I love when an author recreates and modernizes an old classic. Author Alan M. Grantz does this with Something Rotten. It's the retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet told in present day from Horatio's point of view.
The story takes part in really stinky Denmark, Tennessee. Horatio is visiting his best friend Hamilton Prince for the summer. Hamilton's father died two months ago. His mother remarried so fast that she used the same flowers from her husbands funeral at her wedding. Trudy didn't just remarry, she married Claude, her dead husbands brother. Hamilton is not dealing with this at all well. Hamilton is pushed over the edge by a video of his dying father, looking pale like a ghost, who tells Hamilton that he's being poisoned to death. Horatio promises Hamilton to find out who poisoned his dad.
After seeing Hamlet performed in the park on Friday night to listening to Something Rotten on Saturday. I was amused by the names; Hamilton/Hamlet, Olivia/Ophelia, Rosco and Gilbert/ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It cracked me up when Horatio commented on how he thinks authors are unimaginative when they just retell an old classic. This modernization of Hamlet was so accurate I wondered if everyone was going to die. SPOILER ALERT: not everyone dies. So, for those who had to read Shakespeare in school or love the modern versions of the old classic Something Rotten is a must read or listen! It's better than the cliff notes.
No comments:
Post a Comment