Review: Hamnet

 ★★★★☆

I unquestionably enjoyed Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, although I didn't especially love the writing style. The novel follows the Shakespeare family as Agnes and William find love, get married, have children, and then lose one. Essentially, the novel argues that the inspiration for Shakespeare's play Hamlet was the death of his son Hamnet (especially since the two names were interchangeable at the time). The book mainly focuses on Agnes, Shakespeare's wife. O'Farrell portrays her as some sort of witch-doctor with the ability to read people's thoughts, which I felt was superfluous and overexaggerated. In general, the characterization of Agnes was too flowery and melodramatic for my taste, but I can see why others would enjoy it. I also did not enjoy the prose, as it felt labored and excessive. One of the quotes I think best exemplifies this is: 

   “Several streets away, the owl leaves its perch, surrendering itself to a cool draught, its wings silently breasting the air, its eyes alert. To it, the town appears as a series of rooftops, with gullies of streets in between, a place to be navigated. The massed leaves of trees present themselves as it flies, the stray wisps of smoke from idle fires. It sees the progress of the fox, a man, sleeping in the doorway of a tavern, scratching at a fleabite on his shin; it sees coneys in a cage at the back of someone’s house; horses standing in a paddock near the inn; and it sees Judith, stepping into the street.”

Undoubtedly, this paragraph is fussy and extravagant, and basically, the whole novel is like this. Although I found the prose inherently exorbitant, I enjoyed the premise of the novel and the rich descriptions of medieval England. 4/5 stars. 

--Ellie