RATING: SUPERB
SPOILERS!!!
I am not surprised that this book has touched me intensely. I love the special way Maggie O'Farrell writes and how she highlights details and moments that make the characters humans.
The novel is divided into two parts. The first part seesaws between past and present. The parts of the past tell us about how William, who is never named, meets Agnes when he is teaching her half-siblings Latin. They fall in love, and Joan, Agnes's stepmother, won't let them marry. So they decide to force her hand when she gets pregnant on purpose. When they marry, they move to the rooms next to his parents', and Agnes can see that her father-in-law is cruel. Her husband feels unhappy, and Agnes thinks that the only way to take him out of his pessimism is to get him out of Stratford. So with the help of her brother Bartholomew, they persuade her father-in-law to send William to London to spread his business of glove making. Agnes is expecting for the second time when William leaves. The idea is for Agnes and the children to move to London when he finds a house for them. Yet, Agnes gives birth to twins, and the girl, Judith, is weak and small. So they know that the move to London wouldn't be good for Judith. William remains in London, and the idea of spreading the glove making business is gone, and he makes his living in the play house.
The present shows how Judith falls sick, and Hamnet tries to find help. The girl shows the buboes, characteristic of the pestilence, and they all fear she is going to die. Agnes, who in the book is described as having special insight and learns to use remedies, tries to help her, and Judith eventually recovers. Yet, Agnes doesn't realise that while she is tending to Judith, Hamnet, her son, is ill, and the boy dies. William, who got a letter saying that Judith may not have long to live, rides for three days, and when he gets home, he is shocked and devastated to learn that his son is dead.
The death of Hamnet shatters the girls, Judith and Susanna, and Agnes and William. William has to leave eventually even though Agnes thinks that he has to stay. William keeps away longer than usual, and when he returns, Agnes is upset, especially when she can tell that her husband receives the attention of other women. She wants to hurt him, but when he talks to her, he talks about Hamnet, and Agnes can see that her husband's heart is empty. Things are difficult for them for a while, and then he buys them a big house. Agnes is surprised to see how much money her husbnad has, and they move to the house. Then Agnes learns about the new tragedy that her husband has written, Hamlet, and she is distraught and angry. She doesn't understand how he can use their son's name like that. Then she decides that she wants to see the tragedy, so she decides to go to London and Bartholomew to go with them.
When Agnes finally is in the playhouse and is watching the play, at first she thinks that this has nothing to do with her son. Yet, then Hamlet, the old ghost, appears and interacts with a young boy, who loolks so much like her son that Agnes is mesmerised. Then Agnes understands that this is the way that her husband has tried to get closer to their dead son.
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