I've had this book on my "to read" shelf for a while, but it wasn't until I checked the audiobook version out of the library that I actually got down to it. And I'm glad I encountered it that way—the audiobook is read very well, bringing the characters to life by means of their voices.
Enter Ghost is about Sonia, a London-based actor who returns to Palestine after her marriage falls apart and becomes tangentially—and then more integrally—part of an Arabic production of Hamlet. In that plot and in our growing and deepening understanding of her history, the novel has an unhurried pace that I really appreciated.
Naturally, I came to Enter Ghost for the Shakespeare. Overall, that part did not disappoint, but the book is decidedly one-sided in its politics (and it’s also too political overall). All the Palestinian characters have a wonderful three-dimensionality, but every Israeli is a one-dimensional evil villain. I would have liked to have had a lot more exploration of human beings as human beings, whatever their politics—and we certainly get that on the Palestinian side. But the difference between their powerfully complicated portrayal and the simplistic portrayal of the Israelis was stark.
My favorite parts of the novel were those places where the cast discusses and rehearses Hamlet. Enter Ghost often has sections that are written as if it were a play, as in the scene below where the cast and director start exploring their visions of the play and of their production.
You can see how Shakespeare can speak to a particular time and a particular situation as well as to human universals.
Later in the novel, when the cast has been set more firmly and rehearsals are well underway, we are presented with this scene. The actors are working on the "closet" scene:
I find that exercise fascinating. We get one side of the story, which is, politically, what the novel is also doing. But the novel does tell its side of the story well, and, for those who have only heard the other side of the story, it offers a counterbalance. In this scene, Hamlet, like the ghost who enters later in the scene, is silent to Gertrude. Our focus is entirely on Gertrude and her reactions, which allows us to examine them and the actress to portray them with greater precision.
I can't tell you more without providing spoilers, but you'll find Enter Ghost to be well worth reading.
Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
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