Hamnet

  In April, we read Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.  We had a mixed reaction as readers.  We agreed that it was beautifully written and quite interesting from an historical perspective.  I don't think any of us would have thought about the connection between the death of William Shakespeare's boy, Hamnet and the play, Hamlet.  We discussed the possible connections between the play and the story of his son's death from the Bubonic Plague.  We talked about the difficulty of resolving the death of a child within a family and a marriage.  Ironically, we were reading a book that was set during the time of a pandemic during a pandemic.  The division in our endorsement of the novel was in the somewhat magical and fantastical nature of the activities of Agnes and the plot.  Some of us loved the escape, while other found it hard to reconcile.  In the end, we were glad to have read it.  

This book marked a year of meeting remotely and we tried to liven up our gathering with a facilitator (Thank you, Lexi) and a video of Maggie O'Farrell discussing her novel.

We are going to meet in person on May 6th, 2021 at Chrysanne's home.  We will read Anxious People  by Fredrik Backman.

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