Skip to main content

The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson: book review



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).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
1 comment
Read more