Will by Christopher Rush
Release date: 2008 / 496 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): March 1616. William Shakespeare is dying, with his lawyer at his bedside. It is time to dictate his will. But how can a man put his affairs in order before he’s come to terms with his past?
First lines: “Francis Collins came today.”
Review: As an English teacher — and as someone who truly adores the magic that was/is Shakespeare – I was so looking forward to this one and so did not enjoy it…
I soon tired of wading through words without reward. I love circuitous syntax and am a fan of Faulkner and Woolf, but Rush’s writing was too self-consciously clever and, well, coarse. Now I know that Shakespeare was very bawdy and naughty — one of the reasons my past 9th graders were willing to give Romeo and Juliet a try — but Rush stripped the innuendo from Shakespeare and was overtly rude and crude.
Now, is this most likely how the original “Will” spoke to his friends? Surely… But I missed the subtlety and word play that cloaked Shakespeare’s crude humor and was left irritated most of the time. Honestly, I’m pretty sure I would not have enjoyed Shakespeare the man, but I dearly love Shakespeare the artist and this just didn’t do justice to the mercurial talent that he was.
I think most readers would be able to decide whether or not they would enjoy this novel simply by reading a passage or two. Here is an example of what I mean by “wading through words” and off-putting coarseness. Will is describing his experience of school:
The keyhole was about the only place at school you could stick into. And Ovid was the keyhole through which I peered excitedly into my teens. What I saw there, caught in the forbidden frames of those pagan metres, was a sex scene that changed my life — Venus and Adonis hard at it, hic penis and hic vulva coming together and making sense of things at last. Not that Ovid provided the details, but on the doorsill of adolescence it was enough. Out the window went Adam and Eve’s furtive f**king in the bushes in the cool of the day, with God gloating knowingly on. Away too went the sheep-shagging Dick and Marian with her bursting udders and bovine belly. No more o’ that, sirs. Those bucolic lunges now disgusted me. (93)
In case you are wondering if I chose the one solitary passage that included the “f-word” — it appears nearly as often as the word “the.” Which would not necessarily deter me, but in this case it really seemed superfluous. I much prefer Shakespeare’s cloaked metaphor and innuendo!
Now, to end on a positive note… I did love the multitudinous references to Shakespeare’s own prose. Since I taught Romeo and Juliet for 15 years (and for those years of block scheduling, this meant teaching the play twice a year, multiple times a day), I have every line of that play burned into my memory. I was delighted with how Rush integrated Shakespeare’s phrases and imagery — and very, very impressed by how he did this. But in between the allusions, I struggled to engage with this work.
Apparently it will soon be a movie starring Ben Kingsley, and I may rent it (with the assumption I will only watch a bit) to see how the filmmakers translate it to the silver screen. But I cannot in good conscious recommend the novel.
However, I will still offer a free copy to a bold taker! Anyone interested? Simply leave me a comment…
I try to find something I like in whatever I read or review – of course sometimes it’s really difficult. This one looks like a challenge, but it’s got my curiosity up. I would give it a go.
I am actually not interested in reading this book, so please don’t enter me for a giveaway.
But I wanted to share that I’m currently reading Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt. It’s a “literary” biography, I think is the best way to describe it. It takes the plays he wrote and puts them in the biographical context of his life. I’m really unfamiliar with his plays but it would be so wonderful if I was familiar! I’m thinking it’s a great introduction to the Bard, since I hope to somehow read through them all!
Anyway, as a former literature teacher, you may like this approach to his life better than the realistic, albeit crude, fiction…
Please enter me in this contest. I’m always up for a challenge.
Thanks
sharon54220@gmail.com
You won, Gail! Good Luck!!
Be sure to let me know what you think…
Thank you for the recommendation, Rebecca — it sounds better than Will…
I think I would appreciate this approach, too!
Wow you have me on the edge of my seat!
Count me in I am a bold taker!
Carla
cpullum(at)yahoo(dot)com