Băiatul cel nou

Hogarth Shakespeare

by Tracy Chevalier, Vali Florescu (trad.)

Othello de William Shakespeare reimaginat

Tracy Chevalier transpune Othello la începutul anilor 1970, într-o școală dintr-o suburbie a Washingtonului, unde până la ora prânzului puștii bat mingea, sar coarda, se îndrăgostesc cu repeziciune și tot la fel de ușor își însușesc prejudecățile părinților și profesorilor lor. Interpretarea concisă și electrizantă semnată de Tracy Chevalier pune în lumină consecințele rasismului, geloziei și fricii.

Viața unui elev nou-venit nu e niciodată simplă. Dar dacă pielea lui are altă culoare decât cea a colegilor săi, lucrurile devin și mai complicate. Osei Kokote, fiul de 11 ani al unui diplomat din Ghana sosit la Washington, are noroc: Dee, una dintre cele mai frumoase fete, îl simpatizează imediat. Ian nu vede cu ochi buni sentimentul spontan care se naște între cei doi și nici faptul că Osei excelează la sport, punându-i astfel în pericol statutul de stăpân absolut al curții școlii, adjudecat pe parcursul anilor prin agresivitate, șantaj și intimidare. Cu o abilitate psihologică uimitoare, el începe să țeasă ițele unei intrigi prin care îi manipulează pe toți ceilalți. Până la sfârșitul zilei, viețile protagoniștilor – elevi și profesori deopotrivă – se vor schimba pentru totdeauna.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Shakespeare, Young Adult, Contemporary, Book Club

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2017

About the author

Born:
19 October 1962 in Washington, DC. Youngest of 3 children. Father was a photographer for The Washington Post.

Childhood:
Nerdy. Spent a lot of time lying on my bed reading. Favorite authors back then: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madeleine L’Engle, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Joan Aiken, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander. Book I would have taken to a desert island: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.

Education:
BA in English, Oberlin College, Ohio, 1984. No one was surprised that I went there; I was made for such a progressive, liberal place.

MA in creative writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, 1994. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not you can be taught to write. Why doesn’t anyone ask that of professional singers, painters, dancers? That year forced me to write all the time and take it seriously.

Geography:
Moved to London after graduating from Oberlin in 1984. I had studied for a semester in London and thought it was a great place, so came over for fun, expecting to go back to the US after 6 months to get serious. I’m still in London, and still not entirely serious. Even have dual citizenship – though I keep the American accent intact.

Family:
1 English husband + 1 English son.

Career:
Before writing, was a reference book editor, working on encyclopedias about writers. (Yup, still nerdy.) Learned how to research and how to make sentences better. Eventually I wanted to fix my own sentences rather than others’, so I quit and did the MA.

Writing:
Talked a lot about becoming a writer as a kid, but actual pen to paper contact was minimal. Started writing short stories in my 20s, then began first novel, The Virgin Blue, during the MA year. With Girl With a Pearl Earring (written in 1998), I became a full-time writer.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the modern reimagining in the Hogarth Shakespeare series of the dark psychological play, Othello. It is transferred to the 1970s and set amongst 6th graders and teachers in a elementary school in a suburb of Washington DC. It works surprisingly well and the action takes place over the period of a day. The heavy and raw emotions of an incendiary jealousy bent on destruction, rage, envy, insecurity and resentment fits well into the school playground where the smallest of incidents gets blown up into mammoth proportions. The importance attached to in crowds and popularity, resonate with school kids and underline its insidious malevolence in the school milieu.

Osei is black, a Ghanian diplomat's son, and the eponymous new boy who understands the need for friends to fit in into the all white school. There is blatant presence of a casual racism coming from teachers and children. Rising above all that and seeking to understand is the bright, pretty and popular Dee who befriends Osei, along with Casper. This puts the cat among the pigeons as the old social order perceives itself to be threatened, personified by the manipulative and jealous Ian, chief ruler of the playground using fear and bullying as his means to establish his top dog position. Ian has no intention of letting things stand as they are between the star crossed lovers. Unlike Othello, we get glimpses of the sweet and tender relationship between Osei and Dee. Ian is reduced to a more vindictive, petty and smaller character in the greater scheme of things than the more central larger than life Iago envisioned in Othello. We all know where the action is inexorably heading. lending dread to the narrative for the reader.

This novel speaks volumes with regards to the issue of race in contemporary politics and society. Osei is the outsider whose treatment bears distinctly uncomfortable parallels with the experience of black people and migrants today. The schoolyard is but a micro stage of the larger national and international stage inhabited by adults. Tracy Chevalier's reworking of Othello does not by any means work perfectly. Nevertheless, the setting is a success, the time frame perhaps less so. I found this a quick, absorbing, compelling and entertaining read. Highly recommended and a great way to get young people into Shakespeare. Thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

[Always Pouting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Osei Kokote is a diplomats son who has changed school multiple times and has recently moved again. As the new boy in school in a Washington suburb in the 1970s, and the only black student, he is unsure of his place at the beginning of the story. Many of the students are unsure of how to behave around him except Dee who is immediately drawn to him. Dee is one of the most popular girls in school and all the other kids take note of the budding relationship between Dee and Osei. Osei further cements his new status by doing well in a softball game, which makes him friends with another popular kid. Ian the schoolyard bully doesn't like how quickly Osei is accepted and resents the respect Osei gets and sets out to ruin his relationship with Dee.

I haven't read Othello and I only have a vague idea about what happens in it so I can't really compare this to the original. I've seen a lot of people's reviews saying it's not as good and so maybe I enjoyed the book much more because I haven't read Othello. I also want to say I'm not black so I don't think I can really say how accurate the portrayal of racism was. There were some things I could relate to because I am still considered a minority but each minority comes with its own sets of stereotypes and which leads to difference in the way you're treated so I don't want to speak over anyone who wants to say it isn't consistent with their experience. I did think some of it matched up with my own experience though, especially the roundabout ways in which people went about expressing their prejudice.

I think the biggest problem with the book is that all the events are supposed to happen in one day and so it felt a little unbelievable that so much would change in the course of a school day. Personally when I went to school most of the day was spent in class so I don't see how so much could happen but the kids in the book do seem to get more free time outside of their lunch period. Also I think the maturity attributed to the kids was a little iffy because they are 11 and I don't think 11 year olds can plan ahead in such a calculated manner as Ian did. Children tend not to be as good with plan and executive function so I had a hard time believing he was so calculating and self aware of his manipulation. If it had seemed more like he was just doing things without really thinking through it in such a logical way because of reinforcement from the past for his manipulation then I might have found it more believable. I also don't know about the sexual aspect of Ian pressing himself up against Mimi. I do get that around this age kids start to become more sexualized but I don't think they've left the kissing phase to jump to other things yet.

I also thought that the ending was a little rushed especially when Osei calls her a whore and Dee runs home. It just felt slightly out of character from the way Osei was presented as being for him to just take Ian's word and not even ask Dee about it. I did really enjoy reading it thought, the story kept my attention the whole time and despite the plausibility most of the pacing was really good. The writing was great and I really liked how multifaceted the characters were presented as, a lot of times people make children seem so two dimensional in writing so that was nice.

[Felice Laverne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tracy Chevalier’s New Boy is a bravely re-imagined work of Hogarth Shakespearean fiction. Reset in the 1970s on an elementary school playground, Othello’s racial tensions and treachery are re-imagined here in a unique new format.

When Osei arrives at his fourth school in as many cities, he is squarely familiar with not only the sensation of being the "new boy" but of being the only black boy as well. A product of an educated, diplomatic Ghanaian family, he is bright and sharply intelligent. He knows what to expect in this all-white atmosphere that he has once again been implanted into, but, to his surprise, becomes friends with the Golden Girl of the sixth-grade class on his very first day. Yet, when jealousies and tempers flare, the prejudice toward the school’s lone black student propelling hateful words and malicious deeds forward, the students’ lives are forever changed in this one day at school.

Admittedly, this is a highly imaginative setting for these characters, yet I can’t really imagine this novel as an adult read. With that being said, I am grading it as (high-brow) YA, in the similar vein of vocabulary and maturity as Ransom Riggs’ Peculiar Children series. Here, I enjoyed the witty wink toward the original with Chevalier's use of derivatives of the original characters' names: Othello became Osei; Desdemona became Dee; Iago became Ian, and so forth. William Shakespeare’s Othello has long been one of my absolute favorites of his works—what can I say? I’m more partial to his tragedies. Tracy Chevalier’s adaptation of it is a work of short literary form—under 200 pages—that read quickly but not necessarily immersively. For the majority of the read, I felt that I was sitting on the surface of it all, the contrived situations and melodramatic plot fitting for YA, I suppose, but wasn’t immersive for me as an adult reader until the last fifth or so of the novel. There, the plot picked up speed and the threads of action began to pull together.

As a YA read, Tracy Chevalier’s New Boy functions as a relatable, lesson-teaching book with easily identifiable characters—the new kid, the mean kid, the popular boy, the skanky girl, the sidekick, and the “weird” girl. All of the typical players you’d need for a playground drama exist here, and that makes this a great read for middle schoolers and early high schoolers. Also, the subject matter, and the way that Chevalier tackles it here, is also expertly handled for that age group, where it will read as not only relatable but shocking simultaneously.

However.

I definitely had some issues with this read, which is part of the reason why I just can’t label it as adult fiction and why I could not give it a higher rating:

1) The drama turned to melodrama pretty quickly, because of the unlikeliness of this plot line. Of course, we can argue that Shakespeare often gravitated toward the melodramatic—his plays were for theater, after all—but New Boy was often delivered as a string of events that all culminated into the ending, rather than a plausible story line that I could get behind.

2) One of Osei’s (the reimagined Othello’s) main characteristics at the start of the novel was that he was experienced in not only being new, but in being the only black student as well. His older sister is a “rebellious” teenager who holds her fist in the air, an Afro proudly atop her head, and ends all of her correspondences with the phrase Black is Beautiful. From the perspective of an African American, I would argue that Osei’s reactions to what happened on that day at school are highly unlikely and poorly imagined. In short, they read as if they were written by someone who has no experience themselves with such feelings, which left me feeling that there were several practical elements of New Boy that were poorly handled, certainly too poorly handled to pass or function as an adult read.

Chevalier’s New Boy tried to take us there—to that place at the crossroads of “coming of age” and “discovering oneself.” At times, it worked and rang true, and at other times it failed and crumbled flatly to the floor. While I applaud her attempt at re-imagining this classic work, at giving a voice to that little black boy in the 70s in his bewildering surroundings faced with confusing decisions, it didn’t always work for me, and I’ve seen Hogarth Shakespeare done better. So, Chevalier pulled away from this one with a solid 3 stars. ***

Also, I thought I'd go ahead and throw in that I give 2 big thumbs up for all of the COVER ART done for this novel! That'll get you to pick this one up if a review won't!

*I received this ARC from the publisher, Hogarth, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

FOLLOW ME HERE:

Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Get a Copy of My Book | Book Editing, Author Coaching, Submit Your Book to Me

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Boy is a very tightly wound, compact retelling of Othello, that retains the original's exploration of love and betrayal, racism, strength and weakness, but transforms the situation to an elementary school and setting the conflict between adolescents, which heightens the tension and pathos for the reader. Tracy Chevalier does a fine job turning the classic, passionate tragedy into a character drama in which the children's thoughts and deeds are a reflection of the some of the worst or most insidious ills and nastiness of American society, and though set in the 1970s, I felt a dull ache of discomfort of how relevant the same sentiments and issues and ills are in today's world. I would rate this 3.5 stars overall: it's perhaps a bit short for my liking (especially considering Othello is one of Shakespeare's longer plays), somewhat unbelievable in the rate of escalation of events (arrival and love and betrayal and consequences all in a single school day), the ending which has a dark but unsettled feeling, and it didn't do much to engage with the source material beyond its adaptation to this new narrative, which felt like a bit of a missed opportunity. But I rounded up to 4 stars for the very solid craft and execution, the well-developed versions of Othello, Desdemona, and Iago who quickly captured my interest and aroused my sympathy, and the consistently tense and foreboding atmosphere Chevalier created in the most seemingly unassuming of locations and places.

Osei is the titular new boy, a Ghanaian diplomat's son whose arrival on the playground of an all-white school in the Washington D.C. upends the established array of alliances and status, to the delight of Dee, who immediately connects with Osei, and to the displeasure of Ian, who prefers the previous pecking order and wants to destabilize O's fledgling relationship with Dee and social currency. Knowing what's in store in a general sense for Osei/Othello, Dee/Desdemona, and Ian/Iago means we follow Tracy Chevalier's developments through the day with trepidation: these are children, after all, so their confusion and anger and distress and suffering all the more weigh on our conscience, especially driven as they are by parental and social forces imposed on these children.

In less than 200 pages, Chevalier gives us a wealth of backstory for Osei, Dee, Ian and Mimi/Emilia. In some ways, I was amazed at how quickly Chevalier could push the story into its downward spiral, and yet these adolescents were not mere stand ins for their Shakespearean counterparts. Osei's double isolation as the only black boy and new boy at school is mirrored in his home life: disconnected from his parents, no longer having a real relationship with his once beloved sister, constant relocation due to his father's many postings, various successful and unsuccessful outings at American schools and dealing with the ignorance and casual and overt racism in the world around him. Osei is an intelligent boy, but one susceptible to the machinations and manipulations of Ian with the growth of his inner rage, fear, loneliness and pain. We may not get quite as much detailed backstory with Dee, but we are given enough to see how different Dee is from her peers, that she is eager to connect with Osei and seeks to understand him and bridge the gap between their differences, a bright, happy, serene girl more worldly and mature than others in her class, whose goodness and boldness Ian exploits to drive Osei's suspicion. Ian is perhaps most like his original source Iago: pure Machiavellian villain, clawing at power, brutal and uncaring of the feelings of others, driven by jealously and coldly delighting in his power to destroy. But he too, arouses pity and sympathy, an adolescent, if only we could reach him, turn him to a better path! And that is the genius of Chevalier's setting and time and characters: New Boy keeps the powerful themes of Shakespeare's work, but ups the ante and the stakes since it's the lives of children now in the balance.

Overall, this is a worthy entry to the Hogarth Shakespeare series, and though I did find some flaws with it and did not love it nearly as much as the more muscular and meta Hag-Seed, I would definitely recommend it. That said, I think this one is more for readers of contemporary fiction than Shakespeare fans: there's little allusion or ode to Othello or the Bard here, which means the story and characters stand on their own merits, but is a bit more untethered from its source material.

-received an ARC of this on edelweiss, thanks to Hogarth and Penguin Random House

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chevalier takes on Othello in this latest entry from the Hogarth Shakespeare series. The third I have read and am enjoying the different takes the authors are writing to modernize these classics.

She sets Othello in a grade school in Washington DC, and the story takes place all in a day. The students are now in sixth grade, have known each other for years, statuses clearly defined, top of the heap before moving onto Middle schhol and starting at the bottom. White and privileged and inot this grouping, comes a new student, a black boy called O.

A interesting concept and certainly one can see why this would be an enticing setting. I found though, the concept almost two obvious, one can see where this is headed all the way. I felt this became more about racial prejudice, especially from the teachers who have very preconceived notions of the trouble this student will cause, than a recounting or reformatting of Othello. Though the author does throw in some familiar bits to keep the connection alive, strawberries for one and the mention of Ian playing Puck in the students production of Midsummers night dream. Ian, of course being the bully of the piece as far as the children go, but this also presented a problem. In my experience bullies at that age, terrorize, pick on, and steal from those younger than themselves, what I question is Ian's ability to plan and manipulate as he does here.

So as a story I liked this but as a connection to Othello felt it was tenuous at best and maybe had its own agenda.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Hogarth Shakespeare series has brought us a mixed bunch of novelisations to date, some excellent (My Name is Shylock, Hag-Seed), some so-so (Vinegar Girl), and this which just didn't work for me at all. Chevalier transfers Othello to an American elementary school in 1970s Washington and makes all the characters 11-year-olds - yep, 11.

In some ways this sticks quite closely to the play in terms of the plot and characters details: O is Othello, Dee is Desdemona, the racist teacher Mr Brabant is Brabantio, the school bully Ian is Iago, the handkerchief is a strawberry pencil case - but it misses the spirit of the play by a long way, and cramming all the events into a single day compounds the sheer unbelievability of the whole thing.

Making the characters children (and given that this is the 1970s, they're likely to be more immature than today's 11-year-olds) means that their thoughts and actions don't have psychological verisimilitude: I couldn't believe for a second that Mimi (Emilia) can say to O (Othello) 'I used it to get him to break up with me. Otherwise I would always be under his power and I couldn't stand that'; or that O himself, at 11, can think this about his sister: 'She was fifteen years old; wasn't that too young to become a radical?', or that Mimi, again, can be this insightful and knowing about sex: 'For a moment Mimi thought of the feeling of flying around the flagpole, and of Ian pushing into her with his tongue and hips, which she thought she would not like but did, surprised to find her body responding like a light being switched on. But she could not have someone like Ian turning on that light.'

Making O the eponymous 'new boy' upsets the way that Othello is 'the Moor of Venice', already both an insider and outsider when the play opens, and the fact that he has a family, complete with a Black Power-saluting sister, erases his status as a loner with a wavering sense of self-identity. The book also makes Dee the archetypal 'good' girl: 'to Dee it made him the kind of teacher you always obeyed, the teacher you impressed if you could - the way she felt about her own father, whom she wanted to please': the original Desdemona, of course, has disobeyed her father in the opening lines of the play by eloping with Othello. This novel consistently over-simplifies characters and issues which are nicely complicated in the play.

The ending is particularly jarring: Mimi is some kind of a head-achey clairvoyant so has intimations the events have happened before and ends up paralysed, we think, after Ian pulls her off a climbing frame, while Dee simply leaves the scene never to be heard of again, intimations that she's gone to kill herself in response to the mean stories spread about her in the playground , and O's final action has no justification and makes no psychological sense other than loosely following the play Mimi reveals the whole plot then O taunts Mr Brabant and lets himself fall off the same climbing frame after giving a Black Power salute.

Sorry to be so damning but this really didn't work for me at all: even if it weren't an imaginative re-engagement with Othello, it wouldn't stand up as a story of 1970s 11-year-olds on a single day at school.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley

[Mihaela Abrudan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cartea face parte din seria cărților care revizuiesc în stil modern operele lui Shakespeare, aceasta este o reinterpretare moderată a lui Othello și, deși scurtă, are aceeași intensitate și dramatism ca și opera care a inspirat- o.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Received an ARC from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for a fair review*

Tracy Chevalier hit the right notes in this retelling of Othello. New Boy is a perfect depiction of how a day or two in the life of a child can feel like an eternity. This story was beautifully told, and it reinvigorated some of that painful nostalgia inside me that I had forgotten about. Chevalier remembers exactly what it was like to be a child trying to navigate the playground.

New Boy is a story about an elementary-school-aged black boy, named Osei, who attends a new school with only a month remaining in the school year. He is the only black student at this school.

Chevalier hit the nail on the head regarding childhood politics. There are social hierarchies among children, political mind games, sabotage, love, anger, joy, and all the real emotions children feel.

The most profound aspect of this novel, for me, was the accurate depiction of adult versus child paradigms, and how they clash, especially with regard to race. I found that, if you were to strip away the adults in this novel and have only children remaining, race would not have been a factor at all. Really, the only people who took issue with a black boy in an all-white school, were the adults (certain teachers and parents alike). And if there is a child on the playground that showed racist tendencies, it was correctly shown that those attitudes were learned. Children learn racism from adults, it is not an innate concept.

I also really enjoyed the roller-coaster ride that was the romantic drama. Within the course of a day or two, relationships between the children can be built and destroyed, and vice versa. We all experience the political mind games of childhood romance; the secret sabotage by someone who wants to date the person you're dating, the feeling that your love will last forever, only to be torn away a few hours later. Hours feel like years when you're that young.

This story was at times heartening, but more than anything it was heartbreaking. I don't often truly cry when I'm reading, but this book made me cry. I felt like I was right there in Osei's shows, reliving childhood all over again. We can all relate to being the centre of attention as a child. It's especially painful because, as a child, we want to blend in, we do not want to stand out. This is made particularly true for Osei, who stands out simply because of the colour of his skin. He often times overhears adults speaking about being afraid even to touch his skin. Although I know what it feels to be different, I do not know truly how it feels to be different because of my skin colour. But good fiction can help us to empathise and realise a closer understanding, and this is what Chevalier achieved here.

This book reaffirms my belief that we don't listen enough to children. Children see the world with a clarity that adults often forget they also once enjoyed. Children have not yet been hardened and beaten into believing this or that, and are therefore freer and more open-minded. They see people not for the colour of their skin but for how that person respects them. I think the greatest tragedy in life is an adult forgetting what it was like to be a child.

I would recommend this book. It's a perfect example of how powerful literature can be, because it transports you to a place you've already been, yet still teaches you something entirely new.

[Tasha Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be honest here and say that while I knew the rough story of Othello, I have never read it or seen it so I chose to read this book from the synopsis rather than the Shakespearean connection.

The story is set in Washington in the 70’s the focus of the book is a Ghanaian diplomat’s son called Osei. It’s his first day at a new school and the story takes place on that one day. The main focus is on a group of students. Osei, Dee, Mimi, Blanca, Casper and Ian. There is also focus on the hideous teacher Mr Brabant and his colleague Miss Lode who mostly is a quiet and pliable character.

Ian is an awful child he is the school bully, a manipulative, racist who takes pleasure in belittling others and is always looking for an opportunity to take advantage of a situation and if he can make others lives a misery while he’s at it then that’s all the better. When Osei joins the school that Ian has worked hard to manipulate to his will and catches the eye of the popular Dee, Ian senses a shift in the balance of the carefully manipulated school playground hierarchy and sets out to make Osei the outcast. The children seem to have an automatic assumption about black people that they have picked up from their openly racist parents and teachers. Osei entered the school assuming that his colour would be the greatest issue and in some ways the racism plays a large part in the story, but the racist undercurrent aids Ian’s cruel pursuits too. He is not about to have his hard work undone by the new black boy in his school. I found this story disturbing, and found myself absolutely furious at times – especially at Mr Brabant.

This wasn’t a comfortable read but it was intense and is very well written. It is relevant to current times because it is updated and relatable to what sadly is still an issue. The use of the playground setting was genius. I would definitely recommend this book, it may not be a comfortable read but it is so well written, the characters are realistically crafted and it is nicely paced. There were shocks and surprises, aplenty. I can imagine this book being studied in secondary schools in a comparison to Shakespeare’s Othello. It is a striking piece of work in it’s own right and that will catch the attention of adults and children alike.

I was given a copy of this book by the Publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[Berengaria · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star

short review for busy readers: Hogarth Press Shakespeare retelling that sets Othello in a middle school in Washington DC in the early 70s. Although there are clearly autobiographical elements, the setting/characters don't work. Awkward and unbelievable scenes and dialogue. The theme of racism is far too on the nose. Other themes of the play are hardly developed or jammed in. Short, but not recommendable.

in detail
I enjoy Tracy Chevalier's work and have read many of her novels, but this has to be her worst.

The Hogarth Press' idea to have popular modern authors retell Shakespearean plays is not a bad idea, it is however a common one, in that every theatre director has to do just that when putting on one of the Bard's works.

Nobody goes to see Romeo & Juliet for the story -- they go to see the interpretation.

And as many other reviewers have said: this interpretation is just plain bad.

The themes of Othello are numerous, but none of them are cut and dried. There are nuances and levels of relationship maturity which one can't render with 11-year olds or petty playground games. I have to agree with other reviewers that if a school setting were chosen, it would have to be with 16-year olds or older.

The blatant racism was also too much of a monotheme and done in far too heavy handed way, as if attempting to stomp the story into fitting today's current race interest to the virtual disregard of other topics. (Some Shakespeare scholars claim racism is not a major theme of the play, but has recently been made into one.)

The writing is up to Chevalier standards, but besides the instant sparkles when O and D meet, I found the rest of the story boring in the extreme. I disliked 6th grade and found the immature cliques and cat fights and insult throwing petty even then. Revisiting within Shakespearean parameters does nothing to improve it.

This is the 2nd Hogarth Shakespeare retelling I've read and thought was boring and not terribly well done. (The other was Hag-Seed) GR ratings are also not stellar for the series overall.

Not recommended.

[Phrynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

My third in this series of Shakespearean rewrites but sadly I did not enjoy it as much as either Hag-Seed or Vinegar Girl.
New Boy is based on Othello and many of the similarities were obvious, but I thought the author's idea of placing the action in a 1970's elementary school in the USA was problematic, at least for me! I really feel that eleven year old children in 1970 were not so street smart or so sexualised. I am sure they may have ostracised the single non white child in the school, but the havoc this child wreaks in one simple six hour school day is nonsensical.
The idea was good, the writing is good, but the setting is wrong and the time span far too short. Even for a Young Adult audience the age group of the characters is too young.
Oops. Sorry - did not mean to be so critical. Let's just say this book did not do it for me but I notice that many other people liked it very much:)

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a powerful and poignant retelling of Shakespeare's Othello. I read the original and its modern predecessor back-to-back and, in my humble opinion, thought Chevalier did justice to this timeless story from the renowned bard.

It was a bold and interesting option to transmute the original from an epic tragedy to the experiences of a handful of children, during just one school day on a playground. This truncated time period and microcosm community is used as a stage for the wider, modern political and social world. If Shakespeare wrote of the conspiracies of man, then Chevalier drew insight to the pettiness of it. Her young cast of characters are every bit as scheming, intuitive, and pack-minded as their ancient counter-parts and this proved that the same prejudices are, sadly, every bit as prevalent centuries later.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Tracy Chevalier, and the publisher, Hogarth, for this opportunity.

[☮Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read all of the Shakespeare plays as a kid and certainly won't start doing so now, especially Othello which sounds like a real bummer. Well, it IS a tragedy. Tracy Chevalier was charged with retelling the plot, and she sets it in the 1970's; but it could just as well be today. I read a quick summary of Othello just to see what happens, who lives and who dies. Geez, there's a lot of dying going on there. I was afraid of where Chevalier was going to lead us, as her story is populated with sixth graders on the school yard of a Washington DC elementary school.

Othello was a Moor, a person of color. Here, Osei is a new boy in an all-white school, born in Ghana, and although it's nearing summer break, it's O's first day. Dee (Desdemona) is a popular white girl assigned the task of taking O around to make him comfortable. The entire book takes place in one day, mind you, and almost immediately O and Dee hit it off and are considered "going together." (These sixth graders move fast.) Then the bully Ian has to step in and manipulate everything and everyone until chaos reigns and the story is turned on its head.

I think Chevalier did a really good job with portraying racism and bullying. I didn't think I'd be interested in the Hogarth series, but I am a fan of Chevalier. And Hamlet retold by Gillian Flynn sounds like a sure winner.

A Bookstr ARC 2/2017.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The latest installment in the Hogarth Shakespeare series takes us to a 1970s suburban Washington D.C. middle school, with Tracy Chevalier's take on "Othello."

Osei Kokote, a Guyanian diplomat's son, is not only the new boy at school -- he's the only black student. Since he has spent his life moving around the world he is significantly more cosmopolitan and cultured than his classmates; however, he's not a show-off. He knows it's best to lay low and be friendly, but not overbearing. The popular girl at school takes a liking to him, and this doesn't sit well with the school bully, who conspires about the best way bring Osei down.

The entire story takes place during the course of a single school day, and the book itself isn't that long. Chevalier's writing is filled with tension and the sense that *something* is on the verge of happening. That said, I couldn't shake the sense that this would have worked much better as a short story, rather than a novel (or novella -- I'm not sure how this book is technically classified).

Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for a galley of this book in exchange for a galley of this book.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘New Boy’ is the latest in the Hogarth Shakespeare retold series – this time it is Tracy Chevalier’s turn (not an author I am familiar with) and here she is superimposing the story of Othello onto 1970’s America (Washington). But not just that, the new location is the school playground and the main protagonists Osei, Dee and Ian (for Othello, Desdemona and Iago) are all 11 years old.

Whilst I was initially very skeptical about how such a relocation and re-imagining could possibly work – relocated as it is to this time, place and social situation, for the most part however it does. Sticking as it does broadly to the central story, dramatic thrust and narrative of the original and the key protagonists, this does work surprisingly well.

Although not to my mind neither the strongest nor the best of the Hogarth series thus far (that prize would go to Jacobson’s ‘Shylock’ along with Atwood’s ‘Hag-Seed’) ‘New Boy’ still stands up well and I have a lot of time for this adaptation and the way it has been reinvented.

My key reservations would be that firstly, I’m not altogether convinced that a boy of 11 would have the intellectual maturity nor possess the complexity of thought process to be as equivalently conniving and pre-meditatedly malevolent as the Ian/Iago character here? (Although that may be my naivety?). I am also not as yet convinced about the ending, the climax, the denouement to this version of Othello. It may be that this ultimately weakens and detracts from the success of the rest of the novel, but transposing the final scenes of Othello onto this new re-imagined scenario was always going to be a significant challenge.

Not to its detriment, but ‘New Boy’ does read like it has been aimed squarely at the Young Adult market – although I don’t know if this is the case?

Overall then, ‘New Boy’ is a success – but to an extent a limited one, a flawed one. I am a big fan of both Shakespeare and the Hogarth series – Tracy Chevalier’s novel is most definitely a worthwhile, mostly satisfying and most welcome addition to the series.
I look forward now to the next editions in the series:

Jo Nesbo/Macbeth
Edward St Aubyn/King Lear
Gillian Flynn/Hamlet

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I've ever read and I'm a fan of Tracy Chevalier. Thank you to Hogarth and Netgalley for giving me a complimentary ARC in the hopes I'd review it.

My Rating: 1 star

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.75) My second favorite in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, after Hag-Seed. Chevalier is known for historical fiction, but here she gives Othello a near-contemporary situation and a backdrop much closer to home: her native Washington, D.C. Spring 1974: it’s Ghanaian diplomat’s son Osei Kokote’s first day at a new school. Fortunately, he’s taken under the wing of one of the most popular sixth grade girls, Dee, and they’re soon inseparable. The novel takes place all in one day, divided into discrete sections by recess periods and a lunch break. Jump rope rhymes, jungle gyms, kickball games, arts and crafts, and a typical cafeteria meal of Salisbury steak and tater tots: it’s impressive how Chevalier takes ordinary elements and transforms them into symbols of a complex hierarchy and shifting loyalties. The language of possession and desire felt overly dramatic to me when applied to eleven-year-olds. However, it’s a remarkable exploration of the psyche of a boy isolated by his race.

See my full review on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

To preface, it’s been more than 25 years since I studied Othello in high school and, let’s just say, chances are good that I wasn’t paying close attention (at that time I was usually too busy with my nose in the latest Stephen King release to bother with school reading). Having said that, I do recall the general story and themes from Shakespeare’s Othello, and New Boy is a take on that classic play.

This wasn’t a bad read, it just wasn’t very riveting and it required me to suspend a little more disbelief that I’d have liked. It seemed like the story of Othello was being shoehorned into this elementary school playground scene, which made much of the drama feel contrived. Perhaps 70’s era sixth graders were not the best group of modern day people with which to imbue the extreme jealousy and malevolence that are characteristic of the main players. Or perhaps the idea of reimagining a Shakespeare tragedy in the modern day just passed right over my head…

What did feel very real was the racism put on blatant display by the teachers and many of the students when it came to Osei, as the new boy and the only black boy in the school – sadly, here is where I did not have to suspend any disbelief.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars ~~ The fifth installment in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, a modern retelling of Othello

The tragedy of bullying. This story takes place over the span of one day. From the start of the school day to shortly after the last bell rings.
Osei was changing schools - again. His diplomatic father was transferred every few months and this was Osei first day at another new school. Osei was respectful, well traveled and very intelligent for his age. Osei was in 6th grade. Dee was given the duty of escorting Osei and answering his question on his first day. This was reassuring for Osei, since it was not only his first day, but he was also the lone black student in this school, at a time when segregation was not all that common.
As in every school, this one also had a clique of students, hierarchies of leaders and followers, with Dee being the most popular girl among them and also the sweetest. She and Osei got along very well. Much to the jealousy of some other students, Ian, the troublemaker, especially. As jealousy is wont to do, in all age groups, it begins to create real problems. At this young age it manifests itself into the form of bullying, to set things even further apart.
Trying to sort out the story the adults do not see the picture correctly, those to blame refuse to take responsibility, reputations are injured, children are seriously hurt, and it appears that death is unavoidable.

I really enjoyed this book. It sucked me into its world. It was exquisitely written moving right along keeping me absorbed. It reminded me of how 11 and 12 year olds saw this world through their young eyes. How important friendship and belonging is to a young person. How easily they can be swayed and made to believe the worst in others, doubting even their own realities.

Thank you to First to Read for this ARC published May 11, 2017.

[Claude's Bookzone · Rating 1 out of 5]

CW: Racial slurs, boys physically assaults girls, boy jumps off top of jungle gym due to despair he felt over wrong accusations he made, girl is pulled off playground equipment and is likely paralysed.

Well that didn't really work.

Firstly, I have no idea why Tracy chose to set her Othello retelling in middle school. 11 year olds being conniving over a pencil case doesn't quite stand up to the manipulation and mistrust that is so well done in the original play. Secondly, the intense romantic relationships felt quite odd for this age group. It would have been better set in high school when the themes could have been more thoroughly explored in a less inappropriate setting. That being said, I don't think this book is for middle schoolers. I'm not sure who the target audience is, actually. I have, however, purchased a copy for the library as part of a novel study about retellings of classics.

[Alaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

First some background information. New Boy is a retelling of Shakespeare's play Othello. It is set in Washington D.C. around the 70's.

Now onto the good stuff: my review!

New Boy was a really good book (I feel like I keep saying that in my reviews today?). I loved all of the characters, except for the douchebag name Ian. I feel like there has to be someone I don't like in most books, well Ian is that character. Sorry, not sorry.

Besides Ian, there's Osei, Dee, and Casper. Osei is the MC of the book and the only black kid within a white school. Now Osei deals with so much racism that it broke my heart and I had to put the book down. I have no idea how people can look at themselves in the mirror and think they are an amazing person while going out into the world and being a racist twat. I hate racism and I hate people who are still racist to this day.

Well, seeing Osei going through all of this - Dee and Casper come to the rescue. THANK GOD FOR SOME DECENT PEOPLE! I loved their friendship and everything else about them.

Now that's all I'm really going to spoil about this book because honestly it needs to be read. It's such a good book. It will become an addiction.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 3 out of 5]

"NEW BOY" is the third book in the Shakespeare retold series from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier. I appreciate the effort that has been made in order to modernise the Shakespearean tragedy, Othello, capturing a new audience of readers in the process.

NEW BOY is set in an elementary school playground in Washington DC in 1974 and the whole story takes place in a single day. At the time, the political landscape was looking pretty bleak, as a result of the Watergate scandal, the impeachment process against Richard Nixon was nearing its conclusion, and due to this there was a climate of racial tension throughout the United States.

I feel that the novel may have been more convincing had it been set in a high school. Othello explores topics surrounding sexuality and conflict, here the characters of Othello, Desdemona and Iago are just eleven years old. This is too young, in my opinion, to be believable and realistic. Even 13-14 year olds would be more appropriate in these circumstances. Also, having read the original, Chevalier has pushed the racial element to the forefront in NEW BOY, race does not play such a large part in the Shakespearean Othello. I do understand why she did this, it reflects the time period in which the retelling is set.

This is a well-written and emotionally resonant read. However, I cannot understand the idea behind such young children (11 year olds) being favoured over teenagers with the issues that feature in the book. It just doesn't work for me, I am perfectly willing to suspend disbelief over most aspects of a novel that I am enjoying, but this is even too much for me.

I would like to thank Tracy Chevalier, Random House UK - Vintage Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Joanne Harris]

Evocative retelling of Othello as a Seventies schoolyard drama - and yes, it works marvellously. The emotions of emerging adolescence are a potent chemistry, with friendships, rivalries, budding sexuality, the desire to fit in and the search for identity combined into a powerful brew. The racism of teachers and of some pupils is dealt with directly and unflinchingly, and Shakespeare's characters, their interactions and motivations fit surprisingly well into the small, brutal world of childhood.

[Lorena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me ha decepcionado mucho. Aunque trata temas interesantes como el racismo, la crueldad de los preadolescentes, los prejuicios... no me ha parecido que esté bien desarollado. Usa un lenguaje muy simple, casi infantil, y los personajes no están nada definidos. Podría haberle sacado mucho más partido a la historia y se queda a medio gas.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is Othello about? Love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge, repentance. This retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy is intense. The action is condensed into one day on the school grounds. Osei is the new boy—introduced to this grade six class shortly before school ends for the summer. Son of a Ghanaian diplomat, O is used to being the new kid and to being the only black child in the schools he goes to.

Ian is every bit as calculating and cold as any Iago. He is sociopathic in this rendition—shaking down the other kids for their lunch money, turning games into gambling matches, using and abusing those around him. Dee is well-intentioned but easily manipulated by a malicious Ian, as is her best friend, Mimi.

This is an emotional stage in life, as kids go through puberty, start to obsess about relationships, figure out what tasks they are good at, and generally learn to steer their way through the obstacles of life. I was surprised that Chevalier chose this age group to tell this story, but for me it worked well.

It was a quick read and although I knew the broad strokes of the Othello story, I was pleasantly surprised by the details, the characters, and the inevitable ending.

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s no risk of Tracy Chevalier’s “New Boy” overshadowing Shakespeare’s “Othello.” But that’s neither here nor there. What Chevalier has done is recast the play to illuminate the peculiar trials of our era. If it’s not a classic novel, it’s at least a fascinating exercise.

“New Boy” takes place in an elementary school in a Washington suburb. At first, that setting might sound infantile for the adult machinations of Shakespeare’s play, but give it a moment, and the anachronisms of this mash-up start to feel oddly appropriate. In Chevalier’s handling, the insidious manipulations of “Othello” translate smoothly to the dynamics of a sixth-grade playground, with all its skinned-knee passions and hopscotch rules. What’s more, that commentary works in both directions: The gentlemen of Venice often behave like foolish children; and sixth-graders, as Chevalier makes plain, can be. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

To watch my interview with Tracy Chevalier, click here:
https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpo...

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

“….people were shouting his name and in the distance the girls were cheering and for a brief moment O shed the hyperawareness of his black skin and was just another shiny new hero on the playground.”
This is a volume in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, modern retellings. This one is a retelling of Othello. It is pretty brief and not at all demanding. This version of Othello is setting in Washington and in a school the main characters are eleven year old children (oh dear) with a couple of teachers. And one more thing, it all happens in a day!
The time is the early 1970s. Osei (Othello) is a diplomat’s son who starts a new school in Washington, he is the only black pupil. The plot is compressed into a day and for me, it’s a total disaster. The Ian/Iago character is just not believable and because Osei in new and no one knows him the interactions (especially with Dee/Desdemona), just don’t work. Neither of the teachers are believable, particularly Mr Brabant (Brabantio}, who is one of the villains of the piece. The interactions between the children are way too adult (this is the 1970s). The plot simply doesn’t work because it is compressed into a day. I think there is a lack of depth and of believable characters. The handling of the race element wasn’t a total disaster, the sexualisation of the eleven year olds definitely was.
I much preferred Winterson’s retelling of A Winters Tale.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Othello in Grade School

Osei ("just call me O") is a new boy at his Washington DC school. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, this is his fourth school in as many years. Somewhat incredibly—although this does seem to be set around 1970—he is the only black kid in the school. Handsome, athletic, and smart, he is an object of immediate interest, especially to popular, blond-haired Dee, who is assigned to help him through his first day. Soon O and Dee ("what a coincidence we are both letters") have paired up. Seeing her feel his hair and him touch her cheek infuriates the racist teacher Mr. Brabant, and inspires a deeper hatred in Ian, the playground bully.

We are all set for a replay of Othello in this grade-school setting, for this is the fifth entry in the Hogarth Shakespeare Series. And alas, distinctly the least successful. It is not that Tracy Chevalier is a lesser author than Jeanette Winterson, Howard Jacobson, Anne Tyler, or Margaret Atwood—although you might argue that—but that the school setting, the age range (on the cusp of puberty), and the decision to cram everything into the course of a single day belittles Shakespeare's drama without offering any compensating value in return. I have to admit, though, that growing up in a very different school system myself, the environment is entirely foreign to me, but Chevalier did little to convince me of its reality.

The book is both too compressed and too diffuse. Compressed in that, even with teenage hormones in full spate, the cycle of initial attraction, commitment, jealousy, and rage just won't fit into one school day. Diffuse in having too many characters too ill-defined, too many incidents of only peripheral relevance, and a complete absence of the tragic intensity and underlying atavism that is such a strong component of the Shakespeare.

[Yiannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Θα το πρότεινα σε μαθητές αναγνώστες για να δουν πως μεταπλάθει η συγγραφέας τον σαιξπηρικό Οθέλλο μιλώντας για το θέμα του ρατσισμού και του σχολικού εκφοβισμού.

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

Take off your kid gloves, Diane. He doesn't need special treatment just because he's bl– a new boy.

As the latest title in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, New Boy is author Tracy Chevalier's take on updating one of the Bard's plays – in this case Othello – and the more of the books I read in this series, the more I wonder if the concept can really be done well: Even when Shakespeare, writing four centuries ago, borrowed from the ancient tales, he didn't try to set them in the London of his day; and I think that he got away with not quite credible storylines by winking at the audience with, “That's just the way they did things in Verona or Denmark or Scotland; it's different there.” Unfortunately, in addition to not buying into the plot, I didn't think New Boy was terribly well written either, with one caveat: it might be an interesting introduction to Shakespeare for preteens; kids who don't question the plot, can identify with young love and schoolyard bullies, and don't mind being spoonfed some social history. Not for me.

O and Dee
Sittin' in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love, then comes marriage
Then comes Dee with a baby carriage!

In a way, Chevalier had the perfect concept: Othello is re-imagined as eleven-year-old Osei (or “O”); the son of a Ghanaian Diplomat, he has been the “new boy” in school four times in six years – and as the only black student in this 1970's Washington D.C. Middle School, he is the perfect outsider character that might inspire not just prejudice, but jealousy, too. Desdemona is Dee – the pretty, popular girl who has never given her heart lightly – and Iago is Ian; schoolyard bully whose behaviour is not just mean, but newly, cruelly, testosterone-fueled. If characters are going to act crazy – fall in love at first sight and then try to literally destroy each other because of blinding jealousies and puerile power plays – where better to place the story than at the dawn of puberty? It's almost believable. But by having the story play out in one day – O and Dee meet before first bell, are in love by first recess, Ian starts to poison O's mind while Dee goes home for lunch, O and Dee break up at afternoon recess, and something like tragedy occurs on the playground after school – this short book (less than two hundred pages) felt needlessly rushed. Chevalier also tries to squeeze into this brief treatment some explanatory backstories for her characters – their teacher, Mr. Brabant, is a racist because he had some of them in his platoon in 'Nam, and Affirmative Action means that a black kid doesn't have to, and never will, try at school; Ian has always paid for the bad reputations of his older brothers and gets spanked with a belt at home; O's older sister has gotten involved with the Black Power movement, and maybe O won't accept racism so casually any more – and with clipped sentences and telling-not-showing, none of this felt literary:

Another time his words and tone would have stung, for of all the adults at the school, Mr. Brabant was the one she most wanted to please. But today was different – Dee had found someone new whose opinion she suddenly cared about more. And someone Mr. Brabant was judging. Dee didn't like his tone. Still, she could not disobey her teacher. The best response, she decided, was to take her time rather than rush to please him. As she began to saunter past Mr. Brabant toward the entrance, she could feel him staring at her, clearly aghast at her new attitude. It made Dee feel powerful.

Three (maybe four?) times, an adult character refers to O as “the bl– new boy”, we hear about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, the athletes who gave the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, Ghanaian Chiefs who cooperated with the slave trade (offering a few of their subjects in return for the freedom of the rest), and at the climax, overt racism: Chevalier was obviously using this book to make some social commentary, but if you're not a Middle Schooler yourself, nothing would be new or illuminating.

As the second book in this series to which I've given two stars, I must say that I'm disappointed overall with the whole Hogarth Shakespeare series. Harumph.