Tag Archives: Afterlife

BOOK REVIEW: Supernatural Shakespeare by J. Snodgrass

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Supernatural Shakespeare: Magic and Ritual in Merry Old EnglandSupernatural Shakespeare: Magic and Ritual in Merry Old England by J. Snodgrass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Like – I suspect – most of humanity, I’m a big fan of Shakespeare’s work, but I’m also not alone in feeling that I’ve missed a some of the depth and texture of his plays. Both language and the body of common / popular knowledge have evolved and migrated tremendously since the Elizabethan era. This makes a market for books that offer insight into the age and the role that the beliefs, norms, and daily life played in Shakespeare’s theatrical works. This book is one such work. It focuses on the role supernatural beings and various festivals play in the Shakespearean canon and why they do so.

Conceptions of the supernatural may be one of the areas in which human beliefs have changed most severely since Shakespeare’s day. The book has chapters on witches, ghosts, fairies, and enchanted forests that are interspersed among chapters that deal with various seasonal festivals of Pagan origin. I did find this leapfrogging around a bit odd, but I would speculate two possible reasons for it. First, the author may have wanted to build cyclicality into the overall organization, and thus put beings and creatures that seemed thematically related to a season near its festivals. Second, it may have seemed like a good idea to break up the festivals because that discussion could have felt tedious to a general reader if it’d been clumped together (as opposed to the “sexier” topics of witches and ghosts and the like.) This organization didn’t bother me; it just seemed a bit strange, but I could imagine it being for the best.

I learned a great deal from this book, and my newly gained knowledge wasn’t all about the supernatural elements of Shakespeare. The author dropped some fascinating facts regarding other domains as well – such as Elizabethan sexuality and lifestyles as well as biographical facts about Shakespeare. If you’re looking to expand your understanding of background information relevant to Shakespeare’s plays, this book is worth looking into.

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BOOK REVIEW: Karmen by Guillem March

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KarmenKarmen by Guillem March
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Out: May 17, 2022

My tagline for this book would be: Neil Gaiman’s “Death” [i.e. from “The Sandman”] meets Paulo Coelho’s “Veronika Decides to Die.” For those unfamiliar with either of those points of comparison, the former is a character that subverts the traditional scary Grim Reaper, replacing the faceless hood with a personable and endearing lass, and the latter is the story of a young woman whose actions force her to learn the lesson of that old chestnut: suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

While it’s convenient for me to present the book in this “X meets Y” summation, it’s a unique story, diverging from both of those tagline references in many important ways. For example, the model of the afterlife is not Judeo-Christian like Gaiman’s, but is more Buddhism meets bureaucracy. [There I go again with the X meets Y.] I found the story captivating, and thought the character development was skillfully presented, particularly as regards the character of Cata.

I struggled with whether I liked the tone of the ending, but I’ll say no more about that to avoid spoilers — except to say that it grew on me. The art was beautiful and I found it to be an all-around entertaining read. Highly recommended.

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