I love that interpretation.
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Hello, I just finished Hamnet. I was very lucky as I stopped at a garage sale and snagged it for fifty cents! I really enjoyed this book and probably would have left it in the bin if it hadn’t been for seeing it on CC. I did re read the first three chapters as I got confused as to who the characters were. Once that was straighten out, I zoomed through the book. Thank you to whomever recommended it.
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I’m reading Hamnet now. At the start, right before Part I, you’ll find:
TO WILL
HISTORICAL NOTE
In the 1580s, a couple living on Henley Street, Stratford, had three children: Susannah, then Hamnet and Judith who were twins.
The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged eleven.
Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called Hamlet.
So the book makes it clear from the beginning, more or less. The name of the father isn’t mentioned but still …
I’m just now reaching the part of Hamnet where I was when I decided I needed a hard copy rather than reading on my Kindle. I’ve read other books on my Kindle and can’t quite put my finger on why I had so much trouble with this. The only explanation I can give is that I find myself wanting to meander back through the pages for insight and I find in easier to do with the book in my hands.
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I did some meandering back in hardcopy Hamnet too. At the time I thought it was because I began reading many weeks ahead of deadline and did some start/stop. But maybe it is just that kind of book.
I lent my copy to a friend. She liked it, but I was glad I warned her ahead that it was excellent but sad.
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I wonder if I missed that note in the audiobook, that is one disadvantage to audiobooks, no meandering back and a moments inattention at the start apparently lost me a salient detail.
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Hamnet, in particular, slips salient details in subtly. I mean who really carefully listens to or reads a brief historical note (slipped underneath the two-word dedication.) Not many carry the import this one does.
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Wow, I totally do! And I meticulously study and refer back to maps, family trees, etc., too.
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I normally would, but obvi, I missed this one!
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You are good! Whenever, I see a map as the frontispiece, I tend to surreptitiously turn the page. I was never much of a map reader (unless it’s of the Land of Oz 
).
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Actually so do I but most of my reader-friends think I’m sort of nerdy to do so. 
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Maps were always my favorite part! I think my enthusiasm for them started with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I read all the author notes too, even the boring ones where it turns out all they are doing is thanking everyone who breathed near the manuscript.
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Me too. Sometimes you hit the unexpected.
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I actually can’t overstate how much I love maps.
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My husband and I saw “Something Rotten” at the local community theater. It was great and another possible story of the writing of “Hamlet”. Very funny.
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Hamnet soon to be movie
“ The bestselling historical fiction novel imagines the story of Agnes – the wife of the world’s most famous writer William Shakespeare – as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. The novel charts the emotional, familial and artistic consequences of that loss, bringing to life a human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet . Hamnet won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards, and was also shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.”
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This just came up on my library hold queue, and I finished it a day or so ago. I don’t really have anything to add to the many thoughtful comments here, but I did end up with a couple questions. Some things seemed to have gone over my head, and I don’t know if I was meant to understand them. Early on, the glover was described as being disgraced for some reason, and there were bales of wool in his attic. I assume those two things were related(?) Do we know any more about that that I missed? And near the end, as Agnes and Bartholomew were going to London - the fog creatures with teeth(?) Again I don’t know if I missed something there. I am about the least Shakespeare-aware person on the planet so maybe it’s obvious. I’m hoping someone is still following this and has some insights.
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No … John’s disgrace (other than not attending church) and the bales of wool in the attic weren’t explained.
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Welcome @O2BonCC! Shakespeare’s father was a wool-trader as well as a glover, and apparently he was involved in some shady dealings:
Shakespeare’s father was known to be a glovemaker, but he also worked as a wool-dealer and informal money-lender, occupations that got him in trouble with the law. Government informers accused him of illegal activity in those trades between the years of 1569 and 1572. It was long thought that the elder Shakespeare settled those accusations out of court by 1573, when his son would have been 9, but 21 newly discovered documents found by historian Glyn Parry of the University of Roehampton show the legal cases dragged on until his son was 19, meaning Shakespeare spent his formative years in a household facing constant legal and financial strife.
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Thank you for clarifying. I too was confused but didn’t think to ask what I had missed.
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Well, technically you didn’t miss it because O’Farrell didn’t write it. @Kudos to @Mary13 for finding the answer. FWIW, I’ve seen - elsewhere - readers complain about the fact that O’Farrell dangles and then drops it. There’s another something that’s left unexplained but I no longer remember what it is.
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