing, so you go along for the ride, and it's an enjoyable one.

The result is a smart, entertaining novel that again features a story within the story--something Atwood did to perfection in The Robber Bride.

Four solid stars.

The plot of this story takes place largely in a correctional facility called the Fletcher County Correctional Institute in Ontario, a place you’d least expect Shakespeare play re-enactments. The protagonist, Felix, is a man looking for revenge, but he is patient, and prefers to play the long game. Twelve years ago, Felix’s former friend and assistant, Tony, betrayed him by staging a coup of sorts. Tony ambushed Felix with the rubber-stamping sock puppets on the Board to terminate Felix’s contract as Artistic Director (and often central actor) at the Makeshewig Shakespeare Festival. Tony, the snaky betrayer, would replace Felix.

Felix was at the height of his artistic and influential powers when he was ousted, and was about to stage a strange but wildly creative recreation of THE TEMPEST, but he was also at the depth of despair. His loving wife died a year after their marriage, and their daughter recently died of meningitis at age three, leaving him staggered with grief. After Tony had him removed (and has since climbed the ladder of political ambitions), Felix had nobody and nothing but his “imaginary” Miranda. His dead daughter became his muse.

But now, twelve years later, it is time to depose the deposer, and Felix aims to do so within the confines of the Fletcher prison and its motley group of prisoner-students of Felix’s literacy project. He has used the alias “Mr. Duke,” although the enthusiastic woman who hired and helps him bring his productions to life knows who he really is. To others in the creative world he is all but dead, or at the very least, disappeared. How sweet is revenge, as Felix has as much joy in planning this revenge coup as executing it. Perhaps it may be that, the post-mortem in stage life is what gives a character, or a grieving father, his raison d'être.

Although the opening of the novel was mildly constrained, I sensed an eventual powerhouse of a book, partly because of Atwood’s strength as a writer, and knowing that this initial layout was just a lead-in, to make space for the plot and characters to layer and expand. It’s a complicated genesis from prison project to revenge comedy via meta-play, by way of THE TEMPEST, easily the most “special effects” laden of Shakespeare’s plays. How to do that in a prison? Atwood, by way of Felix, did it with aplomb. I can’t seem to separate Atwood from Felix (but in a laudatory way, and without authorial interference), but at the same time, Felix comes alive as an individual that could walk off the pages. He really connects well to the prisoners, some who have been in previous Fletcher plays. One of the prisoners, an ace techno wizard, helps Felix achieve his ultimate goal.

The rules for the prisoners in the literacy program are: no swear words that aren’t in the play, even during offstage discussion. Transgressors lose points, and winners win smuggled in cigarettes. The creative prison players often used words allowed like “whoreson,” “pox,” and “Hag-seed.” They rewrite the play, as a team, to make it more understandable for a modern audience. Felix also got an outside actress that he knows to play Miranda.

The play is videotaped so that the rest of the prisoners can see it, too. And, this allows Felix flexibility to achieve his secret mission. Tony and company will be coming, as VIPs, to watch the videotaped version of the Fletcher Tempest. Felix is hoping for a superb outcome, especially because the politicians in the city (including Tony) have voted to axe the Fletcher Literacy Project. Felix has a lot to correct here, and it isn’t the players!

I won’t reveal the particulars, but Atwood is a real magician herself, with prose, story, and narrative in a wonderful hybrid of onstage/offstage fusion (although, to be honest, we don’t see much of the onstage action, which could theoretically be disappointing to some readers, but Atwood made it work).

One of the most delicious nuggets of the novel is that, after the denouement, the last section of the book deals with the prisoners predicting, based on their interpretation of the play and their characters, what happens afterwards. That really hit the sweet spot for me, because it demonstrates the superlative success of the literacy project at the prison.

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is one of most intrepid, most distinguished, most prolific and diverse writers of the 20th and 21st century, who has written this extraordinary recreation of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST for the Hogarth series of Shakespeare recreations. But did you know that she is also the first contributor of a time capsule project called The Future Library Project? It was conceived by a Scottish artist, and started in 2014 with the planting of 1,000 trees in Nordmarka (outside Oslo) and will evolve over the next 100 years.

Every year a writer is asked to contribute a story that they write, and it will remain unread for 100 years. Finally, in 2114, after 100 contributing writers have sealed up their stories, the trees will be cut down and used to make paper for this story collection, which will then be printed and published. Even our children won’t get to read it!

So, Margaret Atwood, a prize-winning, outstanding, and serious writer of the present, is truly a writer of the future (not just futuristic, as with her dystopian novels). And here in HAGSEED, she recreates a masterpiece of the past, and she is absolutely up to the task, with her novel of a play that is also itself a play within a play.

So why my digression into the FLP? Because it is evident (if you didn’t know already) that Atwood cares about literature, about literacy and libraries and education, and reaching out to a wide variety of literature lovers and potential literature lovers, and keeping stories alive through eternity. And not just that, but she is an egalitarian when it comes to literature. Shakespeare isn’t just for academics, or trust fund babies passing the time in liberal arts colleges. It’s also about reaching out to everyone, including prisoners locked up and loaded with prison and class system problems, some who are less literate than others.

I believe that HAGSEED is also a wink and a nod to Atwood’s personal aspirations and successes, her desire for literature to reach everyone. Again, part of Atwood’s passionate desire for literature to be appreciated by all walks of life, and not to be excluded from the fringes of society.

Says “SnakeEye, as Antonio, re Prospero:

“He was stuck in his book, doin’ his magic,
Wavin’ his wand around and all that s**t,
I took what I like, and that was fine,
Whatever I wanted, it was mine…
…I was bossin around the whole Milan nation…
…So now I’m the man, the man, the big man,
I’m the Duke, I’m the Duke, I’m the Duke of Milan.”

I think that I am pretty familiar with “The Tempest” (1611), one of the greatest Shakespeare comedies (taking the First Folio categorizations of genre, so that it is in competition with “The Merchant of Venice”) and one of the most opaque, or at least very open to wideky varying interpretations. The title of Margaret Atwood’s Hogarth Shakespeare novel that combines a present-day variant with a lot of discussion about the original play is “Hag-Seed.” That is one way of referring to Caliban, who in the last half century has been elevated to being seen as the mistreated hero and rightful ruler of the island usurped by the usurped Duke of Milan, Prospero, who like colonists elsewhere learned about local food sources and enslaved the native (there only being one on the island, as on the one on which Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked).

The protagonist of Atwood’s novel is still something of a magician. She stresses that the original Prospero was a director terrifying his usurper (Antonio in the original, Prospero’s younger brother, Tony, Felix’s righ-thand assistant in Atwood’s variation, not a kinsman). Her Prospero, Felix Phillips, was artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival (an Ontario one very like the Stratford one that was helmsed by Robin Phillips [1942-2015] for six years, rather than 15 and who was gay). Felix is haunted by the ghost of his daughter, who continued to grow up after being killed by an automobile at the age of three. (I think the novel would have been better without this supernatural plotline.)

Taking the role he was planning to play as a new last name (Duke), Felix gets a position directing Shakespeare productions in a prison. Such things happen, as was shown in the 2012 Italian documentary/production of “Julius Caesar,” Caesar Must Die.” What Felix does in rigging up a revenge/performance for his usurper and his usurper’s collaborator requires considerable suspension of disbelief, but the plot based on Shakespeare’s is so enjoyable that there is strong motivation to suspend skepticism. I had more difficulty in believing in the martial arts talents of Anne-Marie, the actress Felix had planned to cast as Miranda at Makeshiweg and who not only plays the part in the prison production but choreographs the convict actors’ moves. Though a seasoned Superwoman, she still must be a partner in puppy love with the ardent son of the usurper.

The present-day revenge plot is very, very elaborate as well as quite clever, though, when it finally happens, the delivery is rather perfunctory. What I liked best was the postmortems by the players—not postmortems of the production(s) but surmises about what their characters did after the end of the play. Again, the content is so entertaining that I could suspend disbelief in the analytical sophistication of ostensibly ordinary prisoners. They imagine three different futures for Caliban.

Atwood’s convicts add some rap texts, including usurping Prospero’s early exposition of Antonio usurping his place). Like the great Kurosawa movies based on Shakespeare (Throne of Blood, Ran), Shakespeare’s language is largely jettisoned. I would love to see the video Felix and his merry band made (the prison officials not allowing the whole population to assemble even to watch a Shakespeare play), which seems high praise for what Atwood wrought. And the original text remains easily available to glory in the blank verse that is sparingly quoted in her novel.

If you’ve never heard of Margaret Atwood , welcome to the planet Earth. Please allow me to show you around. I jest, but the woman has nothing short of 40 major works under her belt, ranging from dystopian fiction, to children’s books, to literary criticism and other non-fiction books on writing and even has a show on Hulu based on her masterwork The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s enough to make you question what you are doing with your life. (Not enough, apparently.) So when I read that she was prepping to release a title for Hogarth Shakespeare, a series of modern re-tellings of Shakespeare’s classics, I immediately sold my book club on it and eagerly awaited its release date.

Hag-Seed is Atwood’s modern spin on The Tempest, the genre-defying tragicomedy that is believed to be the bard’s final play. In it, the betrayed sorcerer Prospero, trapped on a deserted island with his young daughter Miranda, erects a storm at sea to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Yet, Prospero is no innocent victim that audiences wholeheartedly root for. He is deeply flawed- controlling, ego-maniacal, petty, callous, and cruel at times. Throughout the work, he plays puppet master with the elements and life on the island, eventually achieving his desire, but is still not altogether content and seeks forgiveness and redemption from the gods (and the audience) for the tortures he has inflicted upon others. In Atwood’s spin, Felix, a disgruntled former artistic director, well-known for his extreme interpretations and performances of classic productions, plays our modern Prospero, in all his narcissistic glory.

As a protagonist, Felix is not an easy character to like, nor should he be. Like Prospero, he must grow from a completely self-absorbed master of his art into a being who makes decisions based on the well-being of others. Thus, the further one gets in Hag-Seed, the more one comes around to old Felix. What is particularly endearing, especially to my book club crew of English teachers, is Felix’s transformation from ivory-tower elite artist to humbled prison theater teacher, thereby beginning his substantial character arc and creating another “play within a play” for readers.

If you’ve never read The Tempest, fear not. Atwood does a great job of referencing it throughout the novel in a way that is helpful without being irritating and even includes a full 5-page plain English synopsis in the back of the book, for those who are so inclined. Though this was not my favorite Atwood novel- I absolutely adored Alias Grace and was thoroughly creeped out by Oryx and Crake– it is still quite good and I would certainly recommend it, even outside of literary buff circles.

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Margaret Atwood: what an astonishing writer. Here, in her contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare pantheon, she takes the tale of The Tempest, gives it the most energetic of shakes, throws all the pieces up in the air and rearranges their descent into an empathetic story of revenge that had me frequently laughing, occasionally welling up and utterly rapt throughout.

Felix Philips is Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Festival (think Ontario’s Stratford Festival). Famous for his avant-garde interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays, he is ousted by his ambitious assistant Tony and goes off to sulk in a mud-hut hovel for twelve years. Here, he converses with his long-dead daughter and imagines her growing up by his side. Eventually, he rejoins the world and - revenge famously being a dish best served cold – he sets about staging The Tempest at a nearby correctional facility (an optimistic euphemism for prison). Amongst the audience of big-wigs will be the very man who engineered his dismissal.

Atwood has tremendous fun with this and she takes us with her every step of the way. The prisoner-players are not too caricatured and Felix's rule that during rehearsals they are only allowed to use curse words that appear in the play is inspired. The inmates offer up their rap interpretations of The Tempest in such a way that they truly enable us – and themselves - to understand something more of the play. And if you can do that with a story as daft as The Tempest, what can’t you do really? As the author herself says of at the outset: “What a strenuous pleasure is has been to wrestle with it!” The pleasure is all ours.

An ingenious and witty re-telling, with twists, of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest."

The Prospero figure is Felix Price, Artistic Director of a Festival Theatre in a small provincial town in Ontario, Canada. He had concentrated on directing and acting. One twist is that his beloved daughter Miranda had died at the age of three. To, as it were, bring her back to life, he had thrown himself into a production of The Tempest. Like his other productions, it was to be excessively controversial and very expensive. He had left all financial affairs and public relations to his treacherous brother Tony, who had got the Board, headed by the passive Lonnie (Alonso) and the Heritage Minister Sal (Sebastian?) to terminate Felix’s contract and make Tony the new Artistic Director.

For nine years Felix lives a hermit’s life in a primitive shack. Whenever he is the shack (and, towards the end, outside the shack as well), he vividly hallucinates the company of Miranda as she was growing up beside him into adolescence. (This part of the story is rather whimsy and I think the novel would have been better without it.) Then, using the pseudonym Mr Duke, he applied for the job of teaching a Literacy through Literature course at a prison near his shack, and he was a genius of getting the criminals to accept and then to relish Shakespeare’s plays, which he got them to act, starting with the more violent of the plays. At the end, each production is videoed. After four years his success attracted the attention of two provincial ministers who intend to come and see a video of a production for themselves. The ministers are - the ever-ambitious Tony (now also minister) and Sal (now Justice Minister)! Ever since his dismissal, Felix had wanted to take his revenge on them, and now there seemed to be the opportunity.

He chooses The Tempest as the play, and there is a lot about how he persuades the inmates to accept this play, and many pages about the preparations he makes. None of the inmates wants to play Miranda, so Felix has to get someone from outside to take that role. Initially none of them want to play Ariel either – he is too “fairy – until Felix brilliantly gets them to see Ariel in a different way, and then they all volunteer for the part. Many of them also want to play Caliban: they identify with him as a hard-done-by prisoner, and Felix gets them to see that the island is a kind of prison. He analyses the play for them: he is a very fine teacher. He allows them to insert lines of their own and to add rap musical numbers to the play.

Felix has learnt, and told the cast, that the visiting ministers intend to use their visit as an excuse to close down the project as too expensive. (Felix has had a lot of money spent on renting various electronic devices.) The cast – especially the Goblins – are ready to torment the visitors.

And then the visitors turns up. Atwood takes some liberties here about the relationships within the party, making Freddie (Ferdinand) the son, not of Lonnie (Alonso), but of Sal; and she has introduced another character, Sebert, who does some of the things Sebastian does in the play.

Felix’s plan springs into action: he gets his revenge and in the end forces concessions on them in return for his mercy in letting them go. It would be spoiler to say more.

Margaret Atwood has more things to say about The Tempest; so when the play is done, makes Felix get the cast to suggest what would have happened to the different characters after the end of the play. These suggestions are not only very ingenious, but could be seen as a tribute to how Felix has taught the inmates to read the text closely and to use their imagination. The one who has played Caliban has, together with his friends, in addition to sketching out what happened to him, has started on writing a rap musical in which Caliban is the main character.

I have some minor criticisms – chiefly about the role of Miranda’s spirit, as I have already indicated; and I have not been able to work out which character in the story represents Gonzalo. But this has been a splendid read, and it has alerted me to all sorts of readings of The Tempest of which I had been unaware.

Hag-Seed is a play within a play. The story parallels the many aspects of the The Tempest. A renowned director loses his family, his career, and retreats into a state of knowing delusion. After, years of brooding he emerges to seek his revenge on those he believes wronged him in his most desperate hour.
I started reading this book without having read The Tempest. I still thoroughly enjoyed the novel without the additional insight that reading The Tempest first might have given me. At the end of the novel, the author provides a simple synopsis of The Tempest which I recommend reading first for those of us that that have never read it or have not read it in a long time. Having the foreknowledge of the play will allow the reader to point out the parts in the novel and the characters that are shadowing The Tempest. Even without that foreknowledge the novel is an interesting read.

I'm not a fan of writers who write books that are imitations or re-interpretations of other writers' work. Hag-Seed is a case in point. Let's be fair. Shakespeare's plays are complex assemblages of characters, speeches and plots. Atwood's work, nominally based on The Tempest, has the same characteristics.

Alas, Atwood didn’t use Shakespeare’s pen.

Her prose and dialogue are ordinary, for my taste. Her story is about as far as one can get from magical. Of course a reader can figure out which of her characters is aligned with Shakespeare's Prospero and Caliban and Miranda and so on. Of course a reader can see a transparent image of Shakespeare's plot.

For my taste, Hag-Seed is an awkward, deliberately mean and desperately inelegant version of The Tempest.

Cut loose from the Shakespeare connection, Hag-Seed is low-grade storytelling. IMHO.
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Needless to say, Margaret Atwood can do revamped classic. (The Penelopiad, anyone? Which, incidentally, you have to read as an audiobook to truly do it justice.) But, even considering its author is the Nebula and Booker Prize-winning Atwood, Hag-Seed unfurls a retelling of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest that both remains true to the original and spirals out into new territory — but never out of control. The novel could so easily have slipped into maudlin or gone over the top, but it never does. Instead, Atwood kept me riveted to this suspenseful novel and its offbeat characters.

Like Prospero, Felix Phillips — here a bad-boy, self-indulgent avant-garde director getting ready to stage a bizarre production of The Tempest — gets shoved aside and into exile by a Machiavellian underling, Tony Price. And, as with Prospero, Phillips (now going by “Mr. Duke”) painstakingly plots his revenge, and the result turns out something completely unexpected. Hag-Seed is best approached with little more information than this, except to say that readers should expect all of the nuance, thoughtfulness, and, yes, magic of the original. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley Hogarth, and The Crown Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

Hag-Seed has been both my first Hogarth Shakespeare and first Margaret Atwood novel. To say the excitement level was pretty high when I received an advanced copy from Netgalley would be an understatement. However, I've ended up with mixed feelings. While on one hand I loved the story of Felix, the down on his luck theater director, on the other hand there were times when I wanted the book to end so I could move on to something less like a textbook. I imagined this novel would simply be a retelling of The Tempest. In some ways, that description would be accurate. It does feature Felix and his cast of characters as they assemble to put on their own version of the famous play. However, a large portion of the book was the author expounding on literary topics dealing with every conceivable angle of The Tempest through the voice of the main character. At times, I felt as if I were in a college classroom listening to a professor's lectures. I would have loved to have read more of a true retelling without the schoolwork.

I received a free advanced copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

i find the few novels i’ve read by margaret atwood weird. HAG-SEED comes along with its share of weirdness, on the back of shakespeare made more weird by goblins and an opening scene, an enactment of a scene from THE TEMPEST. ariel ‘in a blue bathing cap and iridescent ski goggles, blue makeup on the lower half of his face. He’s wearing a translucent plastic raincoat with ladybugs, bees and butterflies on it.’

the troupe of players are the fletcher correctional players, who have modernized the language of 17th century english theatre to rap:

What you’re gonna see, is a storm at sea:
Winds are howlin’, sailors yowlin’,
Passengers cursin’’em, ‘cause it getting’ worse:
Gonna hear screams, just like a ba-a-ad dream,
But not all here is what it seem,
Just sayin’.

then cut to the chapter of felix, the director, actor, preparing to go on stage as prospero, cleaning false and real sets of teeth, the kind of enactments reminiscent of anthony burgess’s novels, particularly his enderby triology, a highbrow comedy margaret atwood sets in place and, with a sea change, dashes with a murder in the life of felix phillips. margaret atwood manages to maintain a tone of tragedy, often elegiac, in a play within a play about a play within a play, of revenge and hope.

the few missteps of backstories for her incarcerated cast lacking in a fuller characterization, which may have rendered them less students, are forgivable. overall, an enjoyable and highly recommended read.

Wow. Hag-seed was very refreshing to read. I’ve never read a book where the author recreates a Shakespeare play this literally in two ways, includes a few rap songs, and describes the need or necessity of retribution but at the same time, holding on to something wrongfully taken from him and dwelling on it for ages. I am delighted by this read and once I hit page 170, I couldn’t put it down!

I understand that there are a few other books that are directed at this genre, recreating Shakespeare plays, and I really want to get my hands on them asap!

The only thing that bugged me about this book was the abundance of swearing included. I usually like to stay away from that much swearing and at some times, it was really distracting and unnecessary. That being said, I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn’t so foul mouthed.

I have always loved reading Shakespeare plays and this just made me love Shakespeare even more. Atwood does a splendid job of even looking deeper and further into the play, The Tempest, and makes this book not only relatable to people who have been wronged and haven’t deserved it but also intriguing to use this as a sort of companion read with The Tempest.

There was a lot of research and time going into this book. I could tell from the notes and acknowledgements in the back, but more importantly, the meticulous details that Margaret Atwood included about the characters in the play and the characters in real life who are part of the play.

Felix is the main character in her book and I found him really fascinating because of his situation and how he deals with his life after all these trials and hardships come upon him. His nemesis…s(?) are both completely evil and even serve in politics which makes me reflect on society today and the measures people will take to get to certain levels of influence.

Overall, I enjoyed the story within a story theme and all the wonderful bits of the play (and Shakespeare) that I learned. It was inspiring and reflective to read a book that I could both enjoy and learn from.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review

"Hag-Seed" by Margaret Atwood is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project where acclaimed authors retell Shakespeare's works; in this case "The Tempest". In "Hag-Seed", Felix, the artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, has suffered the loss of both his wife and child. He is pushed out of his position by his assistant, Tony. Following this villainous act, Felix lives a relatively solitary life in exile for for many years. Eventually, he takes a job at a prison as the director of a literacy program that allows inmates to produce updated versions of Shakespeare's plays. After several seasons, Felix decides to stage his ultimate revenge on Tony with the production of "The Tempest". This multi-layered story is true genius. Not only is Felix staging a production of The Tempest and playing the part of Prospero in it, but his real life and revenge on Tony is also mirroring the The Tempest".

If you have not read "The Tempest", do not worry. Atwood provides a brief summary at the end of the book and Felix does a fine job summarizing the story to the inmates. The inmates are a lot of fun. They are only allowed to use curse words that are found in the play, so the narrative is scattered with plenty of scurvy monsters, pied ninnies, hag-seeds, etc. - absolutely hilarious!

I enjoyed this novel much more than I expected; so much so that it will receive a permanent spot on my shelf. I will be searching for more installments from the Hogarth Project. It's been quite awhile since I've read anything by Margaret Atwood. This book reminded me of how she is a master of her craft.

I was given the opportunity via Hogarth Publishing and NetGalley to read Hag-Seed. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Felix Phillips is the artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, whose stage productions have dazzled audiences for years. Convinced that he can resurrect his daughter during the production of The Tempest, Felix's plans are thwarted by what her perceives as a great betrayal and a power struggle. 12 years later, will Felix finally be able to put to rights all that have wronged him?

In his grief and anger, Felix becomes an unreliable narrator. Consumed by the sting of transgressions against him, Felix has the added issue of being convinced that The Tempest has magical properties. The book is not, as I was led to believe, a retelling of the famous work of Shakespeare, as most of the book involves The Tempest as a stage production. The ending of the book is where it comes alive, as it was a very imaginative retelling of part of the story. The beginning was a bit confusing, but Hag-Seed is definitely redeemed in the end. Readers familiar with The Tempest will get the most out of this book, but the book is readable whether you have knowledge of the Shakespeare version or not.

This is a review of the book Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.

Shakespeare (probably) last play, The Tempest, was a genre mixer for him that broke many of his typical was of doing things. The Tempest blends elements of comedy with aspects of tragedy, and all throughout the play his writing critiques the very craft he is using to present the critique. In a similar fashion, Margaret Atwood's retelling of the narrative of The Tempest in her book Hag-Seed is a book that seemingly deviates from her normal authorial modus operandi.

When one thinks of Atwood and her writing style, the words that come to mind are: emotional, poignant, and even sharp. Hag-Seed is all these things. But it is also leveled, unsettled, and funny. 

Hag-Seed moves the drama of The Tempest from a Caribbean island to a non-descript populated area with small towns, a metropolitan area, and a jail. The protagonist is no longer the political exile Prospero with the daughter Miranda, but now a professional exile named Felix with a deceased daughter named Miranda. There is still an element of revenge, and in the end the protagonist still encounters something about himself that makes him do a similar action to Prospero when Prospero breaks his magic wand and rid himself of his spell book (I am being elusive for the sake of avoiding any spoilers). But for all of the serious elements, Atwood does something brilliant which is understated in a many of her other works: she incorporates a darkly comedic element to the writing.

This is what makes Hag-Seed worthy of being a retelling of The Tempest, it masterfully incorporates a style of humor into an otherwise dramatic and almost tragic narrative. Shakespeare did this dexterously and in this book, Atwood does the seem with an equal level of balance and finesse.

For the Shakespeare fan, Atwood fan, and the appreciator of good fiction writing, consider picking up a copy of Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed. The reader does not necessarily need to know or be familiar with Shakespeare's The Tempest to enjoy this book, but knowing it will make some of the inside jokes stand out. In the end, Hag-Seed is an enjoyable read for the literature lover who wants something to engage him or her on many different emotional levels.

I received my copy of this book for free through the Blogging for Books program in exchange for reviewing it. I was not obligated to post a positive review; the opinions expressed are mine.

The Hogarth Press was founded by Virginia and Leonard Woolf in 1917. It was relaunched in 2012 as a partnership between Chatto & Windus in the UK and Crown in the U.S. In 2015 Hogarth launched the Hogarth Shakespeare program to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. "The project sees the Bard’s plays retold by acclaimed, bestselling novelists and brought to life for a contemporary readership." Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood's take on The Tempest.

When the novel opens, Felix Phillips is the Artistic Director of a Shakespeare Festival theater in Ontario (shades of "Slings & Arrows," the Canadian TV series), rehearsing a production of The Tempest and starring himself as Prospero. His wife died shortly after childbirth, a late marriage for him, and three years later his daughter, Miranda, also died. In his grief, Felix buries himself in the artistic side of the festival, leaving all administrative, fund-raising, director-massaging activities to Tony, the festival's second-in-command. Tony forces Felix out in a board-room coup, claiming artistic mismanagement. By page 35, Felix has withdrawn from the world, is living in an isolated two-room shack, and communicating from time to time with his daughter Miranda's living spirit.

Nine years later, Felix spots an opportunity to teach in a nearby prison. He convinces the woman responsible for the job, a woman of a certain age who has known and admired Felix in his earlier life, that a program of mounting Shakespeare's plays in the prison would be valuable. He's hired to work three months a year, and produces Julius Caesar, Richard III, and MacBeth employing inmate actors and technicians. The plays are recorded on video and played through the prison's CCTV system (no assembling a large inmate audience in a medium-security prison) and well-received by the prisoners and administration.

In his fourth year at the prison Felix learns that Tony Price and Sal O'Nally, the two who colluded in sacking Felix from the Festival and now both government Ministers, will be visiting the prison in the spring: "The one place in the world where, with judicious timing, he might be able to wield more power than they could." Felix decides to produce a contemporary version of The Tempest, a revenge play as a vehicle for revenge.

Margaret Atwood is a sorceress. She never slips into mechanically moving her characters around to fit the plot while she does manage to set up echoes and resonances with Shakespeare's play.

—Felix, as theater director, is the wizard controlling events as he plays Prospero who employs magic to enchant his enemies.

—The prison might be an island.

—The relationship between Price, O'Nally, and Felix echo the relationship of Antonio, who usurped his brother Prospero's title as Duke of Milan; Alonso, the King of Naples; and Prospero, the rightful Duke.

—O'Nally brings his son Freddie into the prison to watch the production where he's attracted to the actress who plays Miranda; Alonso's son Ferdinand, also magically shipwrecked, falls in love with Miranda.

—Felix spends twelve years in his cell of a shack; Prospero spends twelve years before Alonso's ship strays close enough to his island that he can use his magic to simulate a shipwreck.

Because this is a contemporary production, in a prison, with inmates, directed by a man willing to push theatrical limits, Felix's Tempest includes raps that the cast—i.e., Atwood—writes. For example:

I'm the man, I'm the Duke, I'm the Duke of Milan,
You want to get pay, gotta do what I say.
Wasn't always this way, no, no,
was once this dude called Antonio,
I was no big deal and it made me feel so bad, so mad,
Got under my skin, 'cause I couldn't ever win,
Got no respect, I was second in line,
But I just kept smilin', just kept lyin', said everything's fine . . . .

You don't have to know The Tempest to enjoy Hag-Seed. You will have to suspend disbelief if you are familiar with prison routine (although, to be fair, perhaps Canadian prisons operate differently than American). If you know your Shakespeare, however, I believe you'll find Hag-Seed a marvel and a joy.

The Girl in the Photo

Although I had never previously read any Margaret Atwood, her novels 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'The Blind Assassin' have long been on my TBR list. During a long business trip to Toronto recently, I was seduced by a bookshop display to pick up a copy of 'Hag-Seed', Ms. Atwood's modern take on 'The Tempest'. I am sad to report, it was something of a disappointment. Part of the problem, I believe, was that the constraints required to map the original story reduced most of the characters to mere ciphers. Some of the plot devices appeared contrived, or, at the very least, strained. Because of this lack of depth - and because there was no real dramatic tension - it was hard to feel anything for the characters. Unfortunately, neither was it funny enough to classify it as a comedy. [Perhaps in this, it accurately mirrored the 'real' Tempest, which - depending on the way it is portrayed on stage - can fall between two stools.] Anyway, it won't stop me reading one of Ms. Atwood's better-known works, but it hasn't done anything to move her up my TBR list. Two-and-a-half stars, rounded up to three.

I went in with low expectations (I've only read one other Atwood novel and it was just an okay read) and found myself loving this retelling of The Tempest.

I would not call this a complete retelling, it has aspects of a retelling but did not limit itself to only using the plot of The Tempest. Instead, Atwood makes this novel her own and interweaves contemporary theater into the novel along with some aspects of The Tempest.

What I Enjoyed:

The humor. The humorous aspects are subtle and dry but it made reading Hag-Seed an enjoyable experience.

The plot. I was not expecting the plot Atwood gives us (I was expecting a more straight forward retelling) it was such an unique twist of Shakespeare and The Tempest. The idea of prisoners getting exposed to Shakespeare and even putting on the plays was a great one that made the novel standout. The ending was full of wit and action, the last part and twist was by far the best section of the novel!

There is also a supernatural aspect, it is a subtle one that kept with the main theme and feeling of the story.

The characters. It took me a bit to warm up to Felix (I tend to not like vengeful or spiteful characters) but I loved his journey throughout the novel. He ended up becoming one of my favorite characters. The side characters were fun as well, the prisoners that put on the play were full of personality and it was fun to read their modern twists/raps about The Tempest.

Plus I loved the fact that Felix, (AKA Mr. Duke), had his students only swear in
Shakespearean.

What I I had trouble with:

However, I recommend rereading The Tempest or at least reading the plot summary that Atwood supplies at the end of the novel. The only thing I struggled with was the plot and the various characters names from The Tempest.

I recommend checking out this Shakespeare inspired novel, it was so much fun to read!!

I want to start this review by saying that I love Margaret Atwood's work. Although usually subversive and political in nature, her novels are always beautifully written with strong characters and interesting worlds. I haven't read all of her novels yet, a lofty goal of mine, but I am incredibly impressed by the versatility of Atwood's writing.

Unfortunately, Hag Seed, although beautiful and well written, was a flop for me. The story felt forced and the tale took awhile to come to a close - which could entirely be because it is based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and did not allow for a whole lot of wiggle room for Atwood to work. I don't think this was one of Atwood's best work and will most definitely not top my list of favourite novels of all time, but it was a lovely re-telling of a well studied work. In true Atwood style we see political opinion in this novel (prisons and rehabilitation being one of the minor themes), but the majority of the novel follows our thwarted and revenge thirsty Felix.

Hag Seed: A tale of deceit, revenge, salvation and loss. A wonderfully executed rendition of Shakespeare's The Tempest that perhaps took a little too long to reach it's crescendo, but nevertheless an interesting read.

Felix, having lost his daughter and his beloved job as artistic theatre director of Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, finds himself teaching Literacy Through Theatre to the prisoners at the nearby Burgess Correctional Institution by using "modernized" Shakespeare reenactments to help rehabilitate prisoners. Eventually, Felix's old nemesis visits the theatre and chaos reigns in Felix's attempt to seek revenge. I often felt incredibly sorry for Felix because life really can be that cruel - and even understood his desire for revenge - but I did not condone his methods. Regardless, the tale of the Tempest was amusing, uplifting and creatively re-invented to make a story that, although not Atwood's best, is still wholesomely Atwood.

All-in-all, Hag Seed was worth a read if only to allow me to have interesting conversations with my otherwise literary involved friends. I am not certain I took anything deeply thought provoking from this novel, but it is definitely worth the read for those whole are interested in the more serious literary genre with a splash of humour. The various verses the inmates create to re-work Shakespeare into a more modern language were rather amusing, but could also upset some of the more die hard Shakespeare lovers.

Hag Seed was OK, and that's also okay because at least I have a great book to discuss with my friends who read serious literature because Hag Seed is cognitively accessible to all.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy Shakespeare re-tellings and novels about revenge. I would definitely recommend this to those who enjoy serious literary treasures with undercurrents of the political. I also suggest this to those who enjoy Atwood's previous work since there are still elements of "Atwoodization" throughout this modern re-telling - the only downside is it appears the author struggled a bit to fit her personality into such a small, previously structured novel.

'The Hogarth Shakespeare Project' commissions renowned writers to retell and modernize Shakepeare's works. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood is a contemporary version of 'The Tempest.'

In a nutshell: The Tempest tells the story of Prospero, a duke that's been deposed and exiled by his treacherous brother Antonio, who's in cahoots with the King. The banished Prospero is stranded on an island with his young daughter Miranda, the monster(ish) Caliban, and the mystical spirit Ariel. After many years Prospero, who's mastered the art of magic, manages to lure his enemies to the island with a bogus tempest. Once the usurpers are in his power, Prospero proceeds to get his revenge.

I'm going to be upfront here and admit that - soon after starting this book - I watched the 2010 film 'The Tempest' (starring Helen Mirren as a female version of Prospero), so I'd know what was going on.

On to the review:

Felix Phillips is the cutting-edge artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theater Festival in Ontario - about to produce The Tempest - when he's ousted by his cunning, manipulative assistant Tony. Felix is already reeling from the death of his three-year-old daughter Miranda, so - completely downtrodden - he goes off to live in a lonely shack and nurture plans of revenge.

Though Felix lives alone he imagines Miranda is still with him.....growing up as the years pass. In Felix's mind he and Miranda share meals, have conversations, walk in the yard, play chess, and so on. After a decade or so Felix gets tired of his lonely isolation and - calling himself Mr. Duke - takes a job with the "Literacy Through Literature” program at the local Fletcher County Correctional Institute. Felix is a gifted and inventive thespian, and - working with
medium-security male inmates - he stages innovative versions of Shakespeare plays.

Finally, 12 years after he was deposed by Tony, Felix gets an opportunity to exact retribution. By now the dirty-dealing Judas and his cohorts are politicians, looking to climb the governmental ladder. To further their ambitions, the politicos plan to see a Shakespeare production at Fletcher prison and (of course) stage a photo op.

So Felix decides to put on a prisoner version of The Tempest, complete with the story's "play within a play" scenario. During the traitors' visit to Fletcher, Tony and his pals think they've been nabbed by convicts during a prison riot, that one of their party has been killed, and so on. The visitors' experiences parallels that of the characters in the real Shakespeare play - and eventually they're confronted with their treachery towards Felix all those years ago.

While reading the book I learned a lot about updating a classic work; how plays are cast and staged; creating costumes; the nuts and bolts of putting on a production; stage names in the clink (LOL); and so on....all of which is very interesting. I loved that the prisoners were only permitted to use 'curse words' in the original play, and their cuss-filled conversations are hilarious. For example: scurvy awesome; what the pied ninny is this; you're a poxy communist; shove it, freckled whelp; and from one well-spoken convict.....poisonous poxy, what's it scurvy about. I also like the inventive rap songs the prisoners write for the production.

In an excellent addendum, the prisoners make up possible futures for the major characters in The Tempest....that is, what happens after the story ends. I often wonder about this kind of thing myself, so I was intrigued by the prisoners' speculations.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it to Shakespeare fans, lovers of literature, and anyone else who wants to try something a little different.

Not having read Shakespeare's original play, I found this story interesting if a bit limited. Despite being inhabitants of the modern world, Atwood's characters feel like they are frozen in the Shakespearean era and not as fluid as they would be in the 2010's. Even her present-day references - Youtube videos and tattoos, prisoners convicted with hacking charges and Google references, even those didn't give the story a truly present-day feel.  Overall, her retelling of the story illustrates the themes of the earlier work and sticks, perhaps, too closely to it.
I Liked:
Felix' teaching materials helped to expose me to the original work - it was as if Atwood was my English teacher helping me to understand Shakespeare
the fluidity of Atwood's take on Ariel and Miranda's characters where they seem, at times, to be one and the same, both emerging from the mind of her Prospero
how Atwood characterizes the themes of obsession and betrayal and revenge and prisons - literally and figuratively
At the end of the class, the imprisoned students have to imagine alternate endings for the original characters. I enjoyed the imaginings that Atwood contrives, giving the reader an opportunity to fantasize along with her characters, even if the ultimate ending wasn't the most favorable one
I didn't like:
the pace of the book was a bit slow at times
the main characters were hard to identify with
some situations weren't resolved as explicitly as I imagined they should've been
the final resolution of the story was hard to accept, what with all those wonderful alternate endings the author proposed
Would I recommend?
Yes. I am loving the Shakespearean retelling project that Hogarth Publishers is producing. Hag-seed brings a slightly obscure piece of literature to the modern day and has the potential to bring new appreciation to the Shakespeare's work.

This being my first modern day retelling of a Shakespearean play I was unsure at first if it would do the original play justice. Well, smack me silly, I was proven wrong by the wonderful job Margaret Atwood did in writing such an intriguing take of the Tempest with the twist of the modern day. The protagonist Felix gives the reader an ample amount to speculate upon regarding his character. Whereas, I observed how Felix’s own life intertwined with the Tempest, for example, Prospero also had a daughter named Miranda who died additionally, things are not always what they insinuate with Felix. I don’t want to expose information too important nonetheless, an aspect of the plot I found intriguing was it is up to each individual reader to determine the mental state of Felix. What is mine, you ask? Well, I don’t think he is mad as Shakespeare would say.

The plot has been pleasingly written containing alluring elements, in addition to engaging readers with ample emotions such as sadness, anger, confusion, including hysterical laughter. Atwood provided the reader a version of the Tempest that is magical, authentic, with delightfully superb actors who reside within Fletcher prison. Therefore, do not fret if you have not read the original play it is explained marvelously also conveniently at the back of the book is a summary of the Tempest.

Whereas, this is a minute glance on my viewpoint of HAG-SEED you can anticipate scads of delight if you read the book.

There is a lot more posted on my blog Readaholic Zone.

I have been a fan of Margaret Atwood for sometime now, so I was excited to get the opportunity to read her latest work. Hag-Seed, it turns out, will not be making it onto my list of favorites, but I can appreciate what makes it a good book. It's definitely well written. Atwood is so good with words and that really shines here. She also creates a really interesting and well-rounded character. I think where it fell a bit for me is just that I wasn't familiar with the story of The Tempest. I've read a lot of Shakespeare but that one never made it in and I think having a better frame of reference would have helped me appreciate the parallels more. As it was I found the book quite slow at times and a bit difficult to get through. I have no doubt however, that plenty of people will absolutely love this book.

Margaret Atwood's contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare project, Hag-Seed, is an interesting re-telling of The Tempest.

What I found particularly interesting in this telling is the manner in which Atwood weaves themes both obvious and subtle into the character, and character development, of Felix, the protagonist. If you are unfamiliar with The Tempest I think it would be fun to read this without getting any background ahead of time. I would be interested in knowing how the story sounds to someone unfamiliar with the original. Then reread it after reading (or at least becoming familiar with) Shakespeare's The Tempest. What differences would knowledge of the original make? Like many, I am familiar with it, from reading several times to various live and filmed versions, so I cannot approach it from that angle.

First, a disclaimer, I am a big fan of Atwood. Even the work I find less compelling I still find better than most of what is available. I think this is both a blessing and a curse, so to speak. As an avid reader of her work I probably notice things peculiar to her thinking that might slide by someone only familiar with a couple works. Also just as likely is that I might give a pass to things I would normally question a bit more because I trust her to bring it all together in the end. I feel like she did bring everything together but it is also just as likely that, by being less critical during the reading I simply forgot some smaller points which didn't come together. But anyway...

I do feel sorry for those who think that explicitly retelling or recontextualing a story is something akin to "recycling." Aside from what it says about that person's attempts at sounding oh so intelligent (fail!) it sidesteps the fact that there are very few, if any, truly 'new' stories. They are all retellings, whether explicit or not. So my advice to readers who understand literature is to read the story and decide whether or not this story put an interesting spin on this particular old story. This isn't recycled, this is simply literature, lower-case 'l', no claim to pretense yet also not making a claim to any lowest common denominator. There are many things to like or dislike, so to hide behind the idea of 'recycling' is a lazy way to say you simply don't get it and, since every story is a 'retelling' of some previous story (stories), using the lame 'recycling' ploy is just pure unadulterated laziness and pseudo-intellectualism. Okay, enough about those 'types' of readers.

This is not my favorite of the Hogarth series so far but I think every version so far has been quite good. I would suggest giving this one a try as well and, rather than come to it with a negative attitude, come to it with an open mind. You will find that reading with an empathetic ear is far superior to reading with a negative outlook.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I don't feel I can add much to the excellent reviews already to be found here, so let me just say that I thoroughly enjoy this Hogarth Shakespeare series, which has renowned authors update the Bare's plays. They have all been excellent, and I would say are particularly useful as a complement for students reading the originals.

In this retelling of The Tempest Felix is a respected director at a small theater but as the book opens he is being fired -- undone by a sneaky employee. He goes off the grid to collect himself, pining for revenge, and the opportunity comes twelve years later.

The parallels to the original play are quite creative and insightful, the characters are well drawn and, as one would expect from Margaret Atwood, the writing is superb.

If I were teaching or knew a student reading The Tempest I would absolutely ask them to read this as well. I think especially those new to Shakespeare recognize the universality of his theme and characters, but are surprised that the plays are often presented in other times or places. This series is a wonderful introduction to that practice, for students or even us longtime 'fans'.

Margaret Atwood's latest offering Hag Seed is wonderful. It is all very meta, involving the staging of a performance of The Tempest, while the director himself reenacts the conflict contained within The Tempest in his own life. But Atwood being Atwood, this is all done with style and ease, and you appreciate the story for its own narrative strengths, rather than because of the clever thing she is attempting to do.
Felix is the director of the Makeshiweg Festival, but is ousted by his assistant,just as he's about to stage a wild interpretation of The Tempest. He retreats to a hovel in the countryside where he plots his revenge. To stop himself from going completely round the bend, he signs up to teach a literacy through theatre course at a local prison, and it is in this magical space that his plans for revenge finally find expression, as he resurrects his long-dead production.
Felix is a sympathetic character of the blustery, old, theatery sort. He is manipulative and vengeful, but ultimately the reader wishes him well. The prison cast are excellent in their camp criminality, and the book is filled with dry and humorous observations about their intentions.
Atwood manages to create characters that align with Shakespeare's - although some swap parts in the book - without it feeling laboured or contrived. They live and breathe in their own right, rather than being props to drive the pre-existing narrative forward.
My only (slight) criticism of the book is that the final scenes in which the revenge is finally enacted are a little chaotic, and in some cases I found it difficult to visualise exactly what was going on.
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed Hag Seed in all its glorious, clever theatricality.

As a fan of Atwood, a massive reader and book reviewer, Shakespearean scholar, and actor that has played in five Shakespearean comedies (including as Stephano in The Tempest), I was thrilled to receive my Advance Reader's Edition of Hag-Seed. When I heard about the Hogarth Shakespeare Project's plan to publish interpretations of Shakespeare's plays by the greatest novelists of today, I was excited to an unhealthy degree of fandom for my favorite writers tackling Shakespeare. It is something wonderful and unique, and Atwood's approach to The Tempest was just as strange and wonderful as I expected.

The story is somewhat of a mix between the Canadian television show Slings and Arrows, Orange is the New Black, Six Feet Under, West Wing, and...Well, The Tempest. Atwood approaches her storytelling in a genius manner, combining the stories in this beautiful manner that tells the story of The Tempest in three distinct ways. First, there is the core story of The Tempest, textually retold by the prisoners in a credit-bearing course. Second, the story of The Tempest is then retold as the characters in the prison actually embody it in their navigation of the text. Finally, the book as a whole, which includes the events, our main character Prospero's navigation of his real-world issues, and the side-characters, all interweave in a beautiful and strangely magical new interpretation of The Tempest as a whole. Funny, touching, and appropriately sensitive to the plight of arts funding and prisoner realities, Hag-Seed is a gorgeous three-layer deep Matryoshka retelling of The Tempest that is effective and fun to read.

What I was most impressed with is with the style in which Atwood approached the text. I felt like I could read this as a Shakespeare scholar and get just as much out of the novel as if a layperson with no exposure read it or if I read it to my seven-year-old. It is approachable in a genius way and is totally one of the many reasons that I love Atwood's work. She is truly an excellent writer whose work transcends any definition but "dark magic for all."

Oh, and to see my Stephano search for "The Tempest Actors Circle Theatre" on Youtube. You won't regret it.

Plot Teaser
Felix is a hugely popular Theater Director in a Canadian town called Makeshiweg who is betrayed by an associate and fired from his job. He decides to isolate himself from civilization initially, only to accept an offer to take charge of a nearby prison’s theater program disguised as Mr. Duke. Felix decides to use the theater program as the vehicle for the revenge he wants to exact on his former enemies. To do so, he chooses to put on a version of The Tempest, which was the play he had been planning right before his fall from the theater community’s grace.

What I Liked
The writing. As I mentioned in the intro, I was unfamiliar with Atwood’s writing before reading Hag-Seed. I’m definitely going to try to read everything she’s ever written now. I was captivated by her narration within just a few paragraphs. Her prose is concise and to the point while still descriptive and lyrical. There are tons of adjectives but somehow not a single needless or extra word. In some places I felt she was mirroring the more ornamented aspects of Shakespeare’s verse, picking words that are not commonly used today, and it was so effective at making the reader feel that they were reading a sort of beautiful hybrid between prose and verse.

The retelling. It’s not easy to think of an authentic way in which to reinterpret a play about an aged magician who is banished by his evil brother and shipwrecked on an enchanted island with his daughter, before exacting his revenge years later. Atwood’s choice of plot and characters were inspired. Prospero is Felix, whose magic is his ability to enact glorious plays, and the island becomes both the small spartan house in which Felix decides to self-maroon, and the prison whose inmates are enlisted as actors in Felix’s version of The Tempest. In the original play, Shakespeare has Prospero trick his brother Antonio and his accomplices by creating a play of his own after they are also shipwrecked on the island. In the same way, Atwood is recreating a play (The Tempest into Hag-Seed) that has a play at its center (Felix’s portrayal of The Tempest in the prison). She takes it one step further, however, with another play within the play within the play, when Felix enacts a third live version of The Tempest on the people who have destroyed his theater career in order to exact his revenge.

The summaries of the original play provided to refresh your mind. The last time I read Shakespeare’s The Tempest was at least 10 years ago in college. If you decide to read Hag-Seed and are as rusty on the plot of the actual Tempest as I was, you don’t have to go online and look for a synopsis to refresh your mind. You can either read the quick three-page summary of Shakespeare’s original play that is provided at the end of the novel, or you can also wait for Felix to explain the plot of The Tempest to his inmate-actors once he decides to have them interpret the play. The theater program that Atwood has Felix run in the prison within the novel actually begins with portrayals of some of Shakespeare’s more straightforward plays like Macbeth and Julius Caesar. It’s in year 4 that Felix decides to broach the play that preceded the wreck of his career.

The way in which the racial discrimination theme was included. The Tempest has an unfortunately timeless aspect to it in the character of Caliban, a half-man half-beast who is subjugated to educated, white, noble Prospero. When Felix explains the nature of the character to the predominantly POC inmates in the prison, none of them initially want to play the part. Atwood justifiably explains that as the prisoners have been considered Calibans all their lives, they know it’s a thankless role. By bringing The Tempest into a predominantly POC inhabited prison and demonstrating the tension between something frivolous like a play reenactment and the real hardships and injustices experienced by the prisoners, Atwood brings a contemporary depth to the racial element of the original play. The prisoners – Caliban and his Hag-Seeds – even rap in some of the play’s scenes, bringing a different modern cultural element into the play, which further updates the play’s message.

What I Didn’t Like
The extra chapters at the end. The actual plot of the novel ends with a bang – there is an exciting final scene full of action, justice and redemption. Right after, however, Atwood includes 3 or 4 additional chapters in which the actors/prisoners reunite after the play and discuss what they think the destinies of their characters might have been. I thought that though these chapters were not unpleasant or uninteresting to read, they felt like a tag-on to the novel and diluted the potency of its finale.

Final Verdict
A lucid, lyrical and visionary retelling of one of Shakespeare’s most unusual plays, which will make you feel Shakespeare’s versatility and the artistry of Atwood’s prose.

Vengeance. A prison. An immersive performance. These elements combine to form an easily accessible re-envisioning of Shakespeare's The Tempest in Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed.

An established play director, Felix, has been putting on interesting interpretations of classic plays for years, but when he's suddenly forced out of his newest endeavor of The Tempest, his life gets set on a new, albeit obscure, trajectory. Living in seclusion under an assumed name, Felix begins teaching in a literacy program in the local prison where he's able to make Shakespeare's plays his canonical material to engage his pupils. Having had years of success in this, the program soon comes under threat of being shut down by the very people who ruined Felix's life. With what could be the last class, Felix decides to put on his previously abandoned Tempest, with an added amount of revenge sprinkled in for good measure.

The story was able to use direct quotations from The Tempest, which provided an intriguing meta effect to the re-imagining of being a play within a play . The narrative was also able to offer some interesting interpretations of the text through the inmates' perspectives of what happens to the characters (which I'm sure that many (future) readers will appreciate when it comes time for them to read and interpret this play for their literature classes!). I wasn't overly impressed with the characterization of the inmates (due to the lack of it, aside from Felix's outline of their convictions and background in a written list, the inmates felt like one big stereotyped stand-in) because it made it feel like they were purely a means to an end and not actual people with unique traits. I did, however, enjoy this version of the story more than I did the original play, but perhaps it's because the more overt, explanatory nature of the narrative made it more accessible than the play.

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Felix was a director of a major theater festival for many years when he was ignominiously fired by a man who went on to replace him. Felix is also mourning his daughter’s death from twelve years before whom he called Miranda. He eventually gets a job at a prison and teaches the prisoners Shakespeare’s plays. His class is suddenly a hit and there is a long waiting list to get in one of his plays.

After a few years goes by, Felix discovers the men who did him wrong are now high up in the political spectrum in Ontario and he plots his revenge. He explains his plan to the other prisoners and they buy in.

This is a retelling of the story of the Tempest and the prisoners are acting in their own version of the Tempest too. A play within a play, within a play…

I enjoyed this story very much. It is a tale of loss, revenge and redemption. I highly recommend it.

I borrowed this book from my local library.

Felix is a brilliant, eccentric, and difficult artistic director of a popular and successful theater festival in Canada, something like the Stratford Festival. He focuses so much on the art of his job, he neglects the commerce, allowing Tony to pick up the slack and deal with the tedious work of schmoozing funders and writing grants and dealing with the Board of Directors. So of course, Tony engineers a coup and he is summarily fired, unable to even say goodbye to his company.

Felix was blindsided and doubly angered because Tony stepped into the breach while Felix was grieving, first the loss of his wife in childbirth and then, just three years later, the death of his daughter Miranda from meningitis. Tony took advantage of his grief and distraction to rob him of his life’s work. Worse, he kept Felix from his crowning achievement, a production of The Tempest that would bring Miranda back to him. Just as Prospero was robbed by Antonio, Felix was robbed by Tony. Hag-Seed is the story of Felix after this betrayal, the story of exile and revenge. It is, in fact, The Tempest brought to contemporary Canada.

His route to revenge is the focus of this story. Felix takes a job teaching literacy at a prison. He throws out the conventional curriculum and teaches Shakespeare and produces each season a new play that is filmed and shown to the entire prison. It is enormously successful and brings us the most thrilling and fascinating part of the book, Felix teaching Shakespeare. The pedagogy on display makes me wish I had Margaret Atwood for a teacher. This is teaching at its finest.

I don’t think Margaret Atwood is capable of writing a bad book and Hag-Seed is certainly a good book. However, there is a logical flaw, an inconsistency that mars the book for me. More than once, we are assured that the minimum security prisoners are men who committed non-violent crimes, frauds, cheating, embezzling, so we need not worry they would be violent. Felix makes this very explicit when hiring an actress to play Miranda. However, the revenge plot depends on that fundamental truth to be untrue when it comes to our bad guy Tony. His crimes are not murder and violence, but betrayal and smarmy brown-nosing for power.

Otherwise, it’s an inventive and fun re-imagination of Shakespeare. I really came to adore Felix and many of the other characters. Things happened a bit too perfectly, but that’s Shakespeare for you.

It turns out it is the fourth in the Hogarth Shakespeare Series, and now I have to read the rest of them. Shakespeare re-created for today by today’s best writers. What fun!

As Hollywood seems to be stuck in a perpetual cycle of reboots and retellings, it was only a matter of time before the publishing industry began to follow suit. What's old is new again, and a group of authors has turned to one of the oldest and most revered storytellers of all time. The plays of William Shakespeare are set to be reimagined by some of the industry's most unique voices in a series known as the Hogarth Shakespeare project. Last year saw the start of the series with the release of Jeanette Winterson's take on The Winter's Tale, The Gap of Time. With installments by Jo Nesbo and Gillian Flynn slated to drop in the coming years, the project seems to have recruited a varied list of bestselling authors.

In Hag-Seed, author Margaret Atwood provides her own version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Felix Phillips is no stranger to crisis. After the loss of his daughter Miranda, he sought solace in his role as theater director of the Makeshiweg Theater Festival. For twelve years, Felix captained the organization through settings of great works. Despite his productions' lackluster reviews, Felix has high hopes for this year's project. A dream of his for over a decade, Felix will finally direct his version of The Tempest.

But life has other plans for Felix. The tepid reaction to his last effort combined with his peculiar vision for this year's offering give his understudy Tony and the theater's board enough reason to relieve him of his duties. Furious and embarrassed, Felix retreats to a rural dwelling to reflect on his misfortune and plot his revenge. With only his creative intellect and the guidance of his deceased daughter to rely on, he soon accepts a job teaching literature at a local correctional facility. Devoid of the resources of his previous position, Felix and his ragtag troupe of inmates embark on finally seeing his fantasy production to fruition.

I hadn't read The Tempest since high school, so I was a bit apprehensive about tackling this novel. Fortunately, Atwood's writing kept me engaged throughout the entire book. Felix is a lovable underdog who I couldn't help but get behind. Hag-Seed works both as a standalone story and in relation to the play it is reimagining. Felix is an obvious double for Shakespeare's Prospero. As he lures his wrongdoers into his revenge scenario, Atwood relishes in the absurdity of the situation. A brief summary of The Tempest follows the conclusion of the novel, adding clarity and depth to the already fascinating story. While I'm not usually a fan of retellings, I thoroughly enjoyed Hag-Seed and can't wait to see the next installments in this ambitious project.

Margaret Atwood is an incredibly intelligent, adept, and inspirational woman that has written countless incredible works and continues to do so with her newest release, Hag-Seed. Hag-Seed is part of Hogarth Shakespeare's project to have a variety of bestselling authors retell many of Shakespeare's most classic works. I am really excited about this project, and I think it is an exciting way to bring Shakespeare's work to life in new and imaginative ways.

I honestly feel like I don't even know where to start with this magnificent book. I am not overly familiar with The Tempest itself (I vaguely remember reading it years ago, maybe it's time to re-read), so I understand that I may not have understand every reference or interpretative view, but I understood the basics and the fact that this book is outstanding. I sincerely enjoyed this book and breezed right through - though that is not to say that this was a lighthearted read. Hag-Seed is filled with so many layers, all of which add a greater level of depth to the story.

I loved the entire setting. I thought the entire prison literature program that Felix was in charge of was brilliant. Having the prisoners partake in a play retelling Shakespeare plays? It doesn't get more interesting or better than that. I enjoyed seeing the different ways in which the prisoners got excited and how they manifested their eagerness for the play.

Atwood once again creates remarkably intriguing characters. He's not exactly a lovable man, but there is something about him that draws you in and makes you want to follow his story. At heart, he is a man still struggling deeply to overcome the death of his daughter and the loss of his job - his whole life. He is looking for a way to begin and for a way to enact revenge upon those who helped to ruin his life. He is careful and unassuming, the perfect role for his own personal play. The other characters were also extremely fun to dissect and learn about, and Atwood brought each one to life with a vibrant, unique personality. I particularly enjoyed Anne-Marie's character, who is the woman Felix hires to play the role of Miranda, which turns out to be an exceptionally important role to Felix.

This isn't a comedy, but there is an abundance of comic relief - both overt and subtle - that truly made this book a joy to read. Everything in this book is brilliant and only further enforces the fact that Atwood is a genius. The plot of this story centers on Felix's play, which the play itself then sets the stage and becomes a plan for revenge. Felix himself is the character he plays - both in his own life and the play. This book is so subtle in its meta qualities. Hag-Seed is a retelling, but it also retells the basic play itself. Through the prisoners we are able to truly study the characters of the play: their motivations, personalities, ideas, and so much more.

I read a decent amount of Shakespeare in my high school English classes, but never had I come across The Tempest, on which Hag-Seed is based.

I've never expressed any interest in reading The Tempest either, but now, after experiencing the joy of reading Atwood's retelling, I sure would like to do so!

Hag-Seed proved to be a completely different read than I was expecting, which is weird because I like to think of myself as being used to Atwood's writing and storytelling styles.

Centering around Felix Phillips, a play putting-on aficionado, who is tricked out of his beloved position as artistic director of a local acting company, Atwood's incredible storytelling skills come to life in Hag-Seed.

Felix turns into a virtual hermit following the loss of his job, which was his passion.

Ultimately, Felix is hired at a prison nearby to teach convicted men how to read.

Felix brings to the prison his passion for Shakespeare and conjures actors out of the sometimes hopeless inmates.

Surprisingly to me, Felix bides his time for over a decade, hell bent on avenging his firing from the theater company.

While he goes about his life and embraces his job as a prison teacher, Felix never forgets what he lost all those years ago and plans just how to finally avenge the fact that he had the rug swept from under him when he unexpectedly was forced out of the company he adored.

Felix concocts a brilliant plan, which he thinks of after circumstances promise to reunite him with the very men who screwed him over 12 years prior, of revenge.

My favorite aspect of Hag-Seed is that both the plot and Felix come full circle and reach satisfying ends.

I highly recommend this tale to followers of Margaret Atwood and to virgin Atwood readers alike.

Reading Hag-Seed has further solidified my love of Atwood's books and prompts me to devour the rest of her works ASAP!

I was eager to read Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood's versions of The Tempest, because I'd read so many glowing reviews.

Hag-Seed is definitely my favorite in the Hogarth Shakespeare series so far.

I won't concentrate on a plot synopsis since so many other reviewers have already done that. I'd rather address what aspects of the novel particularly impressed me.

I loved Hag-Seed's play within a play structure, so Shakespearean, where all the contemporary characters in the novel correspond to the original play and perform The Tempest while creating a live theater situation where the audience becomes a part of a play based on the Tempest.

I'll try to explain this again.

The protagonist, the brilliant and original artistic director Felix, was about to direct The Tempest when he was disposed from his job as artistic director by self-seeking men. Felix retreats to a primitive cabin in the middle of nowhere, his only companion the memory of his deceased daughter Miranda. After many years he takes a job under a false name and becomes Mr. Duke, literacy teacher in a local prison, teaching inmates Shakespeare through performance of the plays. When Felix learns his old enemies are now Ministers who want to end the prison literacy program he decides the time has come for him to take his revenge. The Ministers come to the prison to see a video of The Tempest performed by the inmates. But Felix and his prisoner actors plot a live theater experience that will bring his enemies under his power.

The intricate structure of the novel knocked my socks off. Additionally, as Felix teaches The Tempest to the prison inmates the reader is also educated about the play's themes and characters. And then at the end of the book the inmates offer reports on what happens to the characters after the events of the play. They offer original insights, such as Prospero's lack of oversight allowing Antonio to usurp him; a questioning of the strength or weakness of goodness; the theme of second chances; and theorizing that Prospero is Caliban's father. I also liked how the minor characters, the prisoners enrolled in Felix's course, have distinct personalities and back stories that relate to the roles they are assigned.

"The last three words in the play are 'set me free'," says Felix." Felix has identified nine prisons within the play, and so we understand how Atwood conceived of Hag-Seed.

Readers of this series don't have to be experts on Shakespeare's plays to enjoy the novels, although an understanding of the plays heightens the enjoyment. If you are rusty on the play, you can skip to the author's synopsis at the end and read it first.

I received a free e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

‘Hag-seed’ is part of the Hogarth Press’s modern retellings of Shakespeare. This one renovates ‘The Tempest’, placing it in a medium-security prison and making some of the songs in the play into rap performances.

Felix, director of a regional theater, is brought to rock bottom when he is fired and his assistant takes over his job. A widower whose child, Miranda, died at age 3, he retreats to the countryside, talking to his ghostly daughter, reading to her, and teaching her chess as, in his mind, she grows up. It’s never explained if Felix is really hallucinatory or if he is consciously bringing Miranda to life. Seeing an ad seeking someone to teach literacy to prisoners in a new program, he invents a new name and past and gets the job. He teaches the inmates to read and examine literature by using them to produce Shakespearean plays. Meanwhile he cyberstalks the men responsible for his losing his position at the theater.

A chance arrives to get revenge when, in planning to defund the inmate program, those men plan to visit the prison and observe his class. He forms an elaborate plan, taking the prisoners into his confidence and setting up a performance in which he plays Prospero. Which is where the mood changes drastically.

The first part is a serious tale of obsession and grief; then it suddenly morphs into a caper movie. Each inmate has some special talent that is necessary for the plan to come together; it’s a sort of ‘A Team’ meets Shakespeare. Even though serious stuff is going on, it’s downright funny. It’s not the climax I was expecting, but I enjoyed it.

The best parts of the book, to me, were where Felix is working with the inmates. The ways they interpret Shakespeare, and the ways Felix makes it understandable and applicable to their own lives, are fascinating and made me wonder if Atwood has worked with inmates. Of course it’s made clear that these are a special group of inmates, so I assume that in real life there might not be such harmony and agreeableness.

An unusual and intense book.

Margaret Atwood’s retelling of The Tempest in Hag-Seed is a romp. I mean this in the best way. The parallels in Atwood’s Hag-Seed to the Shakespeare play are so on-the-nose that you can practically see her gleefully smirking as she was writing this (especially while coming up with those rap ditties…). Atwood gets away with it by channeling the opaque theme of revenge through one of the most charmingly sympathetic characters in Felix Phillips. There’s an earnestness to Felix that cuts through the bitter edge of his life that you can’t help but root for him.

Felix was once the artistic director of the prestigious Makeshiweg Festival before he was ousted by his scheming assistant, Tony. Aggrieved and kicked to the curb, Felix spends twelve years retreating from the public eye, nursing his bruised ego in noble exile, living like a hermit, until he comes upon an unlikely gig as the director of a prison theatre program at Fletcher Correctional. Professionally, it’s a fall from grace for him, but Felix graciously takes the job and performs as a teacher with gusto and genuine enthusiasm. Eventually he comes to some well-deserved renown and earns the admiration from the prison administration, even catching the eye of the upper echelons of government. He’s the charismatic English professor we all wished we had.

Meanwhile, we learn that being fired and backstabbed by his peers isn’t the only pain Felix has been nursing. He carries the burden of a bigger tragedy, too, namely the sudden deaths of his wife and then daughter Miranda at the tender age of three. The death of his daughter hits him really hard. Throughout his isolated existence, he regularly hallucinates and has conversations with her conjured ‘ghost’. She even ages and grows up alongside him, becoming a young teen by the time Felix finds himself working at Fletcher. Felix isn’t crazy; he knows Miranda isn’t real, and yet she stays lovingly by his side, as real as can be.

Through a series of fortuitous twists, Felix finds himself in a position to mete out justice to those who’ve wronged him. He’ll do it with the help of the Fletcher Correctional Players. Here’s the elusive chance he’s been waiting for. The staging of The Tempest will be his retirement piece de resistance, his reason for living again, and a much needed blood-letting for all those wrongs.

Much of the fun in reading Hag-Seed is in seeing the antics of a bunch of hard-knock convicts get ready for their theatre performance and learning how to unpack Shakespeare. At times the plotting can feel a bit like a generic feel-good, Dead Poets Society-kind of redemption story, but Atwood, to her credit, manages to elevate it with her golden prose and talent for pacing a story around a satisfying character arc. It helps that Felix is a wonderful teacher, a well-armored theatre nerd, and that his actors are enthusiastic and have hearts of gold. There’s a rule that Felix puts out to his students: no curse words except those used in the play. The classroom banter scenes are filled with expressions like ‘whoreson’ and ‘malignant thing’ and ‘poxy’ and ‘red plague’.

When Felix eventually gets his chance to confront his enemies, it’s no longer just personal. The literacy project that makes the prison theatre group possible is now under threat to be axed in budget cuts. To make it all fall into place, Atwood really stretches the imagination, but it’s still fun to see it all play out so brazenly hitch-free. Does Felix get his revenge? Will the Fletcher Correctional Players keep going? I won’t say, though the actual play should give you a hint of what’s to come.

Hag-Seed does miss some big opportunities, though. The book’s title makes a reference to the monster character Caliban, but Caliban in the book gets little treatment in Atwood’s retelling. Imagine the possibilities of unpacking Caliban—who has in modern times become a revisionist symbol of postcolonial rebellion and rage—in essentially a revenge plot acted out inside a prison system. I feel like Atwood could have deepened the retelling that way.

After the final performance, and in the aftermath of Felix’s revenge, the participants give their final presentations on what they think is the fate of their assigned characters. It’s their last class assignment. They are asked to imagine a future for them. What they each come up with is poignant and breathes new life into the retelling of the play.

[Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher for an honest and candid review. This review was originally written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.]

Hagseed – the offspring of a witch

After the death of his daughter, 3-year-old Miranda, Felix Philips is ousted from his position as Director of the Makeshiweg Festival by his smarmy once right-hand man, Tony, just as Felix was about to stage his own unique production of The Tempest. Now, several years later, he has a part-time job with a literacy program at a Canadian penitentiary. This setting serves two purposes: first, to emphasize, as Felix points out, there are seven types of prisons in the original and second, it replaces the play’s uncharted island because, as Atwood herself has pointed out, where could you find an uncharted island these days. Each year, he and the inmates put on a Shakespearean play. He usually chooses the more dramatic plays like Macbeth. However, when he finds out that Tony, who has traded his artistic career for politics, and some of his supporters are coming to the prison ostensibly to take a look at the literacy program but in reality to end it, Felix decides he will get his revenge by staging his own version of The Tempest with a couple of minor twists.

Hag-seed is author Margaret Atwood’s contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare series and there is no one more capable of rewriting the Bard for today’s audience while maintaining the agelessness of the play. She has created a wonderfully imaginative modern take on The Tempest, perhaps the Bard’s most fantastical work. And, despite the fantasy nature of the play, she manages to make Felix’s story mirror it almost flawlessly. Atwood combines beautiful prose, fully formed and empathetic characters, and an addicting story with humour and social critique to create a very compelling, complex, and entertaining retelling of a very difficult and multilayered play. This is a tale of love, loss, and grief, of prisons both real and those we construct in our minds, of revenge, retribution and, finally, forgiveness – but forgiveness tempered with reality because bad guys can’t always be trusted and, as Shakespeare points out in a different play: ‘Nothing emboldens sin as much as mercy’.

A definite must-read for fans of Atwood, Shakespeare, or just an extremely well-written and entertaining story especially one based on an excellent play.

Thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing and Hogarth for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

A play, within a play, within a play. This latest book by Margaret Atwood is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project. A number of authors are creating new, modern re-tellings of some of Shakespeare’s famous plays. Like most American kids, I was introduced to Shakespeare through school. Romeo and Juliet to be exact, ugh, hated that play. I’ve also seen some movie adaptations, and attended a few local live productions. I can appreciate Shakespeare but he is definitely not a favorite of mine. However, I adore Margaret Atwood, so I was ready to put some work into this in order to read her new book.

Hag-Seed is based on The Tempest, which I’d never read before. I read the play in preparation, and then visited the SparkNotes webpage, among others, to help me interpret what I’d read. Now I felt a little more prepared. In the play, a magician named Prospero, is tricked out of his position as Duke of Milan and sent out to die in a leaky boat, accompanied by his tiny daughter Miranda. They survive and many years later, he is presented with an opportunity for revenge against the very people who supplanted and nearly killed him. It’s an interesting story, full of tragedy and shipwreck, fairies and monsters. It was not easy reading. I felt pity for characters I felt sure I should hate, and disdain for characters I assumed I was supposed to love. I was confused, but ready to start Hag-Seed.

In Atwood’s book, Felix (Prospero) is the Artistic Director of a theater company in Makeshiweg, Canada. He is ousted by an up and coming director who he believed to be a friend. His plight is heartbreaking. Felix’s Miranda died as a very small child, and he is destroyed by this new loss of his job coming on top of his grief for his little girl. Ms. Atwood once again shows insight and compassion in how she deals with his resultant depression and disconnect with reality. Years later, he gets a job directing a theater class in a local prison. He insists that the prisoners be allowed to perform Shakespeare. It turns out to be a great success. He charms (magically? ha!) the prisoners and guards into cooperation. Some time later, he is presented with an opportunity to put on a play for the very people who had destroyed his life and he jumps at the chance. The play’s the thing, and for him that play must be The Tempest. He plans to use the prisoners to exact revenge for the wrongs that were done him so many years before.

It’s hard to pigeonhole The Tempest into a particular genre. It is certainly not a Tragedy but it’s also not fully Comedy. Hag-Seed is no different. Parts of it are heartbreaking and touching while others are just plain hilarious. The production itself is flamboyantly fantastic. Ariel as a space alien?! Oh my goodness! Disney Princesses make an appearance as mythical Greek Goddesses! Caliban raps his speeches while wearing a Godzilla head. I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, and you’d be right, but it really is magic, pure magic! However, when the time comes for the play to start and for Felix’s vengeance to be enacted, a feeling of doom comes over the reader. A crash of thunder, the sound of a storm, and I want to cover my eyes. This cannot end well.

Ms. Atwood, for all her playing around with characters and settings of the original play, is an informed author. The amount of research and hard work that must have went into the making of this book is something wonderful. Her respect for the source is tangible, and I feel that reading Hag-Seed really helped me understand The Tempest so much better than when I started. She reminded me as well that part of the beauty of Shakespeare is that each reader can interpret it in different ways. I don’t have to be nailed down to some High School teachers ideas. I can love it in pieces if i like and can feel for the characters as I see fit. Thanks Felix, I learned a lot from your class! Thank you Ms. Atwood, I learned a lot from your delightful, sparkling book. Thank you Hogarth Press, what a wonderful way to re-introduce us to Shakespeare! I recommend this book to everyone.

Bonus Link: Please visit the Hogarth Project to see the list of other books that are included. I’m already reading Vinegar Girl based on The Taming of the Shrew and I’d love to read more!

Song for this book: Guns and Ships – Hamilton (I chose this because I couldn’t get Hamilton out of my mind when the prisoners rapped their lines in The Tempest – this must have been what it was like!)

As part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, William Shakespeare's The Tempest is retold in Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. It is very highly recommended.

Felix Phillips was the acclaimed and creative Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival until he was forced out of his position by his scheming and conniving second-in-command, Tony Price. After his ignoble exit, he goes into a self-imposed exile, living in a remote shack. After twelve years pass, Felix applies under the name of Mr. Duke for the position of a teacher in the Literacy Through Literature program at the Fletcher County Correctional Institute. His one requirement is that he be allowed to use Shakespeare's plays to teach and that he be allowed to have his students/inmates put on the play. His class becomes wildly popular and highly successful in increasing literacy among the participants.

When he learns that his nemesis Tony and the other bigwigs that ousted him from the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival will be visiting the Fletcher County Correctional Institute with the intent of ending the Literacy Through Literature program, Felix has another end game in mind. They don't know he is the one teaching the program as they only know him as Mr. Duke. This is Felix's chance to put on a performance of The Tempest, the play he was planning to direct before Tony had him removed from his position.

The narrative is a parallel to the play as Atwood uses her characters to retell The Tempest while also having the inmates perform their version of the play. The results are simply amazing. The vengeance, magic, spirits, etc. are all there, but the prisoners are allowed to rewrite sections to make their performance based on a more contemporary version. This Tempest has the re-writing of the play featuring rapping - and Ariel is no ethereal fairy. The inmates are also only allowed to swear using Shakespearean swear words found in the original.

I am delighted with this fourth addition to the Hogarth series. Atwood's narrative is wonderfully inventive and compelling. Don't expect boring or tell yourself that you aren't interested in a re-imagining of Shakespeare. This is a thoroughly modern take on the plot and a man seeking revenge. A synopsis of Shakespeare's original plot in The Tempest is found at the conclusion of Hag-Seed for those who are interested or need some refreshing of their memory.

Atwood is, as always, brilliant. I am a dedicated fan of her writing anyway, but Hag-Seed is clever, humorous, and a marvelously complete, original retelling of the play. The Hogarth series has featured Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time (The Winter's Tale), Howard Jacobson's Shylock is My Name (The Merchant of Venice), Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl (The Taming of the Shrew), and Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed (The Tempest). I highly recommended Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl, but for me, Atwood's Hag-Seed was a more successful adaptation. I am anxious to read the first two books in the Hogarth series and I'm planning to read each new adaptation as soon as possible.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.

I’ve read and enjoyed several of the Hogarth Shakespeare books but this one is now my favorite. For those unfamiliar with The Tempest, the story is nicely retold at the back of the book. For those vaguely familiar, re-discovering themes and characters through an aging director’s very strange cast and stage is an absolute delight. And for those who know the Tempest backward forward and sideways, you can be sure you’ve never seen it presented quite like this.

Part literary storytelling—how will a director cope when he loses his prestigious position?—part haunting mystery—and is the new home haunted?—part fascinating, thoroughly absorbing tale of growing threat and revenge, and part character study filled with at least as many present-world characters as those in Shakespeare’s play—Hagseed works, and works superbly, on every possible level, and keeps its readers glued to the page from start to finish.

In case you can’t tell, I really loved this book!

Disclosure: Blogging for Books provided this book to me for free in exchange for an honest review.

The first third of Hag-Seed was discouraging. I plodded along, following Felix as he moped and bemoaned his fate. Imagine The Tempest if Act I consisted just of Prospero sitting on his island with a rather nebulous Ariel.

Oh, but when the story begins to focus on Felix teaching prisoners--the devil take your fingers!--it is so good.

Atwood/Felix understands teaching. I cannot attest to teaching the incarcerated, but I have taught college freshmen who were not nearly so engaged and well-behaved as the convicts (to be fair, the prisoners chose to join the class while the freshmen must take English courses).

Felix is an insightful and wise instructor. He enchants the motley group of felons and readers alike.

The book rollicks along, picking up speed through a tricky caper giving Felix revenge.

There are so many parallels between Atwood's story and The Tempest that several readings would not reveal them all. It is "rough magic" indeed.

Locally famous director Felix heads the Makeshiweg Shakespeare Festival and is just getting underway with his newest production, The Tempest, when he is suddenly fired. It is said that he just hasn't been the same since the loss of his young daughter Miranda, and that his work has suffered.

Felix essentially goes into hiding, changing his identity and taking up residence in a country shack, all the while obsessed with revenge on his betrayers in the festival. He manages to secure a job teaching theater in a local maximum security prison, and eventually a plot for revenge Is hatched that will involve a prison production of The Tempest to which his enemies will be invited.

With Hag Seed, Atwood has created what for me has been the most enjoyable read in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Her utterly readable prose and imaginative take on the classic make for a rewarding reading experience preserving both the tragic and the comedic elements of the play.

I've wondered throughout this Hogarth series whether it is more likely to draw fans from Shakespeare eager to read a re-imagined work or if it would instead draw entirely new readers and push them toward Shakespeare's originals. It seems to me the former has been true up to this point, but if any book in the series could have the effect of the latter description then Hag Seed is it. From the heartbroken and angry Felix, to the brave twenty something starving actress he casts as Miranda, to the varied criminals who take on the play's famous roles, there is someone and something for most readers here and enough laughs to balance out the remembrances of the tragic loss of a child. Hag Seed certainly does its part in justifying the creation of the Hogarth Shakespeare series.

Note: ARC received free from publisher via NetGalley.

When I first heard that Hogarth Press was doing a special Shakespeare series, I was excited. Weren’t you? We’re all great lovers of the man. Or at least we pretend to be. But I am not pretending.
In college one summer I put a goal upon myself to read every Shakespeare play. I failed but I tried. In college, I studied “Hamlet” in THREE different classes. I was getting bored with it by the third class. As a teacher, I got to teach “Romeo & Juliet”, “Juliet Caesar”, “MacBeth” and again “Hamlet”.  After my teaching career ended, I worked at the “Shakespeare Festival of New Jersey“. So you can say I have Shakespeare in my blood.
The first book of the Hogarth Shakespeare series is “Hag Seed“, Margaret Atwood’s spin on a modern retelling of “The Tempest”. I found it so very good that it was difficult to put down. But then Margaret Atwood has never disappointed me and I’ve read many of her works.
I cannot wait to read more of this series.  What an exciting way to reintroduce Shakespeare to the world!

DISCLAIMER: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s most intensely psychological plays. Like Othello, it is all about revenge, but it is also about forgiveness. It posits the question “How does a person that has been deeply wronged move beyond that injury?”

In the play, Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, and his daughter are living on island in the middle of the sea. Prospero has ordered the sprite Ariel to a create a storm that ship-wrecks the people that removed him from power – Antonio and Sebastian. Prospero plots his revenge, but eventually forgives those who acted against him once they agree to restore him to power.

Hag Seed is another in Hogarth’s series of Shakespearian updates. Written by Margaret Atwood, Hag Seed is an example of what happens when an excellent writer takes a wack at a good story. Ms. Atwood has presented a “meta” view of Shakespeare’s tale in a world of theater and prison. We are introduced to Felix, he artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival, a summer selection of Shakespeare and other plays in Canada. Felix is prideful and oblivious to the machinations of his second in command, who has him removed from the festival and sent into obscurity. Twelve years later, Felix is running a theater program at a local prison. When he finds out that his nemesis is coming to the jail, he plots his revenge, using a performance of the Tempest to carry it out.

I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Atwood not only presents us with an updated version of The Tempest, she uses the play itself as a key plot device. This allows her to have characters to go beyond the story and delve into the meaning of the original play. By having Felix exact his revenge using the actions of Propsero, she presents a “meta” analysis of The Tempest, something she obviously relishes, as she has all of the main characters offer a final thought and prediction about the characters in The Tempest at the end of the book.

Dig into Hag Seed and enjoy The Tempest. Margaret Atwood has done a great job with both.

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood is a sensational hit. I loved how she brilliantly captured one of Shakespeare's famous plays, The Tempest and brought to life in a modern world. I felt like I stepped back into my high school English classroom. That's when I studied Shakespeare's plays. It was then, that I fell in love with King Hamlet. Now, after reading this tale, I have to this one is indeed my new all-time favorite. Echanting, thrilling, and beautifully told.

Margaret Atwood brings us a realistic character that is similar to Prospero from The Tempest. This modern rebelling is so similar to the original play. It's quite frightening in a way. I love the setting and tone that the writer has set for this story. I was hooked from beginning to end. Hag-Seed is about an artistic director who lost his only child and from there let a man take over his duties. He knows it was indeed the wrong decision. But once it was made he didn't change it. For in some ways it was a blessing but underneath he knew it was more of a curse. Then, this new man that he let take over his duties soon has him kicked out of the life he lived for...now, enters the themes that we all knew and love from Shakespeare's plays. Revenge and redemption. The protagonist Felix, is quite an interesting character. He had a way of drawing me into his life story. The events were dark, hilarious, and entertaining. Suspenseful too. Felix wants to go after all who drew him out of his former life. Creating a play in a prison with prisoners was an enticing way to go about his goals...readers will love this title. It was hard to not be drawn into the troubles ahead. Margaret Atwood masterfully woven Hag-Seed into a new beloved novel. Overall, I highly recommend this novel to readers worldwide.

Before I review Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, I must confess that I have never read The Tempest by William Shakespeare. I don’t know how I managed to make it through high school and two Bachelor of Science degrees without it, but I did. So, even though i enjoyed the book, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it much more if I was more familiar with The Tempest.

The main character of the story is Felix Phillips. Felix is a theatre director about to put on The Tempest for the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. He has huge plans and hopes for it, which are dashed when he finds that he is being let go from his position. His removal is a great act of betrayal by his colleague, Tony.

While plotting his revenge, he takes on a part time job at a prison in a Literacy through Literature Program. He sets about produce Shakespeare plays using the convicts. One of my favorite parts is that as they take apart the play and make it their own, the inmates must only curse using language from the play.

He finally finds an opportunity to exact his revenge on his old colleagues, using the play, The Tempest.

Once again Margaret Atwood’s writing is excellent and descriptive. The story was creative and I’m sure probably even better than I can imagine since I can’t judge it by the original The Tempest.

I received an advanced copy of this book.

If you are going to retell a classic, you have to do it boldly, with style. If there are a few too many duds out there, making people groan at the idea of another retelling, there are also a few gems. Books like Ian McEwan's Nutshell, for example, or even Bridget Jones' Diary (the original, where Pride and Prejudice can peek at the reader from between curtains, adding a backdrop to modern neurosis). I am going to add Hag-Seed to the list.

First, I will come out and say that I am huge Atwood fan. I carefully hoard the books I haven't read yet, spacing them out to enjoy over the years. You have been warned.

But what makes Hag-seed such a fantastic read? I won't bother you with a synopsys, available on the store, Goodreads, numerous reviews, etc. The world doesn't need someone else rehashing it, trying not to give spoilers (ok, the world doesn't need this review either, but I enjoy writing it and I wouldn't enjoy writing a synopsys). For me, it is the dance between the original play, the analysis of it by the characters and the parallel between the plot and the play, even in small details.

Of course, Atwood's brilliant mastery of language is always a treat. Combined with her wit, it creates show-pieces like the argument between prisoners forbidden to use any swearing other than what is in the play.

Combining wrong choices, bad decisions, many different kinds of prisons and, of course, a long thought out and carefully executed revenge, this is a delightful read.

I apologize for going overboard with the adjectives. I really liked this book.

I received an electronic copy of the book in return for a fair and unbiased review. Or as unbiased as I can be about Margaret Atwood but at least I am honest about my fangirling.

Readers can always expect something exceptional when they open a book by Margaret Atwood. Like her previous novel , Hag-seed has imprisonment both voluntary and involuntary as a central concept. Ingeniously, Atwood reworks Shakespeare's The Tempest, making Felix's reality mirror Prospero's long before he enacts his revenge through his production of The Tempest. Once a cutting edge theater director, Felix has been forced out into obscurity, living in exile with only his imagined daughter for company. Redemption and opportunity come in the form of the local prison's literacy through literature program. Here, Felix introduces Shakespeare, creating vivid productions featuring the inmates taking his classes. Fortune eventually smiles, granting Felix the opportunity to have his revenge on those who wronged him and produce his greatest work, an innovative retelling of The Tempest.

Margaret Atwood challenges the reader to explore the boundaries between art and madness, to move beyond literal interpretations to see alternate explanations. Personally, I think Hag-seed would make a wonderful addition to the syllabus of an Introduction to Shakespeare course or to a high school reading list. Like the theatrical production it describes, Hag-seed takes us on a thought provoking journey, encouraging us to seek freedom from the prison of our preconceptions. Quite simply - Hag-seed is fantastic. Don't be discouraged by the novel's slow start. The stage must be set before the play begins.

5/5

I received a copy of Hag-Seed from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Review of Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s latest novel, Hag-Seed, the latest in Hogarth Shakespeare’s series of modern retellings, interprets The Tempest in a technique that layers contemplation, action, and exegesis.

This is the second of the Hogarth Shakespeare series that I have read, and so far, it is the strongest. However, The Tempest is probably one of Shakespeare’s plays that I know the least. That being said, I wasn’t comparing and contrasting the original versus the interpretation; and this version, more than anything, acts as an exegesis, a teaching text, of the original.

Set in a Canadian prison, the main character Felix Philips teaches literacy through theater, but his endeavor isn’t completely altruistic. In the beginning of the novel, Felix is the main director at the semi-famous Makeshewig Festival, but he’s going off the deep end. He takes too many directorial risks, and many of the people he works with want him out. This makes it all the easier for Tony, his highest underling in the theater company, to usurp his place as director and have him fired.

After being kicked out of the theater company that was his life, Felix retreats to a hermitage in the country. There, he putters around, not doing much except hallucinating his dead daughter. His is Prospero, and his daughter is Miranda. After about fifty pages of this, he decides to take the job at the prison.

To be honest, the plot doesn’t progress at the rate I would like. There is a lot of nothing between Felix getting fired and things really picking up at the prison. A chunk of this takes up a third of the book.

The plot doesn’t kick into gear until the end. Tony and Sal McNally, the two men who ousted him from Makeshewig and who are now government officials, have the power to decide if the literacy through theater program can keep its funding. It happens that they’re scheduled to visit when the prisoners are putting on their rendition of The Tempest. So Felix makes plans, not only to get revenge on Tony and Sal, but to also save the literacy program.

While parts of the book are downright dull, Atwood is undeniably brilliant. Her prose is consistently stellar and astonishing, and her interpretation and explanation of The Tempest are downright genius. I think what it comes down to is that, while I’m a fan of the subject matter, and this wasn’t really the book for me, I can still acknowledge its greatness.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

I've read some of the other remakes of Shakespeare's plays and liked them so I thought why not give this one a go. I wasn't as in love with this one as the others that I read but it was still really good. You can't really go wrong with Shakespear. Atwood did a fantastic job with this creation. I've never read anything by her before but she definitely is good at what she does.

I had a hard time connecting with Felix, the lead character. I honestly didn't see where he was wronged at his job but he felt like he was. I never read The Tempest so I don't know if maybe that is why I felt weird about this book or not. Everyone else seems to really love this book so maybe that was the reason why I just felt meh about it.
"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

I found this book absolutely charming. Before I began, I flipped to the back and read the synopsis of the original Shakespeare play and I highly recommend that to anyone taking on this book. It really helped me to draw parallels and meaning from the story.

Hag-Seed is the story of Felix, a man renowned for his artistic directing. When he's dethroned from his position in the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival however, he finds himself living in self-imposed exile in a hill-side hovel. When an opportunity to direct arises again, he can't help but take it, even if it is in a correctional facility. With the help of his inmate students, Felix plans to put on the show of his life, and maybe exact some revenge while he's at it.

Margaret Atwood is an absolute star. This is the first book of hers that I've read, but believe me when I say it won't be the last. She's won me over. Her prose, which had just hints of Shakespeare thrown in for good measure, was absolutely gorgeous and drew you in without too much effort. Felix's internal monologues are essential and incredibly done, linking each piece of the story together masterfully. It's a fresh take on a classic that I feel brings the story even more to life. The fact that they are performing The Tempest in a retelling of the The Tempest blew my mind in the best way possible.

On a side note, the use of inmates would, in any other scenario, have made for a story strewn with curses. Cleverly, Felix only allows his students to use swears that they find in the play, which made for some hilarious banter laden with Shakespearean swearing and was just so fun. 5 stars to Miss Atwood for that addition, probably my favorite part :)

I was fascinated by the idea of taking Shakespeare's works and converting them into a modern day retelling. Hag-Seed (Hogarth Shakespeare) is actually the first book I have read from the series. I found it to be beautifully written (what else do you expect from Margaret Atwood?) and impossible to put down.
In Margaret Atwood's version of The Tempest, we are quickly brought into the tragic and sad world of Felix, who in minutes goes from being the successful Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Festival to absolutely nothing due to betrayal. Accompanied by the ghost of his dead daughter, Miranda, Felix eventually finds his way to a humble abode and plans his revenge. He basically goes underground and creates an alternate persona which helps him to find a job teaching theatre in a prison to inmates who perform his creations. It is in that setting that Felix plots his revenge.
There are so many brilliant elements to this novel. The story line is enthralling and I enjoyed how Atwood managed to bring in the concept of prison and if/how it should try to rehabilitate inmates. I really adored this book. There was so much humor and also very touching moments. It is a novel that not only pays wonderful homage to The Tempest but also very witty and makes you think about our prison system. Definitely very highly recommended!
Thank you so much to Crown Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read this amazing novel. I received a copy for free in exchange for an honest review.

HAG-SEED by MARGARET ATWOOD is brilliant writing from a masterful storyteller. I have always loved Shakespeare and The Tempest has been a renewed favorite of mine since I saw an incredible performance of it last year. This novel only enhanced my appreciation and my understanding of this play. Felix is one of the most developed and complex characters that Atwood has created. Coupled with his performance as Prospero, it was just a literary delight to follow the story with him. There was so much angst and so much tension in parts of this novel that I found myself holding my breath. I find that most of Atwood's novels do that to me and this was no exception. I really felt the cast at Fletcher County Correctional Institute were well described and so insightful to this play. I especially enjoyed their commentary on what would have happened to their characters to end their class. I was afraid I'd get lost in their stage names and the differences between the prison and the play itself, but Atwood manages to keep it all very clear. I really think this was an exceptional adaptation and it makes me want to read all the others in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. If you are a fan of Margaret Atwood, The Tempest, or just really good reads, pick this one up.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Many authors have re-envisioned Shakespeare's plays using contemporary settings and contemporary language, with varying degrees of success. What makes Margaret Atwood's "Hag-Seed", a re-envisioning of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", so interesting is that it includes a re-envisioned performance of the play within a reimagined and modernized version of the plot. It is, essentially, Shakespeare within Shakespeare.

The inner version of the play is a performance put on by prison inmates. They paraphrase and modernize the language, creatively interpret the costuming, and stage the performance by way of video editing rather than a strictly traditional live performance. The outer version of the play is the story within which the actual play is produced, a story which parallels the plot of "The Tempest."

Director and actor Felix has had a highly successful run of organizing (and directing, and starring in) an annual Shakespeare festival, staging new versions of many of Shakespeare's plays. That is, until his assistant Tony stages a coup, takes over his position, and gets Felix blacklisted. Felix, devastated, withdraws from society and the theatre scene. We learn that Felix had lost his wife in childbirth and then his beloved daughter to an illness only a few years later. He imagines that his daughter, Miranda, is still with him, growing up and becoming a young woman. He knows it is only a fantasy, but it keeps him sane to imagine being with her in his self-induced exile. After a few years he is ready to reenter the theatre world, but only under a pseudonym, and only with actors who have no chance of recognizing him from his former life. He gets a job teaching English literature to medium security prison inmates (under the pseudonym Mr. Duke), and he uses Shakespearean drama as his main teaching tool. After several successful years, he discovers that his old nemesis, Tony, along with several other important politicians, plans to visit the prison, with the intention of canceling the funding of the English program. Felix plots his revenge using a production of The Tempest and the assistance of several technologically savvy inmates. (Atwood cleverly weaves in some themes from Hamlet, a bit of "the play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.")

Admittedly, there are several aspects of the plot which are dubious, at best. It takes some willing suspension of disbelief to accept that a prison would hire a teacher without a full background check, that important politicians would enter a prison unescorted by armed guards of any kind, or that they would willingly eat food at the prison after being attacked and restrained by the inmates. However, the characters and the plot are intriguing enough for the reader to skip over minor plot holes such as this.

As a fan of Shakespeare in general, and of "The Tempest" in particular, I really enjoyed the parallels between the outer story and the original material. I suspect there are some parallels and details that would be missed by a reader with less familiarity with the original play, but the story is interesting enough and well-told enough that it is worth reading even for a reader who has never read "The Tempest." The plot of the play within the story is explained enough to make many of the parallels clear without any previous familiarity with Shakespeare's work. In addition, the inmates' final analysis of their characters is a fascinating study that is likely to encourage the reader to go back and read (or re-read) Shakespeare's play.

I enjoyed this novel very much, and would recommend it to Shakespeare fans and non-fans, alike.

Margaret Atwood's HAG-SEED . . . TEMPEST RETOLD presents conspiracy, betrayal, an old mad ruler in exile . . . seems fitting.
Setting THE TEMPEST in a prison added insights to so much, like the requests for "pardon" (and applause) at the end of TEMPEST and M. N's DREAM . . . actors and theaters of the time were only a royal pardon away from prison and being closed down, theater being the immoral pretense that it was/is, challenging the status quo. Bravo to those bringing arts to prisons, and Brava, Margaret Atwood for a book that so thoroughly captivates and inspires. Revenge, forgiveness, creation in the face of chaos. It was just what I needed right now.

When entering college it was a toss-up--major in biology or major in English. Opted for biology and taught it happily for over 30 years. Now wish to be reincarnated and teach Shakespeare the next time around. Every English teacher should read this book! Felix staging The Tempest with a cast of incarcerated medium security prisoners is a wonder in motivation and success. That is one plot, the other is Felix's own true life coping with loss that is two-fold. Like Prospero he has been usurped by someone he trusted and for twelve years has nursed the resentment of his plight, while also mourning the loss of his three year old daughter. She died of meningitis at three years old just shortly before his dismissal as the Director of a well-known community theatre of some renown. How he plots and achieves his revenge is ingenious and as absorbing as his molding of a motley cast into a coherent team in a well formed version of The Tempest.

For those who need it, and I was one, there is a review of the original Tempest in the back of the book. That is where I started so that Shakespeare's original was fresh in my mind.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? Whoops, wrong play! A canned artistic director of a Shakespeare Festival plans a just reward for the two blokes who ousted him. His failed attempt to mount a production of "Tempest" with the Festival folk resurrects as a result of his new position as teacher at a prison. The cons learn a lot from Felix and his two enemies suffer a hard lesson as well. Felix learns much from the young lady who portrays his Ariel and comes to some sort of grip with his grief over his deceased daughter. It is a clever take on this tale. Have no fear if you have no love for Shakespeare. Ms. Atwood will bring you into the fandom. My thanks to the author and the Penguin First to Read program for a complimentary copy.

I'm fairly addicted to Shakespeare retellings, and I adore Margaret Atwood, so this was a home-run for me. But, admittedly, I'm biased. I find Atwood's dry, sarcastic and ironic humor appealing, and I believe it pairs well with the depth, and often seriousness, of the text. However, if you're to enjoy the novel, you need to enjoy Shakespeare AND Atwood. If you aren't keen on one of those two individuals, this will likely be a slog for you. It's certainly not where I would enter Atwood's oeuvre (for a first-time reader). For those who haven't read Atwood before, I would recommend beginning with either "The Handmaid's Tale," "Alias Grace," or "The Blind Assasin." And for those who like Shakespeare, but aren't keen on Atwood, or need something a little more light/humorous, check out Christopher Moore's "Fool," a retelling of "King Lear" from the Fool's perspective.

This is one of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, where current authors "re-write" the Bard's classics. This is Margaret Atwood's version of "The Tempest." I had never read any of Ms. Atwood's works before now, although she is a well-respected author. I was captured from the first few pages of this book. I have not read "The Tempest" since high school, but now want to revisit this classic. Ms. Atwood's writing is easy on the mind and this was an enjoyable read. Too many times, works by female authors are written from a woman's point of view (not being politically correct here!), but I daresay one would not know if this book had been written by a man or woman. Excellent read. I will be searching out other works by Ms. Atwood. I highly recommend this book!

I had recently finished reading Shakespeare's "The Tempest" when I spotted this retelling of it prominently displayed at my local library. I've been meaning to try something by Atwood so I decided to give it a shot.

While this is not what I would generally think of as a retelling, I was not disappointed. The story follows a theatre director who has fallen from fêted avant garde celebrity to living in a shack and teaching Shakespeare at a correctional facility. He was sacked in the midst of producing "The Tempest" and everything in the book echoes or revolves around this play in one way or another...threads include a dead daughter named Miranda, desire for revenge against those who deposed him, and a production of "The Tempest" by The Fletcher Correctional Players. The way some things fall into place is perhaps a bit too pat, but that can always be blamed on Prospero's "bountiful Fortune (my dear lady)" and "most auspicious star" so I think it works.

Overall: an enjoyable multi-layered read with some interesting analysis of The Tempest as provided by the convicts.

Hag-Seed, by Margaret Atwood, is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Series in which famous authors write their own version of a Shakespearean play. Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood's retelling of The Tempest. The story opens in modern times and we learn that the protagonist, Felix, has suffered major losses in his life. First, his wife died and then his young daughter. Unexpectedly, he is forced out of his job as the artistic director of a successful theater group just as he was preparing to produce his own Tempest. A broken man, he takes up residence in a shack lacking most modern amenities and he wants revenge. His only companion is the imagined presence of his daughter. Twelve years later he has a part time position teaching theater at a prison and, finally, the opportunity for revenge becomes a real possibility. Can he finally realize his dream?
The author has crafted an engrossing and beautifully written tale which is populated with memorable characters. Highly recommended.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. The opinions expressed are my own.

I really enjoyed this version (homage? sendup?) of Shakespeare's Tempest. Atwood's cheerful malice and wry phrasing in rendering the revenge story of the wronged director of a prison play makes it so much fun that I couldn't put it down. It's a good story in itself and best for those who are familiar with The Tempest. Great fun for English majors and Atwood fans and should also show how much raunchy fun Shakespeare can be, such as when the convict actors must insult each other using only Shakespearean insults (e.g., whoreson). The old Bard knew his stuff and Atwood's brilliance makes him shine again. I almost took off a star because it's hard to sustain the tempo and brilliance and I think at the end, Atwood slows down a bit. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could.

Man, does this lady have a talent. Not only does she have a way with words but she has a way with forming the story, bringing you in to it, where you live upon the pages yourself. Hagseed is about a director, Felix Phillip, who’s daughter, Miranda, died a few years before he decided to put this play on. The twist, it takes place within a prison. A few years before he decided to direct this play, Felix was beat out by a former right hand man of his who took from him the title of Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Festival. After losing to this man, Felix takes a part time job at the prison teaching a literacy course to the prisoners.

honestly, I have never heard of the hogarth shakespeare series until this book made an appearance on Booktube, an boy did word spread fast about this baby. she has such a way with merging the modern word with this Shakespearean drama. im still baffled with how she did it in the first place; how she merged the magic, dragons, and fairytale with this modern world so seamlessly.

I have to say my favorite part is when Felix breaks down the play to the prisoners, helping them understand the piece and the themes that lie within. of course being a double major with english as one major, i fell in love with this book. i have been through several honors classes in high school, several classes including a shakespeare only class, and two shakespearean plays. my english major heart just exploded with this book. another thing i loved was when felix told the class they could only use shakespearean cusswords, not modern day ones. had quite a laugh with that, as it sounded less serious than it would using our cuss words.

When it time to put the show on display, they had to use a video because imagine trying to get all the prisoners in one room for a play. At least the majority of them like watching movies. means there is less of an issue to get them to sit there and not get bored and fight. Felix had his own plans to get the VIPs- Tony and his enablers who are all politicians- to come to his side for a moment. It was interesting watching Felix and trying to figure out exactly what is planned for this man. The only thing i didnt like was the plan itself. it just fell flat. i expected more to happen with the build up but not much did. Fell in step with the actual play with how this was played out.

the last fifty pages, not only do we get to see what happened to every character and what this experiences had on them but we also got to see a tribute to the famous play write himself. two greatest speeches of Prospero were included, giving the rightful credit to the man who deserves it. As this review comes to an end, i want you to pay very close attention to what and how Atwood uses the death of Felix’s daughter to grace us with a sweet yet beautiful touch of humanity. overall 4/5 rating on book, cover, and the back of the book. I definitely recommend a pick up.

I love Margaret Atwood. She has a wicked good sense of humor. This novel--based loosely on Shakespeare's "The Tempest"--is thoroughly enjoyable. Because I am familiar with Shakespeare's play, having both read and taught it, everything made sense from the very beginning. If you haven't read "The Tempest," Atwood provides a summary of the play at the end of the novel, so you may want to read that section first and then start the novel. I also love that most of the novel takes place in a prison, where the protagonist immerses prisoners in literature and theater while seeking his own revenge.

What a fun and unique interpretation of "The Tempest" this was! I actually felt like a movie could be made from it. Like Shakespeare, it will not be a novel for everyone. Not every Margaret Atwood book has appealed to me either but this one really kept me going. Her irreverent wit and common-sense wisdom shines through. I loved her use of a literacy class inside a prison. The techniques Felix used to create discussion and understanding were actually sound educational tools. I laughed more as I read this book than I have ever when reading Shakespeare. I am looking forward to the forthcoming books by other authors who are doing contemporary re-writes in honor of the bard's 400th birthday.
While Read It Forward provided this book to me, it did not influence my review in any way.

Hogarth Press has asked famous authors to write their own version of a favorite play by Shakespeare. I’m not going to read the entire series but I wanted to check out Margaret Atwood’s retelling of The Tempest.

The word I’d use to describe Atwood’s rewriting of The Tempest is "cute." And if you’ve read any Atwood you should know how uncharacteristic that is. Atwood’s writing is usually anything but cute. This novel, though, is exactly like one of those sappy Hollywood deals where a disillusioned artist / teacher comes to an inner-city school / jail / community college and through an art project he does with his atypical students achieves redemption. I kept waiting for some irony to kick in because Atwood tends to be anything but cheesy and sentimental but no, the sappy thing went on until the novel’s end.

But hey, it’s not a bad novel. Atwood even wrote some Shakespeare-inspired raps for it. Yes, as I said, it’s all crazy cute. You can see that she engaged with Shakespeare on a profound level and didn’t just use him as a pretext. I even felt more enthusiastic about Shakespeare than I ever did after reading the novel. Hag-Seed could be a good novel to assign to 8-graders in order to get them to appreciate Shakespeare.

Hag-Seed is a story of revenge, love, and power, but it's also a play within a play within a play. It’s brilliantly done, in a way that made me appreciate Shakespeare and his stories like I never have before.

Felix Phillips is a fifty-year-old playwright and director. Early in his life he lost his wife Nadia to a staph infection that occurred after childbirth. Then, he lost his daughter Miranda to Meningitis when she was only three years old. Now, he is being told he is losing his job, the only remaining thing he loves, and it’s coming from “earth-based factotum and gold-grubber,” Tony Price.

Felix is blindsided. He didn’t see it coming. He believes Tony Price and Sal O’Nally have been plotting to remove him from his position. But there is nothing he can do. He must accept it and move on.

Only he can’t.

As years go by, Felix wants revenge and he sees an opportunity to get it when a new job arises. With the help of an eclectic cast of characters, including a band of belligerent inmates from the Fletcher County Correctional facility, Felix steps back into his directorial shoes and brings to life "The Tempest" by Shakespeare in a bold, creative, and original way.

Overall thoughts:
I’ve never read “The Tempest.” To be honest, I’ve never had a deep appreciation for Shakespeare. After I found out this was a re-telling of a Shakespeare play, I almost didn’t want to read it. Let’s face it, for most of us Shakespeare is something they force you to read in high school and college, it’s not something you pick up for fun. But, I liked the concept of a classic being told with a modern day twist, so I went for it, and I’m glad I did. I was pleasantly surprised. The story proved to be engaging and entertaining.

The book is broken into multiple parts/acts and, at times, reads like a script--shorter, less descriptive passages with the telling of the scene and actions. Note: Parts 2 and 3 are essentially the study of "The Tempest." You almost feel like you are part of a class along with the inmates who are learning all about the play and the characters from Felix. This might sound boring, but it was written well. With that said, at times the pace did feel slow. However, I thought within the context of the story the pace had a natural rhythm, which contributed to character development.

I fell in love with the main character, Felix, by the third chapter--his crotchety demeanor and passion was somehow endearing. He's the underdog you want to root for. He’s so lonely, sad, desperate for company, and yearning for a life that was stolen from him, that he creates imaginary visions of his daughter Miranda. He goes through life pretending as if she is still with him. I also fell in love with the inmates at Fletcher Correctional, who were a literal and figurative cast of characters that added depth, humor, and interest.

If you like Shakespeare, then reading this book is a no-brainer. Same, if you just like a good read.

Yay for Hag-Seed! A scurvy, blasphemous, whoreson, freckled read. And I mean that as a compliment.

Four pied ninny stars.

I was delighted when reading Margaret Atwood’s take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest titled, Hag-Seed. Every few pages I kept thinking about how clever she was and how her structure and prose were perfect. Atwood’s Prospero is a theater director who was forced out of his job. He rebounds by assuming a pseudonym and working in a literacy program at a local prison. Atwood gives just the right homage to the play and makes the story her own in ways that entertained me greatly. Readers who enjoy finely written fiction are those most likely to enjoy reading this novel.

Rating: Five-star (I love it)

This is yet more very readable and gripping storytelling from Margaret Atwood. It’s a great combination of retelling of Shakespeare, characterisations of prison life and theatre culture, the hero’s unswerving commitment to art, and the downtrodden seediness of life at the margin.

The core theme is revenge, interpreted as correction of an injustice. The strategy is cunning, patient, risky, clever, effective, and hilarious. Is it a valid hope that all injustices in life could be similarly rectified, or is revenge equally pernicious? Either way, the story is great fun.

You don't have to know Shakespeare to appreciate Hag-seed. The author offers a synopsis of the play at the end of the book. This was enlightening as it allowed me to better see the parallels between the two versions of the story: book and play.
At first I was having trouble getting into the story. It wasn't really "grabbing" me. But something kept me going, and I am glad.
There is a play within a play within a play here, and once it really gets going it is quite fascinating.
Some amazing characters, real and...not?
Well worth reading.

Margaret Atwood always has original ideas, and this book is no exception. Her writing is excellent as always and the characters are believable. It's an interesting concept to retell Shakespeare in a modern way. I liked the book ok but wasn't quite as thrilled with it as some people seem to be. I'm wondering if this would be a book that lends itself more favorably to audiobook form. This is not a criticism - as I said, I did enjoy the book - just that it won't make my top 10 of 2016.

One thing this book proves - - The Bard is always in fashion!

Have you ever read a book that you knew was good, but you just could not find enough personal appreciation in it? This is where my dilemma lies with Hag-Seed. So I am proceeding with caution. My first encounter with Atwood was The Handmaid’s Tale. A familiar title to many. Unfortunately, my experience was similar and this was a second-chance sort of read. I like the author’s writing, but I want to love it. So what happened?

Plot

This is a round-a-bout re-imaging of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. That was the first issue. I am not a fan of The Tempest. I am sure that will solicit a few groans or remarks, but it is honesty. It seems like the sort of work I could appreciate, but it truly does little for me. In fact, after I completed Hag-Seed, I made a point of rereading The Tempest to see if it could possibly solicit some new feelings or uncover this deeper appreciation I seek. It did not.

So why did I chose Hag-Seed? As mentioned above, I want to give this author a real chance. And retelling. It is that simple. Retellings provide opportunity for new life. I cannot pass them up, even when I may not be a fan of the original story.

This rebirth, if you will, tells the story through a pitiful lad by the name of Felix who has lost his love, his daughter, and now his career. He makes the decision to exile himself to a small shack in rural Ontario and lives out his days accompanied by his daughter’s haunting memory to the extent he is semi delusional, but also very aware of this fact. He eventually takes a position at a correctional facility, where he heads up the Literacy Through Theatre program. He begins directing Shakespeare that is casted with inmates as part of a rehabilitation program.

When Felix learns that those responsible for the loss of his career and cancellation of his vision of The Tempest will be attending his next presentation at Burgess Correctional Institute, he has another vision in mind. Revenge. What unfolds is a curious but not fulling engrossing set of events. They proceed over a very large span of time that feels drawn out and without climax. The pace is steady, never picking up to allow for any sort of real excitement. It felt like a very streamlined read, with no real emotional value.

Characters

We have our main character Felix and his companion, his deceased and now imaginary daughter Miranda. Personally, I shared no connection with Felix. Given his loss and back story, I was hoping to acquire some emotional investment or even a few pangs of shared grief. It just never happened. I did not dislike him, nor did I like him. Nothing extraordinary was happening here. He was credible enough, but in a dull sense. This is the type of man who no one notices at the party. His entire existence felt sad, but not sad enough to truly engage me or solicit proper emotion.

Miranda is a fictional memory at this point. When he is home, he lives with what he believes she would have grown to become. He is aware this is unhealthy, but continues to take a small amount of solace in her presence. She really is not constructed to contribute to the story aside from providing insight that Felix has not recovered from her death.

The inmates offered small amounts of needed humor throughout the story. Perhaps learning their very brief history when discovering their chosen screen names was one of the more enjoyable moments for me within Hag-Seed. Their contribution to the story felt very limited. I was hoping they would be utilized to provide a much-needed breath of life to a story that was starting to feel stale.

World Building

I contemplated on how I would approach this aspect of the book. Atwood is capable of clearly depicting each setting. There is no lack of detail within her writing, and I did not struggle to understand and visualize the environment. It was drab, but drab can be expected given the circumstances. Felix chose to isolate himself, and then finds redemption within the confines of prison walls. Everything is very lackluster because that is the setting.

So here is where I would normally spend a minute explaining to you how the real depth and world building was developed through Felix’s work. I would spend several sentences elaborating on the fact that the play or production gave great contribution to the overall setting of our story. It did not.

Writing

Perhaps it was the author’s writing alone that gave me hope. Her almost poetic and somehow comforting words urged me forward. There is something in her work that conveys a real talent. I can feel it and even understand why others love it. But it never fully connects with me. This is difficult to explain. It is like trying to enjoy your favorite food when you have a horrible cold. You know it is good, but you simply cannot taste it.

Conclusion

I was hoping this review would not sound abrasive. I have respect for this author and wanted to fully connect this time, but I just didn’t. I am severing all ties and accepting that some things are not meant to be. I was admittedly bored and unable to find what I was looking for with this one. I am not sure who I could possibly recommend this to. I know there is an audience. The reviews and ratings prove this. I just am not part of it, so I can’t relate.

*I received this book from Blogging for Books. This is my honest and unbiased review.

⭐⭐

This is a great re-telling of The Tempest, which is also happening in real life! A cast-out theatre director devises a method to get his revenge on the very people who cast him out. He is half mad, teaching Shakespeare in a Canadian prison when the plot is hatched, and he manages to re-live the play, and much like Prospero ends up cobbling together a win. The parallels between the play and the real life hold up, and the plotting and machinations are ingenious.

Prison Shakespeare has never been better!

Received form the publishers and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm teetering between 3 and 3.5 stars.

A play within a play.

I have read a few of Atwood's books and have enjoyed them much more than this one. Atwood is an incredibly gifted Author and I enjoy her dry wit and humor but this book dragged a little for me - especially in the beginning. The last part of the book was my favorite.

The book begins with Felix losing his wife and soon thereafter his daughter, Miranda. He is working on his production of The Tempest when he loses his job as artistic director of the theater. He views his assistant (and enemy) as being responsible for the loss of his job.

Felix goes on to take a job teaching literacy through theater at a penitentiary. A job that he seems to excel at. What will the production be? The Tempest of course! This is where the book really caught my attention. All of the scenes within the prison are fantastic. This is where the book shined for me. I don't want to tell too much of the story. This is the re-telling of the Tempest and Felix's (Prospero)life mirrors the play. I will say she was very clever in her re-telling. I loved the prisoners. I loved the way rap and dance where incorporated into the play.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if it drew me in from the beginning. I also think former knowledge of Shakespeare's Tempest would be helpful. I believe it has been 18 years since I read the Tempest. I wish I would have taken the time to update and refresh my memory of the book. As I read Atwood's re-telling there were parts where I thought "Yes" and "that's right, I forgot about that".

For me this book was good not great.

I seriously could not put this book down. So to start out, this book is a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Now, I am a sucker for sitting down and watching a Shakespeare play. However! I can’t stand actually sitting down and reading Shakespeare. I just don’t like deciphering what the meanings of every sentence. I just prefer to sit down and read a story.

That being said, this story was A+ in my eyes. The main character has so many dimensions. I can understand his motivations and feelings. Most of the story takes place in a correctional facility, but with such a unique way. It takes the prison aspect of The Tempest in a way that I would have never been able to come up with on my own.

Love. Love. Loved this book. Way to go Margaret Atwood. There aren’t enough ways I can say how much I enjoyed reading this piece of art.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this honest review.

I guess I should start this by saying that the tempest is one of my least favorites of Shakespeare's plays. Not that I don't like it, because I love Shakespeare, but it's just not my favorite. But I thought this was a great retelling. It was an interesting take and I love everything that was added. I also loved the whole prison gang. Great characters. It was a little slow in places. Most of the action happens toward the end. But it was worth it :)
*ARC received from netgalley for an honest review*

I am not a student of Shakespeare, nor a (heretofore, though I have plans to change that) big reader of Margaret Atwood. Unencumbered by notions of what a "take" on The Tempest should or should not do, I was allowed to enjoy the book thoroughly. Not having had a love affair with Atwood's work in the past, I was not forced to compare, and was thus allowed simply to enjoy.

It's a terrific book if you accept it on its own terms

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book and unfortunately they were not met. The book centers around Felix who is a play director forced from his position by a rival. He vows vengeance, and the story focuses on how he achieves it. The book is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series and is a modern retelling of The Tempest.

The book moved very slow in my opinion, and only when I got around 80% of the book did I find it interesting. It was easy to pick up the story having not read The Tempest, and I believe those who are huge Shakespeare fans will enjoy it even though I did not.

The overall idea behind Hogarth Shakespeare series is to “reimagine Shakespeare’s plays for a 21st-century audience”. In other words, to update and modernize the plays so Shakespeare’s message would be applicable to modern society.
Quite recently, it has been demonstrated that Shakespeare’s plays outline evolutionary concepts of man’s development and stimulate more subtle but still latent layers of the mind. By watching or reading the plays, man may be prepared to fulfill his ultimate purpose. Shakespeare knew that it was going to take hundred years before the human mind would be ready to respond constructively to his writings. This is why the plays were designed in such a way as to carry over his unaltered message to the future generations of audiences and readers, who would be better prepared for its fuller assimilation. It looks that only now, we are finally starting to comprehend Shakespeare’s message. Therefore, any attempts at changing, re-writing, modernizing or reimagining the plays are contra-productive. This is like destroying nourishment for our minds before we have a chance to digest it correctly. I would have expected that no insightful writer, who truly grasps Shakespeare’s message, would even consider doing this exercise. It looks I was completely wrong. I have grossly underestimated the persuasive powers of the publishers :-)
The first three novels of Hogart Shakespeare’s series have confirmed the fact that if someone is able to write best-selling books it does not necessary mean that he or she is familiar with the function and the symbolism of Shakespeare’s writings. Yet, Margaret Atwood’s “Hag-Seed” got my attention when I read that, in her re-interpretation of “The Tempest”, she set-up the action in a prison. This reminded me of the 2012 movie adaptation of “Julius Caesar” that was also set-up in a prison (“Caesar Must Die” directed by Vittorio Taviani and Paolo Taviani). Unlike in other adaptations of “Julius Caesar”, the identification of the prisoners with the play’s characters allowed them to unveil some of the crucial factors of the plot, the factors that escaped many Shakespearean scholars and directors. For example, an unscripted episode, in which the actor playing Julius Caesar confronts one of his inmates, emphasized the fact that it would have been impossible for Caesar not to know about the intention of his companions: Caesar knew from the very beginning about the coming assassination. And this is one of the key factors that are needed to fully comprehend the play. May be, I thought, similar discoveries could be made by the inmates of Margaret Atwood’s novel? Setting “The Tempest” in a prison might provide hints which could help the audiences and readers to get closer to Shakespeare’s message. Particularly so, as the author implies that all characters appearing in “The Tempest” are, in one form or another, also prisoners.
“Hag-Seed” is well written; it is interesting and entertaining; it is fun to read. But the plot of the novel is rather simplistic and naive.
In the final chapter of the book Atwood uses the inmates to spell out her understanding of the play. The inmates are asked to write about the characters they played and then elaborate on the characters’ post-play lives. The inmates take turns in presenting their understanding of what was going to happen to Ariel, Ferdinand and Miranda, Prospero and others. It was at this point that the ambiguities of the play could have been exposed and, in this way, trigger a spark of inspiration within the readers’ minds. This is because the inner structure of Shakespeare’s plays is projected through various ambiguities, which cannot be explained by rational psychology. However, instead of exposing her readers to the ambiguities of the play, the author effectively removed or trivialized them. In this way the play is sterilized. What is left is a simplified storyline that is entirely driven by sentimentality and emotionality. This is quite ironic, because Shakespeare explained quite precisely where Ariel went, what happened to Ferdinand, what was Miranda’s fate, and what Prospero did after his departure from the Island. But these details are disclosed in the inner structure of Shakespeare’s narrative that includes all the plays. In other words, “Hag-Seed” did not provide the same vehicle as the above mentioned “Caesar Must Die”. The difference was that “Caesar Must Die” included real people and their true experiences. “Hag-Seed”, on the other hand, is a work of fiction. It is a novel that contains many quotes from “The Tempest”. But Shakespeare’s essence is lost.

Award-winning author Margaret Atwood takes a highly clever turn at retelling William Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST with her release of the novel HAG-SEED. It is now set in the world of theatre as an artistic director named Felix is dumped from his theatre troupe at the onset of his highly realized re-staging of Willy's play.

If you know (and love) the source material, you will enjoy this ride. If not, this may not be the novel for you.

This was my first Atwood novel although I have read some of her nonfiction (essays, reviews, Payback) and liked it. And I was not familiar with the story of The Tempest and have a love/hate relationship with Shakespeare at best.

I prepared for the book by reading the online synopses of The Tempest from SparkNotes and CliffsNotes. CliffsNotes was better, more to the point and organized while SparkNotes was a rambling summary of the story. If only I had checked the back of Hag-Seed before I started I would have seen that Atwood herself provides a couple of pages summarizing The Tempest for those of us who needed it.

Hag-Seed was an enjoyable novel on its own and even better as a retelling of The Tempest. It was fun putting together what characters and which events related to the original story's. I like the idea behind the Hogarth Project of retelling Shakespeare plays as modern novels. This was the first of those I've read, but I'll be looking for others to round out my Shakespeare education in an enjoyable way.

I've reviewed a number of books in this series and, while I've found them all quite readable ( look at the authors!) I've had the same problem with all of them; that the books read like what they are, in fact, gimmicks; well done gimmickis, but less true "creations" than stunts.

Not so this one.

Or, really, just so this one, but it somehow feels like the author had, what? more fun? more creative "input"?

Maybe it's just that the original is such marvelous blather that Atwood, and we, have less at stake and can be freer.

I don't know; what I DO know is that this is the most enjoyable book thus far in the series and one that renews my desire to continue to explore the others to com

I like Atwood's original work better. As her previous "reworking," The Penelopiad," "Hag-Seed" is masterfully written, with Atwood's signature wit, but it just lacks in plot and in characterization.

Obviously, this is Atwood, so the novel is not awful, but it is definitely not her best work.

Hag-seed, Margaret Atwood, author; R. H. Thomson, narrator
The book is read so convincingly by R. H. Thomson, an accomplished actor who brings that skill to every word he utters, that the characters leapt from the page into the real world and took on human forms. Listening to this book was truly like watching theater in my mind because of the performance given by the narrator.
The novel followed the themes and varied plots of the original script by Shakespeare, but it took place in the present day and current issues were addressed. Rap style lyrics were used which placed it in the here and now and often imparted a nice rhythm to the prose. All of the themes were perfectly rendered by the author in the setting of a modern prison. Revenge was carefully planned; vengeance was had and was followed by remorse, forgiveness and redemption. The varied plots involving power struggles, rivalry and salvation remained in Atwood’s version.
Felix Phillips was the head of the Makeshiweg Festival until he was betrayed by his associates and was unceremoniously removed from his position and escorted off the premises without even being allowed to say goodbye. His closest associate and protege, Tony, had deceived him by quietly working behind the scenes to depose him. Felix’s wife and daughter had died prematurely and he was still tormented by the loss of his young daughter from Meningitis. However, he was also arrogant and pompous and actually did little to maintain his position, acquiescing to Tony whenever he offered to take over his responsibilities so he could mourn.
Disappointed and humiliated he decided he didn’t need much to live on; he rented a shack and moved into the hovel with only the barest of necessities. (He lived an ascetic life, in much the same way that Prospero and Miranda had since they had been betrayed and abandoned in a boat that drifted to an island where they were forced to live in a cave.) Felix was lonely and missed his wife and child. He felt angry because he had been betrayed so bitterly by a man he thought was his friend. He developed an imaginary companion, his daughter Miranda. He actually believed he could see her, though he could not touch her. He engaged in conversations with her, but he recognized that no one else would either see or be able to speak to her.
He needed employment and soon found a job that when compared to his last position did not measure up, but it was work. He was a teacher at the Fletcher Correctional Facility instructing inmates in the art of acting, a program instituted to aid in their rehabilitation. He became another man, known only as Mr. Duke. In the blink of an eye, twelve years passed and his opportunity for revenge against his betrayers arrived out of the blue. (His imaginary daughter, whom he realized no one else could see, was now 15, just like the daughter of Prospero, who was a sorcerer as well as the rightful Duke of Milan.) With Miranda’s creation, Felix also seemed to be able to employ magic, and indeed, there were times when he thought Miranda was sending signals and prompting the actors during the performance.
Unbeknownst to the inmates, he was engaging them in his scheme to retaliate against those who had plotted against him on the festival committee. They had forced him out, and he designed the performance of The Tempest to enable him to settle that score. It was the perfect opportunity since the villains would be arriving to see it without knowing he was behind it; he was known as Mr. Duke, not Felix Phillips. It was the very same show that he had been preparing for the festival before he was terminated. Mr. Duke tried to cast each prisoner/actor in the play with a play character whose life paralleled that prisoner’s. Then he could better identify with the part he was playing. The same flaws and attributes were present in their personalities. As the characters in the play had lived their lives and faced adversity, in the parallel modern world, so did those performing in it. The characters created by Shakespeare in the 1600’s and the characters created by Atwood in 2016 had the same strengths and weaknesses. There were gentle characters and there were brutes. All were in a prison of a kind and all wanted out! All needed to forgive and be forgiven.
There were interesting parallels in the two plays, the old and the new. For instance, Felix’s cane mirrored Prospero’s staff. The imaginary Miranda was the same age as Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. Felix and his “daughter” were in a prison of his making; Prospero’s actions had led to his exile to an island with his child;and the inmates were incarcerated for foolish choices that they had made. They all had one main thing in common, they wanted to be set free.
In this reworked Tempest, Atwood took the opportunity to promote some of the liberal issues of today. Examples of topics that came to my mind are as follows: the need for the reform of the justice system in its entirety encompassing courts, sentences, prisons and police, equality for women, addressing climate change, the treachery that the need for power and position inspires, and the existence of racism historically and in the present day.
The author cleverly included a summary of the original play, at the end, to clear up any confusion for those who either had not read or had not remembered Shakespeare’s Tempest. Atwood has brilliantly rewritten the play for the modern world imaginatively with charm, humor and gravity injected at appropriate times. The characters are wisely used to explain and analyze the play. It was a joy to read.
***hag-seed=the offspring of a hag or a witch.

This novel is an enjoyable modern retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" both in the main narrative and in the play within the novel. Although "The Tempest" is not one of my favorites, "Hag-Seed" gave me a greater appreciation of it. I think Shakespeare would have been pleased.
Because the book is full of references to "The Tempest", if it has been a while since you have seen the play or read it, have another look at it before reading "Hag-Seed".

I expected something heavy and possibly lit-heavy but got an unexpected surprise in this glorious Tempest retelling. Restaging? Pick your poison.

Tempest is not my favourite play, but oh my goodness this is an excellent book. The prisoners are amazing and Felix is an excellent... not anti-hero but... maybe anti-hero? I don't know, but he's someone I didn't expect to root for but totally did.

Maragret Atwood manages to make this retelling completely readable and modern while keeping the spirit of the original text.

Oh how I love Atwood's dry wit! What could be more fun than convicted felons cursing like the Bard and learning to care about theater? What could be more intriguing than revenge played out in real life? This novel had some slow spaces but the main character was one I could root for, flaws and all. If you enjoyed Atwood's The Penelopiad, you'll like this novel too.

I am not a student of Shakespeare, nor a (heretofore, though I have plans to change that) big reader of Margaret Atwood. Unencumbered by notions of what a "take" on The Tempest should or should not do, I was allowed to enjoy the book thoroughly. Not having had a love affair with Atwood's work in the past, I was not forced to compare, and was thus allowed simply to enjoy.

It's a terrific book if you accept it on its own terms

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book and unfortunately they were not met. The book centers around Felix who is a play director forced from his position by a rival. He vows vengeance, and the story focuses on how he achieves it. The book is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series and is a modern retelling of The Tempest.

The book moved very slow in my opinion, and only when I got around 80% of the book did I find it interesting. It was easy to pick up the story having not read The Tempest, and I believe those who are huge Shakespeare fans will enjoy it even though I did not.

The overall idea behind Hogarth Shakespeare series is to “reimagine Shakespeare’s plays for a 21st-century audience”. In other words, to update and modernize the plays so Shakespeare’s message would be applicable to modern society.
Quite recently, it has been demonstrated that Shakespeare’s plays outline evolutionary concepts of man’s development and stimulate more subtle but still latent layers of the mind. By watching or reading the plays, man may be prepared to fulfill his ultimate purpose. Shakespeare knew that it was going to take hundred years before the human mind would be ready to respond constructively to his writings. This is why the plays were designed in such a way as to carry over his unaltered message to the future generations of audiences and readers, who would be better prepared for its fuller assimilation. It looks that only now, we are finally starting to comprehend Shakespeare’s message. Therefore, any attempts at changing, re-writing, modernizing or reimagining the plays are contra-productive. This is like destroying nourishment for our minds before we have a chance to digest it correctly. I would have expected that no insightful writer, who truly grasps Shakespeare’s message, would even consider doing this exercise. It looks I was completely wrong. I have grossly underestimated the persuasive powers of the publishers :-)
The first three novels of Hogart Shakespeare’s series have confirmed the fact that if someone is able to write best-selling books it does not necessary mean that he or she is familiar with the function and the symbolism of Shakespeare’s writings. Yet, Margaret Atwood’s “Hag-Seed” got my attention when I read that, in her re-interpretation of “The Tempest”, she set-up the action in a prison. This reminded me of the 2012 movie adaptation of “Julius Caesar” that was also set-up in a prison (“Caesar Must Die” directed by Vittorio Taviani and Paolo Taviani). Unlike in other adaptations of “Julius Caesar”, the identification of the prisoners with the play’s characters allowed them to unveil some of the crucial factors of the plot, the factors that escaped many Shakespearean scholars and directors. For example, an unscripted episode, in which the actor playing Julius Caesar confronts one of his inmates, emphasized the fact that it would have been impossible for Caesar not to know about the intention of his companions: Caesar knew from the very beginning about the coming assassination. And this is one of the key factors that are needed to fully comprehend the play. May be, I thought, similar discoveries could be made by the inmates of Margaret Atwood’s novel? Setting “The Tempest” in a prison might provide hints which could help the audiences and readers to get closer to Shakespeare’s message. Particularly so, as the author implies that all characters appearing in “The Tempest” are, in one form or another, also prisoners.
“Hag-Seed” is well written; it is interesting and entertaining; it is fun to read. But the plot of the novel is rather simplistic and naive.
In the final chapter of the book Atwood uses the inmates to spell out her understanding of the play. The inmates are asked to write about the characters they played and then elaborate on the characters’ post-play lives. The inmates take turns in presenting their understanding of what was going to happen to Ariel, Ferdinand and Miranda, Prospero and others. It was at this point that the ambiguities of the play could have been exposed and, in this way, trigger a spark of inspiration within the readers’ minds. This is because the inner structure of Shakespeare’s plays is projected through various ambiguities, which cannot be explained by rational psychology. However, instead of exposing her readers to the ambiguities of the play, the author effectively removed or trivialized them. In this way the play is sterilized. What is left is a simplified storyline that is entirely driven by sentimentality and emotionality. This is quite ironic, because Shakespeare explained quite precisely where Ariel went, what happened to Ferdinand, what was Miranda’s fate, and what Prospero did after his departure from the Island. But these details are disclosed in the inner structure of Shakespeare’s narrative that includes all the plays. In other words, “Hag-Seed” did not provide the same vehicle as the above mentioned “Caesar Must Die”. The difference was that “Caesar Must Die” included real people and their true experiences. “Hag-Seed”, on the other hand, is a work of fiction. It is a novel that contains many quotes from “The Tempest”. But Shakespeare’s essence is lost.

Award-winning author Margaret Atwood takes a highly clever turn at retelling William Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST with her release of the novel HAG-SEED. It is now set in the world of theatre as an artistic director named Felix is dumped from his theatre troupe at the onset of his highly realized re-staging of Willy's play.

If you know (and love) the source material, you will enjoy this ride. If not, this may not be the novel for you.

This was my first Atwood novel although I have read some of her nonfiction (essays, reviews, Payback) and liked it. And I was not familiar with the story of The Tempest and have a love/hate relationship with Shakespeare at best.

I prepared for the book by reading the online synopses of The Tempest from SparkNotes and CliffsNotes. CliffsNotes was better, more to the point and organized while SparkNotes was a rambling summary of the story. If only I had checked the back of Hag-Seed before I started I would have seen that Atwood herself provides a couple of pages summarizing The Tempest for those of us who needed it.

Hag-Seed was an enjoyable novel on its own and even better as a retelling of The Tempest. It was fun putting together what characters and which events related to the original story's. I like the idea behind the Hogarth Project of retelling Shakespeare plays as modern novels. This was the first of those I've read, but I'll be looking for others to round out my Shakespeare education in an enjoyable way.

I've reviewed a number of books in this series and, while I've found them all quite readable ( look at the authors!) I've had the same problem with all of them; that the books read like what they are, in fact, gimmicks; well done gimmickis, but less true "creations" than stunts.

Not so this one.

Or, really, just so this one, but it somehow feels like the author had, what? more fun? more creative "input"?

Maybe it's just that the original is such marvelous blather that Atwood, and we, have less at stake and can be freer.

I don't know; what I DO know is that this is the most enjoyable book thus far in the series and one that renews my desire to continue to explore the others to com

I like Atwood's original work better. As her previous "reworking," The Penelopiad," "Hag-Seed" is masterfully written, with Atwood's signature wit, but it just lacks in plot and in characterization.

Obviously, this is Atwood, so the novel is not awful, but it is definitely not her best work.

Hag-seed, Margaret Atwood, author; R. H. Thomson, narrator
The book is read so convincingly by R. H. Thomson, an accomplished actor who brings that skill to every word he utters, that the characters leapt from the page into the real world and took on human forms. Listening to this book was truly like watching theater in my mind because of the performance given by the narrator.
The novel followed the themes and varied plots of the original script by Shakespeare, but it took place in the present day and current issues were addressed. Rap style lyrics were used which placed it in the here and now and often imparted a nice rhythm to the prose. All of the themes were perfectly rendered by the author in the setting of a modern prison. Revenge was carefully planned; vengeance was had and was followed by remorse, forgiveness and redemption. The varied plots involving power struggles, rivalry and salvation remained in Atwood’s version.
Felix Phillips was the head of the Makeshiweg Festival until he was betrayed by his associates and was unceremoniously removed from his position and escorted off the premises without even being allowed to say goodbye. His closest associate and protege, Tony, had deceived him by quietly working behind the scenes to depose him. Felix’s wife and daughter had died prematurely and he was still tormented by the loss of his young daughter from Meningitis. However, he was also arrogant and pompous and actually did little to maintain his position, acquiescing to Tony whenever he offered to take over his responsibilities so he could mourn.
Disappointed and humiliated he decided he didn’t need much to live on; he rented a shack and moved into the hovel with only the barest of necessities. (He lived an ascetic life, in much the same way that Prospero and Miranda had since they had been betrayed and abandoned in a boat that drifted to an island where they were forced to live in a cave.) Felix was lonely and missed his wife and child. He felt angry because he had been betrayed so bitterly by a man he thought was his friend. He developed an imaginary companion, his daughter Miranda. He actually believed he could see her, though he could not touch her. He engaged in conversations with her, but he recognized that no one else would either see or be able to speak to her.
He needed employment and soon found a job that when compared to his last position did not measure up, but it was work. He was a teacher at the Fletcher Correctional Facility instructing inmates in the art of acting, a program instituted to aid in their rehabilitation. He became another man, known only as Mr. Duke. In the blink of an eye, twelve years passed and his opportunity for revenge against his betrayers arrived out of the blue. (His imaginary daughter, whom he realized no one else could see, was now 15, just like the daughter of Prospero, who was a sorcerer as well as the rightful Duke of Milan.) With Miranda’s creation, Felix also seemed to be able to employ magic, and indeed, there were times when he thought Miranda was sending signals and prompting the actors during the performance.
Unbeknownst to the inmates, he was engaging them in his scheme to retaliate against those who had plotted against him on the festival committee. They had forced him out, and he designed the performance of The Tempest to enable him to settle that score. It was the perfect opportunity since the villains would be arriving to see it without knowing he was behind it; he was known as Mr. Duke, not Felix Phillips. It was the very same show that he had been preparing for the festival before he was terminated. Mr. Duke tried to cast each prisoner/actor in the play with a play character whose life paralleled that prisoner’s. Then he could better identify with the part he was playing. The same flaws and attributes were present in their personalities. As the characters in the play had lived their lives and faced adversity, in the parallel modern world, so did those performing in it. The characters created by Shakespeare in the 1600’s and the characters created by Atwood in 2016 had the same strengths and weaknesses. There were gentle characters and there were brutes. All were in a prison of a kind and all wanted out! All needed to forgive and be forgiven.
There were interesting parallels in the two plays, the old and the new. For instance, Felix’s cane mirrored Prospero’s staff. The imaginary Miranda was the same age as Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. Felix and his “daughter” were in a prison of his making; Prospero’s actions had led to his exile to an island with his child;and the inmates were incarcerated for foolish choices that they had made. They all had one main thing in common, they wanted to be set free.
In this reworked Tempest, Atwood took the opportunity to promote some of the liberal issues of today. Examples of topics that came to my mind are as follows: the need for the reform of the justice system in its entirety encompassing courts, sentences, prisons and police, equality for women, addressing climate change, the treachery that the need for power and position inspires, and the existence of racism historically and in the present day.
The author cleverly included a summary of the original play, at the end, to clear up any confusion for those who either had not read or had not remembered Shakespeare’s Tempest. Atwood has brilliantly rewritten the play for the modern world imaginatively with charm, humor and gravity injected at appropriate times. The characters are wisely used to explain and analyze the play. It was a joy to read.
***hag-seed=the offspring of a hag or a witch.

This novel is an enjoyable modern retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" both in the main narrative and in the play within the novel. Although "The Tempest" is not one of my favorites, "Hag-Seed" gave me a greater appreciation of it. I think Shakespeare would have been pleased.
Because the book is full of references to "The Tempest", if it has been a while since you have seen the play or read it, have another look at it before reading "Hag-Seed".

I expected something heavy and possibly lit-heavy but got an unexpected surprise in this glorious Tempest retelling. Restaging? Pick your poison.

Tempest is not my favourite play, but oh my goodness this is an excellent book. The prisoners are amazing and Felix is an excellent... not anti-hero but... maybe anti-hero? I don't know, but he's someone I didn't expect to root for but totally did.

Maragret Atwood manages to make this retelling completely readable and modern while keeping the spirit of the original text.

Oh how I love Atwood's dry wit! What could be more fun than convicted felons cursing like the Bard and learning to care about theater? What could be more intriguing than revenge played out in real life? This novel had some slow spaces but the main character was one I could root for, flaws and all. If you enjoyed Atwood's The Penelopiad, you'll like this novel too.

Shakespeare is relevant for every generation with themes applicable to today. Margaret Atwood does a masterful job of weaving The Tempest with a director's unjust firing while suffering his young daughter's death and how he extracts revenge 12 years later. His current job of play director at a prison gives him all the tools he needs.

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood is an amazing portrayal of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Margaret Atwood's brilliance shines as usual with a frame story of revenge.

Atwood is by far one of my favorite authors. I love how she turns phrases and delves into the minds of people affected by circumstances beyond their control. While most of her protagonists are women dealing with sexual politics, I love how she turns around The Tempest with, of course, a male main who seeks revenge against very real politicians and uses society's dregs to win back his life. And in the end, he discovers that kindness and goodness is better than bitterness.

Atwood, no surprise, does a wonderful job of telling the "Tempest" through an inventive "cast" of characters. Not only does she bring out important elements of the play via Felix, she invents a clever plot around the revenge theme. I wonder why she set the story in Canada. Maybe Brits think Canada is exotic, ala the play. Great addition to the Hogarth series and hard to match. Jay

Dull tale of a down and out director who tries to avenge his former colleagues by having A WInter's Tale played by prisoners in the state prison.There are a few comical episodes but otherwise the book left me cold.

I found this book to be unreadable. I didn't like the characters, the language or the ideas the author presented. I'm not sure why it got such high ratings, but I did not enjoy the portion I read at all.

I am not a fan of Margaret Atwood's writing style, nor am I enthused by Shakespeare, so not a good beginning. By the time I had whisked rapidly through to the end, I felt it was three hours of my life wasted.
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This novel is yet more proof of Margaret Atwood's deserving her place as a living literary prodigy. Her skills are in full force in this wonderful new work. It's brilliant in its structure, the characters are beautifully rendered and the trademark Atwood biting wit doesn't disappoint. It is a pleasure to read and reaffirms (though never in doubt) that Atwood is my favorite author and I am grateful for her works.

I enjoyed this novel in one luxurious sitting. I couldn't put it down. Because of Atwood's range, there's no real "typical " Atwood book. This one utilizes Shakespeare's "The Tempest ". She artfully weaves a tale that I was left happily mulling over long after I was finished.

I am not one to go into specifics of a book when reviewing, as I prefer to not give out more than my overall opinion and not spoil plot points. I think that this book is one that has great appeal for any bookworm, whether or not they're an Atwood fan. It has all the elements of a good book- an excellent plot, well-constructed characters, well-paced action, an exploration of the human condition and a moral theme that is offered but not preached.

I happily give it 5 stars because of the ingenious writing that I think will appeal to a great many readers. I am very happy with my purchase of this book and easily recommend it. Happy readings to all!

I would really like to give this book more than 5 stars. I really liked it. I have read several other rewrites of The Tempest. The best of them was written by a horror writer, who followed the plot and characters more closely than this version does. Certain of the characters do not show up clearly, because in this modern world, technology takes their place. But the basic values of the story, the desire and need for revenge and to be restored are still there. The evil our Prospero suffers is repaid and he returns to his place of glory. It is all very satisfying and cathartic. Of all the books in this series of reworking Shakespeare into modern dress, I like this one best.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

This book just wasn't really working for me. I had to really force myself to finish it. Perhaps this is because I'm not a huge Shakespeare person. I found it hard to empathize with Felix. His drive for revenge doesn't quite fit—as though it was forced in to make the book mirror The Tempest. I found myself more confused throughout the book than anything else.

Atwood's writing was lovely, as always, and the songs featured in the prison production were amazing. But overall, I just didn't enjoy this one. 3.5/4

This is the best Hogarth Shakespeare adaptation as of yet, although I enjoyed Vinegar Girl as well. There is something special about Margaret Atwood, and this Hag-seed is no exception. This is a retelling of The Tempest by William Shakespeare, a story of revenge as a man produces a production of Tempest in a unique way. Felix is a character I will not soon forget, and the story of his, and this book's use of language and Shakespeare is brilliant. I highly recommend, as I do all Margaret Atwood, and thus far all of the Hogarth Shakespeare re-tellings.

I'm not a fan of writers who write books that are imitations or re-interpretations of other writers' work. Hag-Seed is a case in point. Let's be fair. Shakespeare's plays are complex assemblages of characters, speeches and plots. Atwood's work, nominally based on The Tempest, has the same characteristics.

Alas, Atwood didn’t use Shakespeare’s pen.

Her prose and dialogue are ordinary, for my taste. Her story is about as far as one can get from magical. Of course a reader can figure out which of her characters is aligned with Shakespeare's Prospero and Caliban and Miranda and so on. Of course a reader can see a transparent image of Shakespeare's plot.

For my taste, Hag-Seed is an awkward, deliberately mean and desperately inelegant version of The Tempest.

Cut loose from the Shakespeare connection, Hag-Seed is low-grade storytelling. IMHO.
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This was a book chosen by our book club.
I doubt that I would have chosen, but it was interesting and perhaps predictable. Not share that I would recommend as a bit heavy and little weird. My favorite part was when the prisoners would substitute the f word for a Shakespearean word in its place .......really clever and funny.

Margaret Atwood's HAG-SEED . . . TEMPEST RETOLD presents conspiracy, betrayal, an old mad ruler in exile . . . seems fitting.
Setting THE TEMPEST in a prison added insights to so much, like the requests for "pardon" (and applause) at the end of TEMPEST and M. N's DREAM . . . actors and theaters of the time were only a royal pardon away from prison and being closed down, theater being the immoral pretense that it was/is, challenging the status quo. Bravo to those bringing arts to prisons, and Brava, Margaret Atwood for a book that so thoroughly captivates and inspires. Revenge, forgiveness, creation in the face of chaos. It was just what I needed right now.