From the book’s title and the plot summary, most people will know that
the story is based on the life of William Shakespeare. The playwright, however, is never named; he
is described as “the son” or “the tutor” or “the husband” or “the father.” Perhaps he is unnamed so that he does not
overshadow his wife who is really the protagonist of this retelling.
Agnes is a spirited woman who has an uncanny ability to read
people. She also has the gift of
foresight which allows her to sense future events. She is a fiercely protective mother and a
steadfast supporter of her husband. It is
the relationship with her husband that I found especially imaginative. When she first meets him and takes his hand,
she feels “Something of which she had never known the like. . . . It was
far-reaching: this much she knew. It had layers and strata, like a
landscape. There were spaces and
vacancies, dense patches, underground caves, rises and descents. There wasn’t enough time for her to get a
sense of it all – it was too big, too complex. . . . She knew there was more of
it than she could grasp, that it was bigger than both of them.” Later, she tells him that she has seen the
place in his head: “’a whole country in
there, a landscape.’” When she sees his
writing, she does not understand what he is writing but knows that “The
branches of the forest are so dense you cannot feel the rain.” What wonderful ways to describe the mind of a
literary genius!
Agnes is not portrayed as a countrywoman who is not the equal of her
husband. She is an intelligent woman who
senses her husband’s unhappiness. He is
a restless soul abused by a violent father.
When she sees his melancholy, she conspires to send him to London where
she suspects he may find opportunities appropriate to his mind. She would prefer him at home with her and the
children but she loves her husband so much that she sends him away so he can
become who he is meant to be.
The second part of the novel, which describes the grief at the loss of
a child, is almost too painful to read because it is rendered so
exquisitely. The twin, Susanna, and the
parents all grieve differently. Agnes is
almost totally destroyed. Because she
and her husband cannot speak of their loss, they misread each other’s
responses. Agnes’ husband feels that “the
magnitude, the depth of his wife’s grief . . . exerts a fatal pull. It is like a dangerous current that, if he
were to swim too close, might suck him in, plunge him under. He would never surface again; he must hold
himself separate in order to survive. If
he were to go under, he would drag them all with him.” He chooses to return London, and Agnes feels
he has abandoned her and his family. In
an interesting twist, the author connects the loss of a child with the writing
of one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies.
The poetic prose is hauntingly beautiful. Even a mundane activity like removing
honeycombs is described elegantly: “She
brings a honeycomb out of the skep and squats to examine it. Its surface is covered, teeming, with
something that appears to be one moving entity:
brown, banded with gold, wings shaped like tiny hearts. It is hundreds of bees, crowded together,
clinging to their comb, their prize, their work. . . . The bees lift, in
unison, to swarm above her head, a cloud with no edges, an airborne net that
keeps casting and casting itself. . . . the honey leaves the comb with a
cautious, near reluctant drop. Slow as
sap, orange-gold, scented with the sharp tang of thyme and the floral sweetness
of lavender, it falls into the pot Agnes holds out. A thread of honey stretches from comb to pot,
widening, twisting.”
The novel takes advantage of the fact that little is known about
Shakespeare’s family and imagines an explanation for what is not known: Why did Shakespeare marry a woman older than
he, especially one who would be considered an unlettered countrywoman? Did he have to marry her because she was
pregnant with his child? Why did he
bequeath his wife the “second-best” bed?
I highly recommend this book. I
first read Maggie O’Farrell last year. Her
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox impressed
me very much (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2019/08/review-of-vanishing-act-of-esme-lennox.html). This book left me in total awe. Though it begins slowly, it becomes an
intimate, eloquent study of grief that is powerfully affecting. It will leave you moved, much as you might be
by a play written by the protagonist’s husband.
Note: I received a digital
galley from the publisher via NetGalley.
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