Il ragazzo che amava Shakespeare

by Bob Smith, Marcella Dallatorre (Translator)

Stratford non è solo la cittadina inglese in cui nacque William Shakespeare, ma è anche un paese degli Stati Uniti dove vive un bambino di nome Bob Smith. La sua modesta famiglia deve affrontare la tragedia di una figlia handicappata, che assorbe tutte le energie e turba la routine quotidiana, coinvolgendo madre, padre e il fratello, affettuosamente dedito alla sorellina ma in credito d'affetto con i genitori. Finché un giorno Bob entra nella biblioteca locale e, attratto dalle incisioni in oro di un libro, lo apre e resta incantato dal mondo meraviglioso delle opere di Shakespeare. Il profondo amore per i testi shakespeariani accompagna Bob per il resto della sua difficile esistenza, aiutandolo ad affrontare i traumi personali e familiari.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Shakespeare, Biography Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Theatre

314 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2002

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gentle story about a boy, trapped in an unhappy childhood, who turns to Shakespeare for solace. It is the thread that leads him through life. As an adult, he teaches Shakespeare appreciation courses for senior citizens.

If you like memoirs about folks being made whole through their passion, you'd like this.

3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Smith's childhood is not happy. His younger sister Carolyn, is severely handicapped, his mother is sad and unhappy, and his father distant. To make matters worse, grownups around him keep saying those incomprehensible words that create a world of confusion and guilt.
Was he for example, since he was born as a large and healthy child, the cause of his younger sisters’ disability? If they say that he destroyed his mother “down there” when he was born, do they mean that it is his fault that his sister was injured at birth? Where is “down there” by the way? Is it because of him that everything is wrong? If he maybe did more, helped more, and was a better son, would everyone like him?

His days are divided between school and taking care of his sister. He doesn’t invite other kids home, in case his sister should have a fit, and he can’t play with them outside, since he is needed at home to help with Carolyn. But it doesn’t matter, Things simply are as they are, she is his baby sister and he loves her a lot. Until one day he finds Shakespeare, whose beautiful words become the one stable and reliable element in his life, and a central part of his future.
It’s a heartbreaking story, but despite everything it radiates warmth, as much as sadness. I can not even begin to imagine what Bob’s life must have been like, but I can certainly understand finding comfort in books, so I enjoyed the memoir of Hamlet’s dresser and must admit that Shakespeare's words have never carried so much meaning until Bob showed me how they can save someone’s life.

[Anita Diamant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my Shakespeare Crush. Bob Smith's memoir recounts a heartbreaking family life and the redemptive power of Shakespeare as learned from within the theater.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I think that the more confused you are inside, the more you need to trust a thing outside of yourself."

RTC

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were moments of great interest in this, but in general the skip-around telling of the tale put me off. Loved finding snippets of Shakespeare tucked in between the stories though. I think one of my favorite parts was when the harridan math teacher caught him reading Shakespeare tucked behind his math book like a contraband read... she then "took off her horn rimmed glasses and for one minute and fifteen seconds she repeated Portia's famous instructions to Shylock n the properties of forgiveness.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven...

[Maria Grazia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you know what a Hamlet’s dresser does? It’s a job I had never heard about before reading this touching memoir. After that , since I love theatre but only among the audience or backstage, I added it to my dream job list ( first in the list: librarian!) I loved the human aspects of this book and the fact that it is permeated of Shakespeare’s world. This is in fact the true story of a boy whose life was saved by literature. Bob Smith’s Hamlet's Dresser is a portrait of a person made whole by art. His childhood was a fragile and lonely one, spent largely caring for his handicapped sister, Carolyn and longing for more attention from his parents . But at the age og ten, his local librarian gave him a copy of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and it transformed him. In Bob's first look at Shakespeare's penetrating language -- "In sooth I know not why I am so sad" -- he had found a window through which to view the world. Years later, when the American Shakespeare Festival moved into Stratford, Connecticut, and Smith was hired as Hamlet's dresser, his life's passion took shape.


Read an excerpt from the book and the rest of the review on my blog http://flyhigh-by-learnonline.blogspo...

[Elisabetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

La vita di Bob Smith, è stata una vita triste, un infanzia segnata da una sorellina disabile, e da dei genitori che non riuscivano a prendersi cura di nessuno dei due.
Una vita costantemente segnata da questa responsabilità oltre che dall'affetto per quella sorellina così fiduciosa nel fratello maggiore..
Una vita segnata dalla presenza di Shakespere e dei suoi poemi e da un animo sensibile da artista.

Una vita particolare, segnata, ma non so se tutto questo meritava le pagine scritte in un libro.
Intendiamoci, non intendo che ciò che scrive l'autore non sia degno di essere pubblicato, tutt'altro, ritengo solamente che la parte di quello che ha scritto non sia abbastanza, manca un qualcosa che crei un collante tra tutte le storie che non può essere, come invece è stato, Shakespeare, per quanto interessante questo aspetto sia.
I fatti raccontati rappresentano infatti un aspetto della vita dell'autore, una aspetto troppo piccolo per poter essere considerato una biografia, e troppo esiguo per conoscere interamente ciò che si agitava nell'animo di Bob Smith.
Ciò non vuol dire che non venga espresso il suo senso di insicurezza o di disagio per una
responsabilità troppo grande arrivata troppo spesso, o per quel senso di colpa immotivato, ma tutto sembrato come tagliato, decurtato di una parte.
Certamente i continui salti temporali non hanno aiutato.
Infatti la storia di Bob Smith viene intervallata dai racconti dell'uomo adulto dive legge Shakespeare a un gruppo di persone anziane che sentono le parole del Bardo descrivere la propria vita.
Questa, lo ammetto, è una belle idea e solamente un idea che avrebbe potuto usare un grande conoscitore di Shakespere.
Mi è comunque mancato qualcosa.

[Wfbcreeds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of what do we write when we write of love? In Bob Smith's case, it is Shakespeare's poems and plays. Hamlet's Dresser braids two strands of his life into a modest, heartbreaking, and soaringly affirmative memoir. A bookish, lonely child, his crush on the Bard's work became love when, as an alienated teenager, he joined the American Shakespeare Theatre as Hamlet's dresser. In time he would dress other characters, perform in small roles, become a coach and a watcher, and eventually lead senior citizens' groups in Shakespeare-appreciation courses. But this ecstatic marriage was haunted by his sad, contorted childhood: an increasingly dysfunctional mother, a distant father, and Caroline, his profoundly retarded sister. "Art," he writes, "can be a brutal thing, not just some decoration placed over the truth, but the truth itself." Smith's prose is bluntly ineffable: a rundown theatre looks like "Miss Havisham's bride cake" and the first teacher who didn't like him was "Miss Shumaker. It was right after I stopped pleasing everybody." The book is thick with short passages from Shakespeare. Placed in perfect context, they leap from the pages, abrupt as panoramic pop-ups. --H. O'Billovich

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to find a flaw in this beautifully written memoir about a life dedicated to Shakespeare, unless it is the thematic chronology in place of linear chronology. Because Mr. Smith reorders time so that different bits of his life reflect on one another, he is left without a satisfying ending. Indeed, the book ends, but does not really conclude. It seems churlish, however, to complain about a book that is so heartfelt, so often moving, so life affirming even with the frequent theme of death, and that has Shakespeare coursing through it as the blood courses through our bodies. I loved this book.

[Velvetink · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus
How can you say to me I am a King?"
-King Richard II, 3.2, 174-7






11.10.2013 1 of 22 books for $10 (fill a bag)

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enchanting book. A heartwarming book that takes its reader through all aspects of life and how shows that there is a Shakespeare quote to correspond to each of life's obstacles. Simply lovely.

[Marcia Chocinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book ... The author does a wonderful job in this memoir telling his tale of growing up and discovering Shakespeare which infused his llfe from that point on - he just couldn't get enough of it! He discovered Shakespeare at his local library like I did. The complete works were contained in these lovely small blue books with gold lettering which beckoned to me from a distance when I was fairly young. A similar set beckoned to Bob. The words were so foreign from anything that I had ever read and there was a beauty beyond understanding. The books were so special I don't think that set was able to be taken from the library and i found myself going back to them when I visited, just to read a section or two of the beautiful odd language. Between this and other books I would pick up, the librarian decided to have a talk with my mother - I shouldn't be reading things that advanced she said. My mother didn't mind at all.

Later as we studied a play or two in school, we watched Olivier's Hamlet and my understanding of the play increased. After all, Shakespeare wrote plays that were meant to be seen and experienced and i find it is the seeing that really brings them to life again after all these centuries and for a modern day audience. I think this is made evident when Smith replays passages from Anthony and Cleopatra where she is buckling his armor. Smith tells the story of instructing Hepburn (one of my idols) on how to buckle the armor and adds comments to the bards original lines that help convey what the actors would do with their suburb skills. If you ever get a chance to go to the Canadian Shakespeare Festival -do go! I have been there several times and have enjoyed Shakespeare, Moliere, and other more modern plays. The festival is a wonderful experience.

The author takes you through his younger years in his dysfunctional family. An absent father and his mentally retarded sister weigh down his mother and all have a great impact on his young life. Other family members, teachers, friends and non-friends are included in his journey through his young life until he finds his way to a part time summer job as Hamlets Dresser at the Stratord Festival, which luckily for him started up in his hometown. These tales are interspersed with stories about his current life teaching Shakespeare to the elderly in community centers and other places in New York City. I only wish he had taken us for a ride through the years in between, but perhaps that is for another memoir.

His tale did take me back to various times in my own young life. I had a happy childhood but I think we can all relate to various kinds of bullies in the classroom. While Shakespeare didn't become all consuming for me it is something I have gone back to at various times in my life. Like the summer after my freshman year at a small liberal arts college near my home ... A friend was transferring to Penn State and was enrolling for the summer session. I tagged along with her to help her find an apartment etc., and while I was there realized that for a small amount of money I could go to Penn State for the summer and experience a larger school and living away from home for a short while. My parents agreed and I set about looking for classes to take. My school started early so I was limited to mostly graduate classes for teachers to obtain their ongoing credits. This was okay as these would transfer back to my school as pass-fail and serve as extra credits outside the requirements for my major (not English). There in the list of classes I spotted graduate Shakespeare. To register for classes you went to the gymnasium and stood in long lines for a given subject area. My wait for the English department was long and my reward was being turned down since I wasn't even an English major and it was a graduate not an undergraduate class. I had been accepted easily in the other classes so I wasn't going to just accept this refusal and proceeded to argue my case. Our school didn't offer this course, it would transfer as pass-fail, I wanted to take the class because I enjoyed Shakespeare and what a wonderful experience it would be. The professor finally relented. It turned out to be his class and I guess he didn't want underclassmen in there, but he was persuaded by my arguments to give me a try. It was the most enjoyable class that I took that summer and was surprisingly small for such a large university - maybe 20 people. My actual grade was a B, even though it would transfer as a pass, something that gave me great satisfaction as I was actually pretty close to receiving an A.

So in closing ... Sorry to have rambled on, but I really enjoyed this book and I am hopeful that Smith will write another memoir to complete this saga. I also hope that I am able to see him speak at some point. When I retire I will be moving and they have a local arts festival. While this usually consists of dancing, singing and the like, I am hopeful that Bob's speaking on Shakespeare might quailfy and will suggest it once I am ensconced in my new surroundings. And there is always New York - a trip there might just have to include a visit to the Y or other locale that will be provided on his website.

Thanks Bob! I really enjoyed the ride!

[chiara_menteconfusa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trovato per caso al mercatino dell'usato, la trama era appena accennata in pochissime righe. Qualcosa di quel libro mi chiamava ma onestamente pensavo sarebbe stata una piacevole lettura che al massimo mi avrebbe fatto venir voglia di leggere Shakespeare. Invece mi sono trovata ad emozionarmi, commuovermi e riconoscermi nelle parole che leggevo, nelle sensazioni che venivano descritte.
Questo libro, abbandonato sullo scaffale dal 2023, mi stava aspettando per urlarmi di portarlo con se.

[Megan Reichelt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamlet's Dresser is yet another memoir about how Shakespeare saved someone's life, and luckily I did not have to stop this one half way through.

Bob Smith is a troubled child, haunted and scarred by his unstable mother, his absentee father and his mentally retarded sister. He turns inward and finds solace in the words of Shakespeare. His life is rocky until he embraces his calling as a Shakespeare scholar, and, with this memoir, heals the wounds of his past.

Unlike Ghostlight, a plodding linear narrative that got stuck in the mire of his early childhood trauma, Hamlet's Dresser bounces around in time, from his childhood to his adulthood to various points on the timeline between. While this keeps the story from stagnating, it feels a bit arbitrary at times. Smith will finish telling a tale, and then plop you right down in the middle of it again a page or so later, which is disorienting if you care about chronology.

I did thoroughly enjoy his entry points to Shakespeare. Often, he would tell a story from his life, and then finish it with a quote from Shakespeare, and, juxtaposed, they would illuminate each other. You were able to feel the universal nature of the personal story, while at the same time discovering that Shakespeare knew what he was talking about.

He also excellently portrayed the effects of growing up as a child of a Catholic Family in the 1960s, and the dents and scratches, and even lifelong burdens you get from careless things that adults and parents say. At a young age, when the world is still a mystery, you gather and retain information like a sponge, and something said in jest can reverberate through your head years later.

I do find it hard to review memoirs. It's not a fiction, or a piece of artwork that you can objectively analyze. It is a person's life, opened raw and naked, and told in the way he sees it.

Regardless, I felt he spent too much time on his sister and his mother. His sister became a millstone around his neck, and though he loved her, he was always haunted by her half-formed presence, comparing her often to mad Ophelia. His mother would today be diagnosed as manic depressive or bipolar and she used him as a crutch rather than as a son. Several stories establish this dynamic, but they continue for half the book. Even with the jumping around you don't get to the point when he starts working for a theater and becomes the titular Hamlet's dresser until about 3/4 of the way in.

However, this is an excellent book for examining the effect that high art can have on personal stories, not only Bob Smith's but those he loves. However, the pain of his story can often leave you exhausted and dripping with bits of his depression.

[S.L. Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yesterday, I finished Hamlet's Dresser: A Memoir, written by Bob Smith who was a dresser/aide for Shakespearean actors including Katherine Hepburn among others. At some point, he starting reading Shakespeare to senior citizens, getting them to appreciate the beauty and complexity of Shakespeare. I picked it up at McKay's in Chattanooga because of the con connection to Shakespeare. Since writing a high school essay on some of the sonnets, I have come to love Shakespeare even if at times figuring out what Shakespeare was getting at is stubbornly impossible. There is a lot of Shakespeare mostly from the plays skillfully woven into the narrative.

Hamlet's Dresser is also a sad story in a way because of Smith's relationship with his parents, and others that made his life so much different than the normal kid in school. Shakespeare was Smith's coping mechanism. His younger sister, Carolyn was profound mental retardation and moderate to significant physical disabilities due to complications at birth that were attributed to cerebral palsy. Her parents did not know how to cope, and a substantial portion of the burden, and blame, was cast on Smith. Carolyn's story is a reminder of how far we have come from the early 1940's in terms of working with the severely disabled though a lot remains to be done. So much was not known and the stigma of "not being right" kept those who needed help from being able to get it. Carolyn's story is more than therapy and training; it is about giving the severely disabled a chance at a life that also allows for their loved ones to live as well.

The narrative drew me in and I am glad I read Hamlet's Dresser. That being said, the flow was given to chunkiness, halting and hesitation. It led to stop and starting and re-reading. Then, there were the times that the time periods were so enmeshed that it was confusing. To this reader, it was like being in a dream, slipping from one time period into another and then out to the next without any defining break.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this book out from the library based on a glowing recommendation from theaterdiva.

Smith reflects on his troubled childhood, interspersing his memories with vignettes of his current calling: teaching Shakespeare at senior centers. Bob had a distant father, a disturbed mother, and a severely retarded sister to cope with, and escaped into the world of Shakespeare thanks to a kind librarian and the Shakespeare Festival program in his hometown of Stratford, Connecticut.

Smith's recollections, while heartbreaking at times, are told with wistful good humour, never wallowing in self-pity. He ties in quotes from the plays and sonnets expertly. This would be a wonderful audiobook, as the words are meant to be read aloud, just as the good Bard's works are. If you're looking for a memoir of an unsung hero, pick this book up.


Selected Quotes

When I talk about the plays, I unfold myself to myself, and sometimes, hidden in the folds are forgotten events that can, for a moment, make the standing a little harder. -- Preface

That summer when I turned seventeen I didn't always know the difference between the characters and the people who played them. -- Chapter 3

It's amazing how much anxiety was handed over to children, how guilt was expected to drive faith. And it did! -- Chapter 8

To Sister Elizabeth Joseph, God the Father was cranky Louis B. Mayer. -- Chapter 8

It hurt to be hurt for being hurt already. -- Chapter 8

It [the library] was a kind of stage set for the act of reading. -- Chapter 12

I think the more confused you are inside, the more you need to trust a thing outside yourself. -- Chapter 12

My mother was terrified to be in a car when the roads were icy. My mother was terrified to be in a car. My mother was terrified. -- Chapter 13

Too much watching can make you passive and afraid. Ask Hamlet. -- Chapter 14

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hamlet's Dresser
Ottimo memoir, o meglio autobiografia, di Bob Smith, attore, regista e consulente shakespeariano. Con un linguaggio pacato ma vivido Smith ci racconta di un'infanzia mai vissuta a causa dell'adoratissima sorella Carolyn (ritardata mentale), di una madre esaurita e di un padre distante. Ci racconta la sensazione di vivere una vita terribile, l'incontro casuale con Shakespeare e con le sue parole, così importanti e così lenitive. Ci racconta le sue esperienze nel teatro shakespeariano (Bob Smith è nato e vive a Stratford, Connecticut, che condivide il nome con il luogo di nascita del grande drammaturgo inglese), la sua costante diversità e solitudine. Ci racconta l'inizio del suo rapporto con gli anziani ai quali legge e insegna Shakespeare, stupendosi e beandosi non solo della loro disposizione all'apprendimento e alla discussione, ma anche dell'incredibile sensazione di poter essere se stesso in loro presenza.
Il ragazzo che amava Shakespeare è una storia dolente ma delicata, un racconto triste ma dolce, il resoconto di una vita segnata ma contemporaneamente la voce di un uomo positivo.

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

E' un libro che inizi a sorridere appena inizi a leggerlo, e quel sorriso non passa, anche se si tramuta in commozione, lacrime, pena, dolcezza, empatia, passione... tante volte vorresti essere li ad abbracciare il protagonista, e chi ama il teatro non pu� non essere trasportato dietro alle quinte, non pu� non vivere con trepidazione i momenti che compongono uno spettacolo e che uno spettatore non vive mai.... Bello, assolutamente bello. Un libro da "possedere", e da regalare a chi non ha paura di lasciarsi andare alle parole!

[Adam Lauver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting and heartfelt memoir. The way in which Smith intersperses his stories with Shakespeare excerpts is very cool and gives the excerpts whole new life, even if it's out of their given plays' contexts. The most compelling strands in the book are his memories of his mentally challenged sister and his anecdotes about working in theatre. The book seems to pick up steam half-way through, so I recommend sticking with it.

[Hannah Grippo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing memoir of childhood and understanding of Shakespeare with the spirits of Joyce and McCourt. I read this book 2 years ago and mean to read it again very soon. Writing is edible and author is keen on the art of language. It's not only a powerful love story of two siblings growing up, but so enlightening on Shakespeare's words and legacy.

[Ann Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this on the Staff Recommends shelf at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, Oregon, while I was at the Shakespeare Festival. This is what I love about independent bookstores; I never would have found or heard about this book otherwise. A great story about the redemptive qualities of literature, and an inspiring life led by the author.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful memoir told with insight and compassion. I loved the author's use of Shakespeare to illustrate his story and his descriptions and feeling for senior citizens. What a breath of fresh air.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Haven't you always sat on that step since the very first rehearsal? Haven't you had tears in your eyes every time? Haven't you understood that it's a kid watching the magic of a play that's the stuff of dreams?"

[Janet Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, interesting, moving story--unutterably sad but triumphant in the power of words to heal and transport a damaged soul.

[Denise Rawling · Rating 3 out of 5]

inspiring and moving, a personal memoir of a difficult childhood and the redemptive power of Shakespeare.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad and beautiful. Beautiful and sad.

[Antonio Gallo · Rating 3 out of 5]

In questo racconto intimo e stimolante, Smith dice che le parole e le idee possiedono la capacità di guarire e trasformare una vita, non importa quanto terribili e dolorose siano le circostanze, usando come prova la sua infanzia difficile e la sua età adulta produttiva. Qui, il balsamo letterario è l'opera di Shakespeare. Il libro si apre con la morte di uno dei membri di un gruppo di anziani che si riunivano regolarmente a Manhattan per leggere le commedie del Bardo con Smith come capo. Smith mostra immediatamente la sua abilità letteraria mentre cattura l'umanità dei suoi studenti. Quella sensibilità gli serve bene quando scrive della sua famiglia disfunzionale (una madre traumatizzata, un padre distratto e una sorella disabile), rivelando i propri difetti con chiarezza mentre cerca di capire il suo posto nella loro vita e nel mondo. Smith assume abilmente il ruolo di osservatore e cronista durante i suoi ironici ricordi della sua giovinezza sottosopra, mentre esamina anche come le famiglie possano danneggiare emotivamente i bambini con mezze verità e abbandono ben intenzionati, poiché i parenti lo fanno sentire in qualche modo responsabile per la sorella. handicap. Alcuni dei passaggi più dolorosi arrivano durante il disfacimento della salute di sua madre mentre suo padre è in guerra, gravando ulteriormente il giovane Smith nella cura della sorella sempre più problematica. Sia che Smith stia descrivendo sua zia alcolizzata, sua nonna dispettosa o i suoi studenti anziani, la sua capacità di destreggiarsi tra umorismo e dolore non viene mai meno. In tutto questo libro trionfante, l'ombra di Shakespeare incombe e Smith trova un significato nelle commedie per riscattare la sua esistenza quotidiana, diventando infine il comò di Amleto allo Stratford Shakespeare Festival, dove si diletta nel funzionamento del teatro e incontra Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy e altri. I lettori di memorie veterani troveranno questo libro avvincente, rinfrescante e toccante.

[Moonlight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autore americano che non conoscevo.
Ho acquistato il libro perchè riporta il ritratto di Shakespeare sulla copertina e perché descritto "un capolavore" da un critico letterario.
In effetti l'ho trovato molto bello.
Narrazione autobiografica, scritta da Bob Smith ormai sessantenne, che ripercorre le esperienze della sua vita sin dalla nascita, fortemente segnate dalle origini irlandesi della madre e la famiglia di lei ma, principalmente, dalla presenza di una sorella minore con grave disabilità e da lui amata moltissimo.
Sin da giovanissimo, Bob entra nel mondo del teatro, facendo il servo di scena .
Il teatro è per lui una sorta di rifugio che gli consente di allontanarsi dalla propria casa e dal dolore che gli provocano la presenza della sorella e gli atteggiamenti della madre.
I testi shakespeariani poi, trova diano espressione e descrizione ai suoi travagli interiori, alle sue tristezze e domande profondissime sul significato della vita.
A pag 297 leggiamo:" Come quando da piccolo, nella chiesa di San Carlo, stavo inginocchiato davanti alla mamma singhiozzante, vedevo le mie lacrime cadere sul pavimento. Mentre Bolingbroke scherniva Riccardo, l'aver visto per anni mia sorella schernita dalla gente scatenava in me un pianto dirotto........e ogni volta quella sofferenza mi faceva male e in parte mi guariva."
Da adulto, Bob desidera donare ciò che ha ricevuto dalle opere di Shakespeare anche ad altri, in particolare alle persone anziane, che lo adorano per questo.
Consigliato a chi ama Shakespeare, a chi è sensibile verso il tema della disabilità e alla fatica di crescere e di trovare la propria strada dei giovani.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I wanted more Shakespeare. What with the title Hamlet's Dresser, I expected this book to be centered around some aspect of performing Shakespeare. And while that certainly makes up a portion of the book, the bulk of this memoir is about the challenging coming of age for the author. His biggest obstacle to happiness is his sister Carolyn, who suffers from extreme retardation and becomes the responsibility of the author from a young age. His parents take a beating in this telling. Neither was up to the task of caring for a special needs child.

Bob Smith certainly battled his own demons throughout. Depression, among other mental health issues, hangs over the author's growing years. Still, there are moments of redemption. As an older man, Smith devotes himself to reading Shakespeare with groups of senior citizens. His compassion for these elders is inspiring. I wanted to know what transpired in those years leading up to this endeavor. Even more prominent is his special relationship with his sister. The chapters jump around, some spent in his youth, others in his days as an older teen/young adult involved with the theatre, mostly in the costume department. Then there are the chapters in the present with the senior citizens. Virtually nothing in the 30-40 years in between and I would have liked to have had at least a glimpse as to what happened during that time. The implications are that it involved a lot of theatre, heavily weighted toward Shakespeare.

Now despite the depressing content of much of the book, I still found it well worth my time. As a Shakespeare afficionado myself, I was much impressed with the author's breadth of knowledge and familiarity with the entire Shakespeare catalogue. At one point his mother chastises him, asking does he ever think about anything other than Shakespeare. The answer mostly is no. And that is the fortune of the author, Shakespeare truly was his lifeline and if he is special to you, then I am certain you will find nuggets of enjoyment from this memoir.

[Jill Loach · Rating 5 out of 5]

The name Hamlet caught my attention on a rather rushed bookshop trawl, initially not realising I was buying a memoir, not a novel. It proved to be an extraordinary and memorable read. Long in awe of Shakespeare's ability to articulate every aspect of the human condition, what Pope identified as “What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed”, I was moved by Smith's ability to blend quotations with his often tragic, though sometimes humorous, experiences. Without self-pity he relates an unbearably unhappy childhood, his love for his severely handicapped sister and his life-enhancing sharing of Shakespeare with the elderly. A bonus was the backstage insights from his work as a dresser at Stratford Connecticut Theatre, memorably his encounters with Katherine Hepburn. “Never a mother, she suddenly acted like one.” Smith has chosen an unusual, but very appropriate, structure to relate his story, past and present intermingling.