emily wrote:
>
>for work (i'm a graduate student) i'm reading lots and
>lots of shakespeare and writers ON shakespeare. that
>part's wonderful.
and it sounds fun. i can cast a jewel into this thread with the addition of
my favorite writer, robertson davies. yet another great canadian gift to
the world. davies, who died about 5 years ago, had been an actor,
playwright, essayest and critic, editor-in-chief, and master of a college
before he really hit his stride as a novelist. he styled himself as a
cranky curmudgeon, but you can tell in his writing how much he loved people,
their frailties but also their achievements. he wrote so beautifully about
the people who make the arts that i care about so much, the singers, actors,
playwrights, composers, painters. not worshipfully, but gracefully. he was
also scathingly funny, most of the time; he saw acutely the foolishness of
people. but still so loving. the only writer who comes close for me is
jane austen, and they have similar strengths.
the shakespeare reference reminded me of a particular davies favorite of
mine, 'tempest tost', a fairly short comic novel about an upper ottawa
community theater production of shakespeare's 'the tempest'. i've read it a
number of times, but the best was when i was involved in a community
(brooklyn) theater version of 'the tempest', which had brilliance and
bullshit in equal proportions to davies' fictional version. he reminded me
to appreciate all of it, giggling.
emily, i think you could justify reading 'tempest tost' as 'reading about
shakespeare. and you are drawn to the writing of robertson davies, you'll
be in for a fantastic journey. tempest tost, like most of his novels, is
part of a trilogy. his best trilogy, the 'deptford', is quite frankly a
masterpiece.
happy reading.
patrick
np - bebel gilberto - tantotempo
