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A review by mezzosherri
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by David Hewson, A.J. Hartley
4.0
A thoughtful, thrilling adaptation of Shakespeare's play into novel/audiobook format. Hartley and Hewson are wise enough to make clear narrative choices amongst all the ambiguities that Shakespeare's own language allows--it's the same act of narrative interpretation that any good director should do with the play, so I don't mind that this is a definitive telling of ONE possible Hamlet in ONE possible Elsinore rather than a novel that precisely recreates all the possibilities within the play.
What kept this from being a 5-star book for me was the authors' decision of how to externalize the internal dialogue of Hamlet's famed soliloquies (I'm saying this vaguely so's not to reveal anything spoiler-y). It was the one place where H&H seemed to be trying to have it both ways (Yes, he's mad! No, he's not!), and I found it deeply unsatisfying in a way that has left a negative aftertaste on the book.
OTOH, Richard Armitage's narration (okay, performance) of the book is top-notch. I would happily browse Audible for anything else he's recorded and have a good expectation that he would deliver something exceptional. It was almost good enough for me to nudge my ranking back up to 5 stars.
What kept this from being a 5-star book for me was the authors' decision of how to externalize the internal dialogue of Hamlet's famed soliloquies (I'm saying this vaguely so's not to reveal anything spoiler-y). It was the one place where H&H seemed to be trying to have it both ways (Yes, he's mad! No, he's not!), and I found it deeply unsatisfying in a way that has left a negative aftertaste on the book.
OTOH, Richard Armitage's narration (okay, performance) of the book is top-notch. I would happily browse Audible for anything else he's recorded and have a good expectation that he would deliver something exceptional. It was almost good enough for me to nudge my ranking back up to 5 stars.