Who knew we needed a Hamlet-from-Gertrude’s-POV? Middle-aged woman trapped in dull dynastic marriage to beefy warrior finds happiness with her sexy and sophisticated brother-in-law, only to have her life messed up by her censorious perpetual-student son. Quite a fun idea, but I’m not sure if it really had enough substance to justify a whole novel.

Perhaps it would have been more convincing as a happy second marriage if Updike had somehow managed to find a way to get Hamlet sr. out of the way without involving actual fratricide. But no-fault divorce wasn’t really a thing (or even a thing) in medieval Denmark. It’s also slightly unclear to me how Gertrude’s father could be a first-generation Christian convert while her son was dabbling his toes in the renaissance. But it’s all just a bit of fun from a writer who was established enough to be able to publish whatever caprices happened to take his fancy, we probably shouldn’t look too closely… ( )

Wow! Bought this book for 50 cents at St Vinnies just because it was by John Updike and I liked his poetry but I was not enthusiastic about it being a Shakespeare derivative. It anything but a derivative. From the first pages I was hooked. Such beautiful writing. It was like travelling though the illustrations of an illuminated manuscript. I kept reading out passages to my wife. Nothing less than a treat. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12083001 ( )

This is the story of what happened before Hamlet. As a teenage princess Gerutha argues with her father against her upcoming wedding to the much older soldier Horwendil, an argument she loses. The result of this marriage is a boy whom Gerutha never feels very motherly towards, claiming the child is cold to her. All the while, her brother-in-law has been circling Gerutha, desperately in love.

This is the second Updike I've read, having read The Centaur many years ago and liked it. I can't say that I liked this one though. Gerutha's own life wasn't explored, she is shown only in connection to the men in her life, and because of that, her portrayal is sexualized much of the time, while her role as mother to Hamlet is thin in the story, he actually figures little.
I got the feeling pretty quickly that Updike was a guy who liked the sound of his own voice. The sentences are packed with as many descriptors as could be jammed in, making for heavy paragraphs. ( )

A prequel to Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet".