Romeo and Juliet: A Novel
By: David Hewson / Narrated By: Richard Armitage
Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
First Listen? Liked it. Second Listen? Hmmm…
I could NOT chuck a credit at this audiobook fast enough when I saw Hewson and Armitage paired up to do a favorite Shakespeare (I know I know—Intelligent people would go for more obscure and less obvious works, right?). And the first time I listened to it, it was golden. I liked Romeo’s flightiness; it had me laughing at him (NOT with him…). And I did soooo enjoy the backbone Juliet was seeking throughout the entire story.
Second Listen? Oooooh gosh. After finishing it all, I’m kinda sorta wondering if p’raps author David Hewson didn’t change things up just a trifle tooooo much. I did so enjoy his novelization of Macbeth, tho’ never having read it, I just kinda sorta went with the flow and took all his characters and situations as they came. It wasn’t until after I listened to the play itself that I realized Hewson only fleshed everything out and gave Lady Macbeth a tragic reason for her actions and choices. She wasn’t evil so much as off her rocker from grief, and one could feel empathy for her.
But as I pointed out, who HASn’t seen “Romeo and Juliet”?! I full-well know the characters, know the situations and all that. And I do believe Hewson changed things up, Juliet in particular, a trifle too much. By that, I mean: He took a struggling girl (In this novel he makes her 16-years old), and pretty much made her a 21st century heroine. Constantly talking back, stubbornly digging in her heels, yes, she’s upset that she’s being treated as chattel, has been promised in marriage to an older man she’s never met, but really!
Is it believable that this girl dreams of teaching the poor? That she reads and studies soooo very much, all the time? That this stolid, solid, young woman who stubbornly wants so much out of life is SUDdenly overwhelmed by hormones and sooo swayed by them that she honestly truly feels she’s in love with, wants to spend the rest of her life with, a young man she’s chatted with for just a bit, a young man she’s groped and rolled in the grass for a few moments. I mean, huh? It’s like Hewson couldn’t decide how on earth he was going to get this woman with an iron backbone to fall for the flighty Romeo (Hewson goes to great lengths to write him as a flaky poet, only thinking of the most flowery words to use), so he settled for a brief interlude with lusty hormones which oddly overtook her brain functions and led her on a path to tragedy.
During my first listen, I laughed long and hard during their wedding scene, where Juliet basically tells Romeo to hush it up whenst he waxes aaaaallll poetic-like about his undying love during his vows. This time? I wondered why she was bothering with someone who obviously annoyed her. Backbone (Keep in mind that Hewson already had Juliet strenuously objecting to “Obeying” as part of the vows) vs. Being Okay with Flaked-Out Silliness. Nope, can’t figure…
None of this is helped by Richard Armitage. Tho’ I did soooo appreciate that he deftly played up the humorous bits, I was sorely annoyed by how heavy-handed he was with the stronger elements. The Nurse? Awesome! Juliet’s father? Oooo, not so much. What a ruthless and brutal jerk. And Paris as the spurned but wannabe husband? Egads! The man comes out as horrifically creepy—Yuck! No feeling for him either as performed.
Gotta tell ya, I’m reeeeally surprised by how much I simply did NOT feel this go-round. Just couldn’t get into it; felt pretty detached; was happy with the ending but still felt like I was listening to a 21st century heroine.
This isn’t enough to turn me off from Hewson’s Hamlet; I do so wanna get around to taking that particular novelization from the shelves of my Digital Library. But hmmm…
Kinda wary now; kinda wary…
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