Saturday, July 9, 2016

Blogging for Books: "The Gap of Time" by Jeanette Winterson

"The Gap of Time" is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale." Though the plot involves the complexities of modern living such as technology, surveillance, and social media the core of the book's issues (love, jealousy, loss, regret, forgiveness, abandonment, and sexuality) are the same.



Though I am not familiar with the play, it was not a problem because Winterson opens the book with summarizing the plot. However, the author does introduce dynamics to the charcters' personalities such as homosexuality, interracial relationships and spousal rape that were not present in the original play. These elements helped to bring a more vivid and relative color to the characters, which made them relatable. This character depth creates a new world where you are turning the pages to discover where the characters end up, even though their fate has already been sealed as it mirrors the original play.

I am not familiar with with Winterson's writing and, though I enjoyed where she took the characters, I felt that there were times that the syntax was confusing and it distracted from the story. I also felt that there times that the dialog from the ethnic characters was forced and heavily fell upon racial stereotypes. The story was full of rich symbolism and vivid detail that help to set the scenes.

In all, this a good quick read, that is perfect for a trip to the beach or day in. Any flaws that I found in the writing or side plots were over shadowed by the fact that plot was interesting and the characters were strong enough to shine through.

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.