The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s “late plays.” It tells the story of a king whose jealousy results in the banishment of his baby daughter and the death of his beautiful wife. His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd on the Bohemian coast, but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited. In The Gap of Time, Jeanette Winterson’s cover version of The Winter’s Tale, we move from London, a city reeling after the 2008 financial crisis, to a storm-ravaged American city called New Bohemia. Her story is one of childhood friendship, money, status, technology and the elliptical nature of time. Written with energy and wit, this is a story of the consuming power of jealousy on the one hand, and redemption and the enduring love of a lost child on the other.

The Gap of Time is a retelling of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, set in 2013 England, Louisiana, and Paris. It follows the play pretty faithfully, but adds details–like what the boyhood friendship between the two “kings,” Leo and Xeno, was like. The parts of the book dealing with those two have an atmosphere of twisted melancholy. Xeno designs games, and the one he is working on involves Dark Angels who are trying to thwart human efforts to find the thing that will allow them to save the world. MiMi (Leo's “queen”) is a torch singer whose inspiration is a poet who dreamed of an angel who fell into the courtyard of a building and couldn't free himself because to do so would have destroyed the building and its occupants. Leo is an egocentric, violent business tycoon who is kept barely in line by his business manager, Pauline.

By contrast, the life of Perdita is pretty sunny. Her adoptive father and brother love her and she has a simple, but good life. She has unanswered questions about her origins, though, so it is clear that the life she has lived with Shep and Clo can't continue the way it has been. But knowing that the end of the story restores the lost child to her family, I feel much sorrier for Winterson's Perdita than for Shakespeare's. This is not a family situation I would wish on a bright young woman.

I liked this book for its rich detail, its atmosphere, the interesting way it adapted the older story to tell a new one. I had a hard time putting stock in the happy ending, though, since the rest of the story was so dark. Surely this family's problems can't be healed easily?

Like Shakespeare's works, I thought this was a real work of art. I loved the way Winterson reimagines The Winter's Tale, and/but the theme of time is...for lack of better words, intense. If I were to compare this book to a painting, I'd definitely choose a more impressionistic work. Like Shakespeare, this isn't really something you'd pick up for a fun read. It's a bit of a challenge to get through at points, much like Shakespeare, due to thematic passages that are beautiful yet incredibly literary. Having not read The Winter's Tale before, I felt a little lost in the twisted and complicated story at points.

For a longer review, visit http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/07/review-gap-time-jeanette-winterson/