 |
The Late Mr Shakespeare - Robert Nye
by SWSt
There can be few authors who have inspired so many people to write so much about them. William Shakespeare is one such figure. Whether you want a historical account of his life, an in-depth analysis of his work, or just annotated editions of his plays and sonnets there are hundreds of books to choose from. A fairly recent addition to the ... Shakespeare literature is novels, such as The Late Mr Shakespeare, Will or The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare, which feature the great man as a main character.
Sitting alone in his room in the 1660s and staring old age in the face, narrator Pickleherring (not his real name, but the one he mostly uses throughout the book) looks back on the many years he spent as an actor with William Shakespeare. Recalling anecdotes from his own experiences and relating information he has found out from other people who knew the author, Pickleherring sets out to document all that is known or believed about the late Mr Shakespeare.
Despite its apparent intentions, The Late Mr Shakespeare will not enlighten you about the poet's life in any meaningful sense. Although some of the basic facts are present and correct, they are mixed up with some fictional events and some fairly obvious lies (a deliberate plot element; not a failing on the part of the author). Given how little is actually known about Shakespeare's life, author Nye has a lot of scope to make things up and does an excellent job in creating a plausible history for the man and showing how and why he came to be so revered , so that even 400 years after his death, we are still fascinated by him.
It's a clever tactic. Mixing the obviously true and the patently false makes for a surprisingly engaging book. There is enough proper information and analysis of Shakespeare's work and influences to educate (at least a little), sufficient anecdotes to entertain and cast Shakespeare in a more personal light and enough daft ideas that show how gullible people were in the late 17th century and how this shaped the cult of Shakespeare which still exists today.
Nye's style takes a bit of getting used to, and may well put you off the book completely. As is entirely appropriate, he writes in the style of 1660s literature (think Henry Fielding). Chapters are short (often just a few pages) and each starts with a brief sub-title telling you what will be covered in that section, which I always find oddly charming. Perhaps less appealing for some is the somewhat rambling, meandering and very flowery style of Nye's narrator. It wanders around all over the place, flitting randomly from one subject to another without ever really focussing on anything. Information is provided in the tiniest detail for the most inconsequential things, whilst other matters which have a more direct bearing on the plot are given the scantest attention.
This style is going to seriously divide readers. On the one hand, it is exceptionally faithful to the period. Nye's use of language is very clever and is highly reminiscent of true period writing like Tom Jones. He captures the language and style of Restoration literature superbly and totally convinces that this was a book written in the 1660s.
On the other hand, this flowery, rambling style is very alien to our modern sensibilities which tend to prefer a more direct, focussed approach to plotting. Pickleherring goes on and on, includes huge amounts of irrelevant detail and the more impatient reader might find the style deeply frustrating. Even if you appreciate the skill with which Nye has reconstructed the literature of the period, it can still be over-the-top. Certainly, by the time I reached about page 300 (out of 400), it was beginning to grate.
Another thing which might divide readers are the rather graphic passages relating to sexual acts or bodily functions. Again, this is typical of the bawdy nature of the literature of the period, which shamelessly talked about these matters in a far more open way than we do now. However, if you are easily embarrassed or offended, you might find some of the passages rather awkward to read.
You also certainly need to know your Shakespeare. Whilst the book is very accessible (assuming you can overcome the language barrier), it does assume a reasonable level of knowledge of Shakespeare's life and works. If you only have the barest information about the Bard, you might be better off reading Christopher Rush's excellent Will, which is a more straightforward account of Shakespeare's life ("narrated" by the man himself).
Personally, I have to say that I found Rush's book more enjoyable anyway. The Late Mr Shakespeare is a clever book, but it is perhaps sometimes a little too clever for its own good. The extensive knowledge of Shakespeare required to pick up on all the references together with the flowery language will certainly put plenty of people off. It's worth persevering with, but reading it does sometimes feel like a labour of love.
Basic Information
-------------------------
The Late Mr Shakespeare
Robert Nye
Allison & Busby, 2001
ISBN: 978-0749004958
(c) Copyright SWSt 2013
Read the complete review |
 |
Care of Wooden Floors - Will Wiles
by 1st2thebar
Author: Will Wiles
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Fourth Estate 2012
- - -
'Care of Wooden Floors,' a novel: from the off the book irked me, it didn't help by having 'A novel' on the cover as if a block of furniture. Was this supposed to be part of the title, or a sign of what Wiles had planned for his ... readers? Either way, it baffled me. I knew this was Wiles's debut novel due to last year's accolades - but I felt the author had overly-fiddled on the cover. As it so happened, Wiles has admitted influencing the cover's style and content. You mustn't judge a book by its cover, so I attempt to dust and polish it away from my initial impression.
Wiles's nameless protagonist, a writer, subsequently, had been invited to flat sit in an anonymous Eastern European city for an old university acquaintance named Oskar - he is a successful composer, apparently away, trying to deal with a messy divorce in LA. Oskar's artistic licence was a minimalist; finding the ties of being united with another entity via marriage resulted in unwanted baggage - Baggage that required to be left at LA's airport, so Oskar can endeavour composing 'Variations on Tram Timetables' (variation TWO) - notably, the first composition brought surprising rewards. What riches can be made from profound sounds collaborated together to be deemed as a valid composition, a musical piece to be reckoned with. Being a minimalist, a formidable amount of time was personally heeded for what some could see as little result, the audio result that could be easily missed by an untrained ear. Or worse still, go off track entirely. Oskar, is as stiff and wooden as his *fine French oak floor*. His human-side flooding out in notes; pedantic notes around his flat for Wiles's protagonist to pick up and decipher over - "WINE FOR YOU - ENJOY" - "PLEASE, YOU MUST TAKE CARE OF THE WOODEN FLOORS." Capitalised scripts as if for a Tannoy Announcements - You can guess what is to occur can't you. Imagine a Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Radnitzky 1940's modern art film of 'a slow train crash' and you get the picture - well, three hundred pages worth - although, one hundred pages too many. A case of over elaborate character portrayal of Oskar - if the character was an elastic band, it'll be so highly strung there would be a public health warning. PLEASE KEEP AWAY FROM THIS PERSON - if you have to approach him do so at your own risk; you can't miss him, he peruses about Tram Timetables listening for audio frequencies. Goodness knows why Oskar's wife moved to another continent, perhaps on the knowledge that high heels have an annoying tendency of scratching fine French oak floors, especially.
The novel is a good example of style over substance - a meagre "hello" to the world of scenarios. A gargantuan "HELLO" to the fickle world of the pretentious - where fads rise and fall on the whim of an editor's choice in the New Yorker, or Time magazine. Wiles imitation of Gok Wan is fascinating from a critical stand-point. Wiles obsession with the "styled moderne" ("moderne" spelt it this manner breaks the mould of pretentious text) brought on a migraine - his name-dropping of a Le Corbusier got more than a straight-lined mention, the by-product from an author who's an expert on the straight-lined interior component, floors being one of them. Wiles must have whiled away the hours tinkering with product descriptions which in the end didn't suite the cause. Have you heard of a kettle that phlegmed? - A gross connotation connecting the hot drink with the produce of a viral infection. Or maybe you can visualize an 'objet' adjacent to books and manuals on a shelf? Rhetorical question, however the term 'objet' requires a fair amount of imagination to envisage what he meant to be on the book shelf. Unless, of course 'objet' is a valid 'thought entity;' visible to the naked eye - then, I'm mistaken. Style over substance: hands up if you've witnessed a 'boiling mountain,' apart from a volcano? Wiles protagonist has, and it wasn't volcanic or splurging out lava either.
For an author who supposedly had some training in the history of art and design, I found myself cradling my head with angst when Wiles referred to the Renaissance artists evident in his 'Day One' chapter. "Only they felt the love of clouds and appreciation of their natural splendour, and having always felt separated from their true glory were moved to populate them with putti and seraphim." It is as if Wiles was adamant that he must include putti and seraphim into the script, so Renaissance artists were apple picked to serve the purpose. All artists for hundreds of years have 'felt the love of clouds' by them adding a plethora of angels and divine spirits doesn't make this particular group of artists love clouds more. Renaissance movement depicted new beginnings, Wiles misinterpretation goes further, to populate clouds with putti and seraphim, the correct term is putto not putti (putti is singular, putto is plural). 'Care of Wooden Floors' is littered with inaccurate terms. I've only highlighted several.
Other factors beggared belief was; why have two cats, when you possess the finest of French oak floors? Shossy and Stravvy are amusingly named with Russian composers in mind - Russian on an immaculate French oak floor is a recipe for disaster. You get the impression Oskar's nature attracts occurrences of the darkest kind and Wiles's protagonist galvanizes the occurrences - the pressure cooker syndrome of being housebound in a foreign land where you don't relate to the cities landscape, language, or cultural traits - this'll overtly in time twist the mind only Poe could literary manifest. The author is a meek pretender - the synopsis outline of the book no doubt should've been deployed as a short story. Instead the details lacked mustard and credibility and it comes from the major factor the author didn't research cultural facets closely enough. Tighter control is required on that front when Wiles writes his second novel 'Toxic Tourism' - (publishing date pending) - obviously taking note of comments that he writes about the ugly so well. Minuscule fragments of good coming from his exhaustive scripts of stark city landscapes.
Stir-craziness did not only embody the protagonist, I felt it too, while he nonchalantly plodded about at the local museum which Oskar had OCD jotted down for his flat sitters observation, one of many thousand of them. Orchestral orientated musings, profoundly outlining the chasm of character difference these two men had. University so-called friendships tend to be about 'when young and ambitious lives collide by chance under the umbrella of occupational education, what emerges from the social-experiment is a band of brothers / sisters, they incessantly remember their experiences' - a nostalgic 'living-in-the-past glue' is formed, stuck on your brain like an Oskar post-it note. Oskar and Wiles's protagonist's unlikely friendship is the tragic product of this dark fate.
The author should be deeply thankful to the BBC Radio who played an adaptation of the novel during Jubilee year - Indeed, a fortunate plug, during a time where frivolities was favored over good sound judgment. A helpful guide for the Oskars among you who have purchased a French oak floor - Otherwise look elsewhere for polish, I believe Lidl has offers.
Read the complete review |
