The Gap of Time: The
Winter’s Tale Retold (2016) is a modern cover version of William Shakespeare’s
play The Winter’s Tale, the story of Perdita, an abandonned child.
Hogarth Press is commissioning well-known
contemporary writers to re-tell the stories of Shakespeare. This is the first
publication in the series.
The retold story
begins in New Bohemia, America, with 20-year-old Clo and his father Shep, an
African-American man, finding a white baby left in a hospital’s BabyHatch for
unwanted newborns. The baby, a girl, is left with cash, diamonds, and sheet-music
of the song Perdita.
Leo Kaiser is married
to MiMi, pregnant with a child that he believes is not his. Leo thinks 18-year-old
handsome video gamer, Xeno, his best friend, is the father. So Leo abandons the
child. Perdita is this child, and it is Leo’s child.
Raised by Shep and Clo
for 16 years, the family relationships are strong and sincere, with Shep
counting Perdita as a blessing in their lives after grieving the loss of his
wife. Finding their ‘treasure’ and raising her as their own is well told in the
modern version. Shep is a wonderful character – the opposite of Leo’s vile
temperament.
The past and present
collide in the relationship between Perdita and Zel. Zel is Leo’s son.
The gap of time refers
to Xeno’s video game called The Gap of Time, but it also refers to memories,
the time Perdita spends with Clo and Shep, the gap between past and present,
the gap that loss and grief has on one’s life, the gap between traditional and
modern values, the gap between fury and forgiveness, and the gap between regret
and acceptance.
Winterson’s tale has
some excellent comical passages, such as Shep’s 70th birthday celebration, but
it is also bawdier and cruder and, I found, more confusing than the original
Shakespeare version. All the themes of the original story are intact: rage, jealousy,
revenge, abandonment, loneliness, regret for past mistakes, fate, family
relationships, and redemption.
The first 75% of the
novel is great as readers who know the original can pinpoint the exact Shakespearean
scenes and analyse the comparisons. After that, I was longing for the original.
I thought some characters were a bit stretched although Leo’s partner Pauline
is nicely crafted. I also liked the literary references to Greek mythology,
other Shakespearean dramas, other authors, and a touch of the author’s own
experiences.
Overall though, the
ending was disappointing for me.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different
in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament
(2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a
Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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