Dunbar
The Tragedy of King Lear — ain’t my first rodeo, neither.
“In any case, once you set sail in a ship of fools, there’s never any shortage of passengers!” Page 38.
The premise for the Hogarth Series is a modern novelist’s version, or story, based upon a Shakespeare play. Dunbar is based, like, a modern variant of Shakespeare’s King Lear, between that and whatever the online reviews — Amazon, etc. — say? That’s enough background.
Having seen the play itself in recent memory, that helps.
The guy who played Lear for that 2017 season? That kid was great. Actor, whatever.
The book uses a corporate media mogul empire as a frame for the tale, but there’s enough theatrical imagery to remind us that it is a play. The wars waged and concerns are fights against a backdrop of insider trading and the looming threat of boardroom battles.
In a curious note, and properly reflective, as well as used in context, there was passing quote from Shakespeare’s Richard II. Ironic chuckle.
In part, and then, in whole, it is a rather successful re-imagining of Lear, equally sad and enthralling, teasing out similar imagery, lovingly crafted in a way to make the source stronger in its original form.
An homage? Literally a literary appreciation.
The thing about King Lear, and by extension, the novel Dunbar, I know how it ends, and yet, I get surprised by the ending. That’s happened twice this year. Gripping tale, means good book.
Read it in airports and on airplanes.
Dunbar
Dunbar (Hogarth Shakespeare)
