Historical Fictionistas discussion

This is our group discussion for our March read, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Please be sure to mark spoilers.

I've read it a few years ago, and joined an event with the Italian translator of the novel. Incredibily, she said she wasn't enthusiastic about it and preferred other books by O'Farrell, such as I Am, I Am, I Am.

I'd like to do a re-read; let's see if I can fit it into the schedule!

I really liked this when I read it some years ago. I want to watch the film, but am waiting for it it start streaming. The author did an interview with Anne Bogel at What Should I Read Next podcast about the process of turning the book into a film.

I think what I liked most about this book is that it is not focused on Shakespeare. He's almost just in the background.

I read it a few years ago as well. I liked the prose and thought the strategy of telling so much of the story from Hamnet’s point of view allowed the author to deliver a huge emotional uppercut later on. And I loved the climax, when (view spoiler)[the text of the play was woven into the heart of the story so effectively. (hide spoiler)]. That aspect of the book was delivered well in the movie, but the other was inevitably lost.

Jasmine, can you add the book to the topic?
It should be possible by editing the title of the thread and filling the space "This topic is about..."
( I see you've done for previous discussions, so this might be just an oversight).

I enjoyed the book. Part two dragged on a bit but I suppose that was the point, to drive home the never ending mourning period as one really never escapes the pain of losing a child. Lastly, having read two books back to back set in the 1500s plague arena for my historical fiction genres may have swayed me to be less enthusiastic during this read.

Shannon wrote: "I enjoyed the book. Part two dragged on a bit but I suppose that was the point, to drive home the never ending mourning period as one really never escapes the pain of losing a child. Lastly, having..."

Shannon, could you use spoiler markers?

Alistair wrote: "Jasmine, can you add the book to the topic?
It should be possible by editing the title of the thread and filling the space "This topic is about..."
( I see you've done for previous discussions, so..."

Yep! Done.

Shannon wrote: "I enjoyed the book. Part two dragged on a bit but I suppose that was the point, to drive home the never ending mourning period as one really never escapes the pain of losing a child. Lastly, having..."

I guess for our group plague is a common theme over these two months. I didn't originally make that connection when both books were won their respective votes, but now that you pointed it out I see how the commonality can make a reader more likely to compare books in a way that might hinder the readers enjoyment.

I just finished Hamnet for the second time. I was stunned that I had forgotten almost everything about it but then reaized I had read it not long after my husband's death and had my own grief to deal with so reading about another grief somehow didn't leave an impression on me. But, I'm surprised I didn't remember the end of the book which had an impact on me this time.

Despite the title, I thought this book was primarily about Agnes, who was a very interesting character to me. She has a strong will and narrow focus of what she wants so she gets along fairly well in life though people whisper about her being odd and/or a witch. She has a talent she learned from her mother - an herbalist, she knows which plants can cure which diseases, ease certain ailments, etc.

It is interesting to me she can read so much about a person, or tell about their future sometimes just by glancing at them but (view spoiler)[ through a vision she "knows" only two of her children will live until her death she does not know which one will die before her; she believes she knows which one but she does not and blames herself when she misses the signals for the one who does die because she is so focused on the one she fears is dying but isn't! (hide spoiler)]

I relate to her largely through my diagnosis of being on the autistic spectrum - she doesn't communicate well with people, she doesn't pick up cues about people, she doesn't understand why people do certain things, etc. This makes me wonder how many autistics were killed for witchcraft but I digress.....

It was good of her to let her husband go to find what makes him happy after she ascertains how miserable he is and that it is not her or their children's fault. (view spoiler)[ he has to get away from his brutal overbearing father (hide spoiler)] Once he is settled elsewhere, they hope to reunite, (view spoiler)[but life has other plans as you will read (hide spoiler)].

Grief is the rest of the story. (view spoiler)[ Hamnet dies next to his plague-ridden twin, everybody knew she had it but no one knew Hamnet had succumbed. In a very touching scene he donned some of her clothes hoping Death would mistake him for her when Death came to get her and Death did. He wanted Death to take him instead. After he died Juliet, his twin, told her mother what he had done. She blames herself for having not paid enough attention to treat him earlier. (hide spoiler)]

Neither Agnes nor Will (view spoiler)[ can handle the death of Hamnet - she walks around like a zombie and he abruptly leaves to go back to London. He does not return to them for almost a year. She stops curing people and has little interest in anything but her two girls and her brother. Will sends her a lot of money through her brother who buys her a beautiful, large house nearby so she can get away from his family and memories of Hamnet. This doesn't help with her memories but gives her more a sense of herself again. I didn't like how Agnes and Will did not communicate with each other during this time, he seems to have run off and caroused with other women and who knows what, she feels it and is terribly hurt and angry. She does not communicate at all but the older daughter, Susanna, writes to him and tells him she suffers greatly from grief. (hide spoiler)]

End of the story: Eventually, rumors reach the town that Will has written a play titled Hamlet - Agnes' mean stepmother stops by with a playbill and mocks her with it - Agnes kicks her out and is completely freaked out that Will has done such a thing - how could he? what is it about? how dare he? why didn't he tell her? She aims to go to London to confront him and everybody is against it but her (very large) brother means to go with her to protect her. So off to London they go. (view spoiler)[ First, she is surprised, he lives in a little shack of an attic like a student with a bed and his writing equipment, and of course he isn't there but at the playhouse. They go to the playhouse and its all overwhelming and she hears parts and hears "Hamlets" name but doesn't understand what they are talking about - she is furious tho as Will is a character named Hamlet who is the father , now dead and appears as a ghost ,to a lad named Hamlet
who moves like their Hamnet, talks like their Hamnet, dresses like their Hamnet, oh how could he have trained such a lad to do this without the breaking of his heart? She begins to understand he has not let go of his grief either. In the play he is the older Hamlet and as his ghost he exists stage saying "Remember Me." and that is the end," (hide spoiler)]. I don't know what I think of the end, whether she will forgive him or not! I don't think we are supposed to know. I think we are to think she understands how he feels now.

I'm glad I nominated this book. I hope you enjoyed it.

I know Hamnet is now streaming on Peacock, heard it is on Netflix ?? and maybe elsewhere.

Now that I finished the book I can stream the movie - a strict rule I live by:)

Looking forward to the read of Hamnet . Still unable to find it at our local library it was checked out last two times I checked so , will order it. It sounds very intriguing after reading our groups inputs. Thanks everyone.

I read this book some time ago. I really enjoyed it. It is a compelling story of how two parents can grieve differently. I liked that Shakespeare was a minor role in this novel.

It is always refreshing to get a different point of view. So much has been written about Shakespeare and yet, so little about his family. I know different times. O' Farrell captures tender moments of a family life, loss and recovery. Of course, it is her writing style that brings this all together.

I also read Hamlet a while ago but parts of it have remained with me. I thought it was so creative and well written with some incredibly sad moments.

While it was some time ago that I read the book, it is still vivid in all of its innocence and beauty in the hands of Maggie O’Farrell. After you read the book, don’t miss the screen adaptation directed by Chloe Zhao and the screenplay written by Maggie O’Farrell. It was a stunning and beautiful movie. And Jessie Buckley won an Oscar for her portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare, well deserved.

My copy is in transit to my local library and I cannot wait to pick it up. Hope to finish in time this month.

The book was excellent but I'm not sure I can experience the grief a second time by watching the movie. I have a question for everyone. How did most of the people who had contact with Hamnet avoid the plague?

Sally wrote: " How did most of the people who had contact with Hamnet avoid ..."

My guess would be most of the people had previously been in contact with the plague and had built an immunity to it. Or, already had a natural immunity to it. For example, the next time the plague sweeps in it is unlikely Judith will get it because she has built antibodies from having it. People are beginning to catch onto this at this point in history but it hasn't been scientifically proven yet.

Plague is spread by the bite of an infected flea—so those people less likely to be bitten by insects would be less likely to contract plague.

I feel so called out by Jasmine by forgetting to come in and chat. That is so fair!

I read the book and found it quite different than my expectations, but still very enjoyable. It was an unexpected read that I ended up giving a 4 star rating too, basically a 3.5 with a bit of a nudge for the ending, which was quite nice.

I get some of my most favorite reads from this group. I rarely submit a recommendation as those of you who do are so great and have such awesome recommendations. On the times that I have had a thought, often someone else already posted it or I see something that I like better in the nominations.

Please do not take my lack of participation in chat as lack of participation overall. This is the one group that I almost always read the books from, although as I often borrow it may sometimes not be in a timely manner so it's after the fact. With those which have been my favorites, I try to acknowledge the group in my review so that others can enjoy the magic that happens here.

Happy reading!

I do not want people to feel personally attacked. I just think group reads are more fun when more people discuss it and it's always good to remind people that if they vote in the polls they should try to participate, especially if the book they voted for wins. Also, know you can always go back and add to a previous chat. I find it enlightening to see what other people think of a book. Often times someone will point something out or allude to an interesting historical fact that I love learning as I feel it adds to my experience.

I don't expect people to partake it every chat, but it is always nice to hear from everyone!

I agree with Maureen and I think O'Farrell's genius was placing Agnes at the centre of the book. What stayed with me most though is not the story, incredible as it is, but the prose. It is incantatory. I also agree with others that I'm not sure I can watch the movie because the book was so special, and I cried so much. Can I go through it again?

Finally got this book and read it. Glad I read it, not a strong favorite, three stars. Having read several Shakespeare plays over the years, this book could stand alone as a story about a mother.

I loved this book! The prose was gorgeous. I also thought the focus on Agnes and Hamnet was brilliant. I read a comment that the book should have been titled Agnes, but I think the use of Hamnet solidifies the connection to Shakespeare (without ever having to use his name--brilliant) as well as shows how central he is to the plot, when his part is actually fairly minimal. And Agnes alone ad the title may not be enough of a connection to Shakespeare for most people to recognize the story is focused on his family. After all, most people think Shakespeare's wife's name was Ann, not Agnes. But even Ann could refer to anyone. How many people from 16th century England do we, as modern readers, know by the name Hamnet? I think it was essential to use his name as the title to make all the connections for the reader without ever having to use Shakespeare's name, which I think was a smart move.

A friend read this at the same time I did and didn't enjoy it. What I hear most from people who didn't like the book is that the plot dragged on. And I think it comes down to what kind of book you were expecting or enjoy. If you prefer a plot-driven novel, this is going to be a difficult read because this is mostly character-driven. I personally enjoy character-driven novels, so I loved it.

Because of other reading obligations I just started Hamnet. I have been anxious to read and want to see the movie but won’t see a film until after I read the book. I am also a character driven reader and comments made by others leads me to believe I will enjoy this one. Btw, the plague can also be spread by infected fluids and droplets from an infected person, not just flea bites. There have been cases of bubonic plague in this country in the past year. It is easily cured with treatment of antibiotics, of course those antibiotics weren’t available in Shakespeare’s time!

After finally able to get the book from our local library. , I was so glad I did .
Hamnet , kept my interest high and kept my heart feeling much empathy for the struggles of raising a family during this time . Representing Shakespeare in a very human form helped me understand this world he lived in and the character of his wife portrayed in the writing is representative of what many people considered “ being on the spectrum “ are in today’s world. She was to me , the main character and even the way she dealt with her grief was uncharacteristic of that time . . This book was a five stars . Thank you to whoever nominated it.

I heard the movie was very good so I was excited when this was selected. I’ve spent some time thinking about this book as I was torn in my opinion, hence my late comment.

I did listen to the book instead of read it as I always select one to read and one to listen to. I happens to have a credit with Audible at the time I started this book so I listened.

It was definitely a slow listen. I liked the book, and I thought they were many interesting themes. Still, it wasn’t exactly a happy book. Also, they tell you what’s going to happen in the prologue, so there was no element of surprise and I was just waiting for it to happen. This always disappoints me.

All in all, I enjoyed much of it, but I would not read it again, nor would I recommend it with so many other great books out there. I will see the movie, but I’m going to wait for it to come to streaming.

I agree “it wasn’t exactly a happy book.” Sometimes, the story is overwhelming dark. The book moves from timeframe to timeframe and between POVs often. A little confusing, but my confusion could be because I too was listening to an audio-book. The pace quickened in Part II with the discovery of a Hamlet playbill. I enjoyed this part the most.
Did the moving between POVs confuse anyone else?

I don't think Hamnet can be 'a happy book'. After all, the time period was difficult, life was difficult and few people lived beyond age 40. The Plague was quite real and added to the intense drama of his family.
It wasn't a captivating novel for me but I'm glad I read it just as I'm glad I read Hamlet first. I highly recommend reading it with contemporary guidelines to understand classic text.
Who knows really what happened in the Bard's life but O'Farrell did a good job of trying to create a believable one. It probably should be titled, Agnes rather than Hamnet.

I like the suggestion of titling it Agnes… but it probably would not have sold as well.

I agree, Chuck. As others have said, who would have made the connection to Shakespeare if that was the title? But naming it Hamnet rings a familiar bell.

I world building was amazing. I felt like I was dropped into England during the plague.