Jo Nesbo's interpretation of Macbeth.

[Charles]

I'm a huge fan of Jo Nesbo. Plus, I've written several short essays about
various interpretations of Macbeth. It is disappointing to see that Mr. Nesbo has resorted to using the names of many of the players in Shakespeare’s tale and then reassign them different roles. However, I gotta say... he isn't the first; Orson Welles being the most egregious.

Shakespeare's story of a man with limited capacity and unlimited greed has been repeated many times, on screen, in books, and in real life. This same drama dominates today's political scene in the United States. Macbeth is a fearless warrior, but he has no capacity to rule.

I would enjoy Nesbo's story much more if he had simply used Shakespeare's basic plot and not tried to tell the same story with totally new dialogue, but using just the names of the original cast. It's gimmicky, trying to shoe-horn these names into a modern setting. If you've read the play, or seen one of the many movies, you have some expectations of what their roles should be how the upcoming action should unfold. So, there's really nothing new here in the plot... it's all very predictable.

[John]

I agree. I have nothing against reimagining Shakespeare. The Magnificent Seven, West Side Story, Forbidden Planet were great. I really did not understand the use of the names from the play. It was distracting. Furthermore, he could have been more subtle with the characters and plot. The use of daggers was heavy handed and detracted from his putting the play into a modern setting. I was listening to the audio version, could not finish it and returned it.

[Bill]

Honestly, I hated Shakespeare's version, so I enjoyed the modern version much more. I thought the use of the original characters names wasn't distracting as it kept to the original story and would have actually taken away if you were left guessing which character was which.

I guess it really is up to how much you enjoyed the original story...I read the original 3 times and despised it...so, for me, this was refreshing.

[Anthony]

Hey all, I absolutely loved Shakespeare's version, and found Nesbo's narrative unputdownable, despite knowing how it would all end. I thought this was a clever novel that connected with the original, yet managed to maintain its own identity.