Reviews

Une tempête by Aimé Césaire

pranreadsalot's review against another edition

5.0

Absolutely amazing. I really need more of these retellings.

perfect_leaves's review against another edition

5.0

I absolutely love this play in both languages. It's a compelling colonial commentary that questions the root of power and asks who the real slaves are.

whothehelliskaitlin's review against another edition

4.0

This is a very brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It takes his play and looks at it through a postcolonial lens, which highlights different aspects within the plot and adds new dimension to character relations while the characters themselves feel the same as they did in Shakespeare's version. Cesaire is able to keep up with Shakespeare's original storyline without straying far from it or making this play seem like a completely new and unfamiliar story. The only real change is at the end, and it is a change that ties together Cesaire's postcolonial take.

A short read that still captures your attention and teaches. Anyone who does not like this adaption misses the point of it and has more learning to do about the world.

rrowanreads's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

elizafiedler's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

moneypenny96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Not sure how to rate this? 

ralowe's review against another edition

2.0

i don't know what else to say except i got a thing for the tempest. there were two really good screen adaptations of shakespeare in the late '80s early '90s that did it: 1.) first (not film chronologically but in the sequence of this paragraph (for effect)) there's richard the third with the gay who would become gandalf and magneto ian mckellen playing gloucester set in a fascist world war ii england and 2.) peter greenaway's prospero's books with sir john geilgud as prospero. oo-wee prospero's books. i know they were aiming at the adhd crowd with that and it works. i've become obsessed with ariel, caliban and sicorax. who is sicorax? this book doesn't really go into who sicorax was. this book focuses heavily on caliban, of course. there's some stuff between caliban/ariel and caliban/prospero, but not with as much enthusiasm or wit as i would like. it feels really bare minimum. like a communist catechism. it's for teaching the basics of the colonial relation. and nothing else. perhaps it brings forward certain fuckedupedness that wasn't apparent in the original play. aside from presenting those things it doesn't do much more with it. this could go much further. still it's pretty creative...

bookiss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sarahbaileyreads's review against another edition

3.0

A retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest through a post-colonial lens. The themes were very apparent, I didn't feel like the writing was as insightful as Shakespeare (maybe this was a translation issue), and it seemed to just gloss over many of the key moments in the original play. This definitely sparks conversation, but overall too simple.

ehurtubise's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0