A review by bogwitchreads
The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye
5.0
(Upon re-reading, this still holds up)
Let me preface this by saying that this rating is not because I think this book is perfect (I don't), but simply that I had such a good time reading it that I cannot quite justify giving it any less than five stars for my own personal experience.
I also feel the need to include a disclaimer -- I cannot (and in all honesty do not want to) separate the adaptation wholly from the original when it comes to works I have loved for a long time, so if you are interested in how well this book stands up on its own, this review will be completely useless. I loved this book because I love Hamlet, and I love how Lindsay Faye treated Hamlet here, even where my interpretations differed from hers.
I have to give Faye a lot of credit because I do not think I have ever loved Hamlet as a character so much as I did here. I always love Horatio (and boy did I love Faye's Horatio!) and I always love Ophelia (though Faye's was perhaps the first novel adaptation Ophelia I actually saw as Ophelia, so again -- props to this book!), but even in the original play, I have never quite connected to Hamlet the person. Here, I understood him completely; I loved him, and I understood why Horatio and Ophelia loved him.
I also really loved the structure of the book and the distinction of each character's point of view, particularly in Hamlet's chapters. Though my interpretations of some of these characters differ from how they appeared in this book, I never disagreed with any of them. In fact, more than a few times, I had to stop myself from underlining a quote that so perfectly screamed that character because it was so in character I was afraid someone might worry about me if I let them borrow it and they saw those quotes underlined.
I will say that the dialogue felt a bit No Fear Shakespeare in places, which is always the trouble with such iconic lines. However, the further in I got, the less I noticed this being a problem. In conversations that do not mimic the original scenes, the dialogue drew me in and even made me laugh out loud a few times.
As a lifelong Shakespeare nerd, this book is exactly the book I wish I had in high school. Nearly everything about it satisfied my gay, nerdy heart, and at this point, the question is not if I will read it again but simply how soon?
Let me preface this by saying that this rating is not because I think this book is perfect (I don't), but simply that I had such a good time reading it that I cannot quite justify giving it any less than five stars for my own personal experience.
I also feel the need to include a disclaimer -- I cannot (and in all honesty do not want to) separate the adaptation wholly from the original when it comes to works I have loved for a long time, so if you are interested in how well this book stands up on its own, this review will be completely useless. I loved this book because I love Hamlet, and I love how Lindsay Faye treated Hamlet here, even where my interpretations differed from hers.
I have to give Faye a lot of credit because I do not think I have ever loved Hamlet as a character so much as I did here. I always love Horatio (and boy did I love Faye's Horatio!) and I always love Ophelia (though Faye's was perhaps the first novel adaptation Ophelia I actually saw as Ophelia, so again -- props to this book!), but even in the original play, I have never quite connected to Hamlet the person. Here, I understood him completely; I loved him, and I understood why Horatio and Ophelia loved him.
I also really loved the structure of the book and the distinction of each character's point of view, particularly in Hamlet's chapters. Though my interpretations of some of these characters differ from how they appeared in this book, I never disagreed with any of them. In fact, more than a few times, I had to stop myself from underlining a quote that so perfectly screamed that character because it was so in character I was afraid someone might worry about me if I let them borrow it and they saw those quotes underlined.
I will say that the dialogue felt a bit No Fear Shakespeare in places, which is always the trouble with such iconic lines. However, the further in I got, the less I noticed this being a problem. In conversations that do not mimic the original scenes, the dialogue drew me in and even made me laugh out loud a few times.
As a lifelong Shakespeare nerd, this book is exactly the book I wish I had in high school. Nearly everything about it satisfied my gay, nerdy heart, and at this point, the question is not if I will read it again but simply how soon?