The Great Night - General No Spoilers (Jan 2019)

[LindaJ^]

I'm setting up the threads early, as I will be traveling for the first 10 days of January and will primarily be using my iPhone to keep up with the conversation. I learned about the author Chris Adrian when he was chosen in 2010 by the New Yorker as one of the 20 under 40 authors to pay attention to. Before this book, I had read The Children's Hospital and A Better Angel. The story A Better Angel forms the beginning of this book.

Chris Adrian, I think, has an interesting background. He is a pediatric oncologist/hematologist, attended Harvard Divinity School, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. On the back of my copy of the book are quotes from people labeled "Praise for Chris Adrian." Usually I pay little attention to these but there is one on this book from Marilynne Robinson. Adrian probably met her at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. I found Robinson's words to capture much of what I find true about Adrian's work: Chris Adrian's life is a dedicated exploration of the things that matter most, and his writing is his companion and interlocutor, his guide and interpreter, as he travels a landscape not before seen by other eyes. And every report he makes of that world enriches and enlarges our own sense of the world we thought we knew. I'd be interested in others thoughts about Robinson's comment.

This book is described by the publisher as a retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. While I have seen the play performed, I have never read A Midsummer Night's Dream. I am going to rectify that oversight in the next few days. I hope that anyone who is familiar with the play will tell us whether or not they agree!

Below are some links to reviews and interviews but I'd avoid them if you have not read the book and do not like spoilers. These reviews, like the reviews on GR, are quite divergent, so I look forward to some good discussion!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/bo...
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/...
https://bookpage.com/reviews/6851-chr...
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
https://americanshakespearecenter.com...
https://lit.newcity.com/2011/08/04/fi...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Peter]

Thanks for the reviews! As soon as I finished the book, I searched for reviews, and the first two I got were very different! It's a book that the professional reviewers all seem to agree has some good parts, but they seem divided about whether it is a good book.

[LindaJ^]

Agree Peter. In the above reviews there does seem to be uniformity that some of the book is well written, while much disagreement as to whether the book as a whole is good. Much of that, to me, seemed based on how the reviewer perceived what Adrian was trying to do with the use of A Midsummer Night's Dream, i.e., was he retelling the story, rewriting the story, or something else? I plan to read the play so as to have an opinion. My recollection of the play from the one time I saw it performed professionally some 30 years ago is faint and does not help!

[Peter]

I read the play just before reading The Great Night. It was interesting, but not as helpful as you might think. Basically, Adrian borrows some characters and some situations, but I would not personally describe it as a retelling or a rewriting -- more like literary Shakespeare fan fiction, to be honest.

[Hugh]

I'm a little late for this one but I have ordered a copy and hope to get round to it before the end of the month....

[LindaJ^]

That’s great Hugh. Look forward to your thoughts.

[Mark]

I've seen three productions of Midsummer Night's Dream recently, DNF on two of them. The first was a trimmed version (8 actors!) that seemed silly and disorganized. The next was a BBC/ Royal Shakespeare Company production that was unbelievably wooden, even though featuring the likes of Helen Mirren and Ian Holm. As a viewer said, "This movie looks like it was hastily committed to film by high school students." DNF I tried again with a Kevin Kline / Stanley Tucci version that just seemed silly and beneath its performers' talents. DNF again.

I'm looking forward to this to see if the novel form can expand and illuminate a story that came across as either puerile or nonsensical in each of the productions.

[Peter]

Mark wrote: "I've seen three productions of Midsummer Night's Dream recently, DNF on two of them. The first was a trimmed version (8 actors!) that seemed silly and disorganized. The next was a BBC/ Royal Shakes..."

It's not really a version of A Midsummer's Night Dream, but a riff off of it, or a reference to it. I don't think the author is trying to illuminate the original, but to remix some of the elements of the original to tell a different story.

[Carl]

I’ll confess that I gave up on the book about 50 pages in. The writing was good and I found it imaginative, but I found myself not caring what happened to any of the characters. I’ll also confess that I give up on books fairly easily because I have a list of 400that I want to be reading...

[LindaJ^]

Sorry for my absence. I was traveling and iPhone sucks for keeping up on emails and Goodreads!

I did however read A Midsummer Night's Dream while traveling. Like Peter, I would not call this an updated version of that play. While elements are similar -- the names of the fairy king and queen, the group of "Thespians," and Puck causing Titania to fall in love with one of the Thespians -- the actual story is very different. Three things immediately struck me -- first is the prominence of the Boy's death; second is the extensive backstory for the 3 non-Thespian human characters; third is the connection between Puck and Henry. While both Shakespeare and Adrian use myth and magic, they seem to use it for different purposes.