Comments for A Wounded Name

A Wounded Name: 02/10/14

A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchinson is a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's set in an exclusive boarding school and is told from Ophelia's point of view. It's a stretch but I have enjoyed many other Hamlet inspired novels and thought this one had potential.

The copy I read was an audio provided by Recorded Books via LibraryThing. I think most of my negative reaction stems from the performance. The narrator uses an overly earnest, semi-British accent that my husband calls a "Blue Peter voice." It's an exaggerated performance with overdone enunciation.

But it's not just the performance. Some of the responsibility rides on the text itself. First and foremost, the pacing is SLOW. Yes, Shakespeare leaves enough plot holes to drive a truck through, but A Wounded Name in its attempt to fill them up, manages to make every single scene drag (even with hitting fast forward). The opening funeral of Hamlet Sr., for example, takes the entire first disc (roughly 75 agonizing minutes).

One star

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