Good at What They Did

In it Dench is interviewed by Brendan O’Hea, theater director at Shakespeare’s Globe, about her many roles in Shakespeare’s plays.  A book by two extraordinarily literate people about a man who was one of THE most talented writers has to be a winner.

It is not necessary to know the plays.  I read the book from cover to cover and knew the plots of very few.  It was enough to read about the complex characters and their motivations – how Dench chose to portray them and what Shakespeare may have meant. 

Also, there are the historical details.  For example, we are reminded that Juliet is only thirteen; her mother wants her to marry (not Romeo) and tells her there are other girls, younger, who are mothers already.  Child marriage is a long-standing thing.

Discussions of language, words, prose, rhyme, iambic pentameter
are lightly done and understandable.

This is a story of a performing lifetime and one of the nicest touches are the two photos of Dench. At the beginning of the book, she is in her dressing room in costume looking very young and stunningly beautiful.  At the end, she stands in a blurred snow background in a heavy coat.  It is a portrait of a woman in the winter of her life.

Does Shakespeare have a future?  Yes, she says.  He will always be relevant; he is a bridge across cultures; there’s something for everybody; he has examined every emotion; his writing has the capacity to make us feel less alone.

Dench’s obvious love of theater and joy in performing added to the pleasure of reading about her. How lucky she was to have found the perfect life’s work.  

 What he was really looking for was that elusive Northwest Passage across North America.  Unlike many others, he would try it from the west coast not eastern. Cook’s ships left England, sailed south along Africa, crossed into the Pacific, turned northeast, and stopped in Tahiti.  This was a place he did know; many of his crew had signed on specifically to return to the beautiful islands and sensuous women.

After refueling and R&R, they left with only the gray cold of Canada and Alaska to look forward to.  Thousands of miles of the Pacific with nothing between.  And then…as had happened before with Cook…some infallible sense…some uncanny luck…land is sighted.  They can hardly believe their good fortune.  But they can stop only briefly in Hawaii as they must get to the Pacific Northwest with time to explore before cold weather.  After that unsuccessful search, with no passage found, they needed a safe place for the winter.  It could be a sheltered harbor in rainy Oregon or Washington, or if they sailed further…it could be Hawaii. And so they headed south to return.

Sides tells the Hawaiian legend of Lono, the God who had been around before the world was born and before time.  When he lost his wife, he established the yearly festival of the Makahiki to honor her.  When all was to his satisfaction, he built a great canoe.  He would be gone for many eons but would return.  The festival was always the same time of year, in the same place. When Lono returned, he would come from a certain direction; the priests prophesied it would happen soon.

It makes my hair stand on end to think about the coincidence of Cook’s arrival, the correct time, place, and direction, in the middle of their festival.  The incredible ship; the imposing commander; a myth fulfilled.  Throughout the book, Sides presents many of the native views. He has listened to oral histories and read scholarly research. There’s a lot of discussion about first contact and the clash of cultures. 

There is also the sheer gall, the effrontery, of England/France/Spain, those relatively small sized European countries, to claim that the independent, well governed, self-sustaining cultures they found belonged to them.  They could only see the people who already lived there as inferior curiosities – without firepower.  Spain claimed the whole Pacific Ocean and its lands for itself. This colonial attitude of the 1770s has suffered some blows, but the sense of superiority is still alive and well.

In addition to very likable, well drawn main characters, the subject matter is appealing – budding authors, a writing retreat, and a book club.  There’s Wordle and The Guardian.  How nice and booky.

But – I was disappointed. There are too many secondary characters!  There are more than a dozen with an equal possibility of being the murderer.  Plus their relatives.  All interrelated.  Plus the police.  Plus friends of the police and private detectives.  At first, I wondered if it was me.  Am I getting forgetful – or becoming a lazy reader?   I don’t think so.  There are serious books where I am willing to keep a list to keep the characters straight.  But difficulty is not what I want from a cozy mystery.