I was a little nervous about reading this because I am not really familiar with The Winter's Tale, but I found this a very enjoyable book. The barbarity of parts of the original story must have made the update (or cover version) quite a challenge to create. This is a thought provoking book of ideas leavened with a surprising amount of humour. I won't try and comment on the details because that would expose my ignorance!

I find the hardest books to review are the ones I really do not like. I don't want to write an unending page of criticisms but I do want to record my personal feelings so I do not pick the book up again in the future. So for the record I found many passages too objectionable to read and eventually gave up because I have a huge list of books I do want to read waiting. This one just was not for me.

Jeanette Winterson is a master wordsmith, and she actually has me hooked. I'm not even exaggerating here, she really does, and I'm loving the ride. My bookcase is building up a marvellous collection of Winterson's works, and it craves more. Being one of Shakespeares more difficult and complex fables, I was immensely impressed with Winterson's ability to translate it into a more contemporary story. Her technique was astonishing. At the very beginning of the book, it read like a Shakespeare play t...

"And the world goes on regardless of joy or despair or one woman's fortune or one man's loss. And we can't know the lives of others. And we can't know our own lives beyond the details we can manage. And the things that change us forever happen without us knowing they would happen. And the moment that looks like the rest is the one where hearts are broken or healed. And time that runs so steady and sure runs wild outside the clocks. It takes so little time to change a lifetime and it takes a l

The Gap of TimeI’m a fan of this author. . . .could listen to her words and the way she strings them together for hours (and do!). That said, I must admit to non-engagement with this story. I will need to re-read this in the context of it being part of, in fact, first of, the Hogarth Shakespeare reimagined project. Reading it out of context, that is not applying anything and everything I knew about the play it was ‘reimagining’ left me adrift. I had a difficult time following the motivations and...

This is a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and sticks quite closely to the plot (not completely). The story moves from London after the 2008 crash and moves to the US and the fictional city of New Bohemia, which feels a little like New Orleans. The novel, like the play revolves around revenge and forgiveness, a child (Perdita) abandoned and found. The parallels with the play are clever and original and there is humour running through the tale as well as revenge, tragedy and forgivene...

Really enjoyed this one. I think Winterson actually managed to get to the emotional core of the story more than the bard himself did. (Is that possible?) It's a tragedy that ends in a comedy, I guess, but Winterson's version does a better job of intertwining the stories over the time gap, I think. Worth reading.

Hogarth Books has embarked on a project to commission acclaimed modern writers to re-tell the stories of Shakespeare. 'The Gap of Time' by Jeanette Winterson is the first of the books to be published.http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/about-...This volume retells 'The Winter's Tale.'Would I have noticed that it was a retelling of Shakespeare if it hadn't been stated right up front? Not at first, no. (There's an introductory re-cap - kind of 'The Winters Tale For Dummies' - to get the events and char...

"Now take upon me, in the name of Time,To use my wings. Impute it not a crimeTo me or my swift passage, that I slideO'er sixteen years and leave the growth untriedOf that wide gap..."-The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare"Sometimes it doesn't matter that there was any time before this time. Sometimes it doesn't matter that it's night or day or now or then. Sometimes where you are is enough. It's not that time stops or that it hasn't started. This is time. You are here. This caught moment open...

Abandon ship, baby. Before it's too late. Jump ship, baby, don't wait. The threat's not yours, it's mine. We're caught in a gap of time. I have never read or seen a production of The Winter's Tale, but knowing that it was the source material for Jeanette Winterson's “cover version”, The Gap of Time, I thoroughly researched Shakespeare's play before opening the book – and in a way I needn't have: Helpfully, Winterson opens the book with a detailed summary of the play. On the other hand, I'm gl

I won a copy of THE GAP OF TIME (a modern retelling of Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE) in a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you! Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. As a general rule, I try to be fair and polite when I write reviews. I don’t want to discourage authors, no matter how much I dislike their work. But I am struggling to keep my claws in on this one, so grab your popcorn and settle in. This could get intense. The first chapter was beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. I honestly thought it was going...

It's readable, but compared to Shakespeare's play it's a travesty.The soul and magic of The Winter's Tale is smashed and crushed like a place devastated by tornado or earthquake.Shakespeare added humanity to stereotypes. Winterson over-exaggerates stereotypes into grotesque caricatures.She completely wrecked the ending.

(Nearly 3.5) Winterson creates clear counterparts for each of Shakespeare’s characters, often tweaking names so they are still recognizable but a bit more modern. Notably, she opens in the middle, with Shep (Shepherd) discovering Perdita in a faux New Orleans, then fills in backstory for a London financier, a Parisian singer and a video game designer. “The Day of Celebration,” my favorite part, is an excellent 40-page section that could function as a stand-alone story. It’s the sheep-shearing fe...

While I loved Anne Tyler's "Vinegar Girl", a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, and Margaret Atwood's "Hagseed", her retelling of The Tempest, this version of The Winter's Tale left me cold. I have loved the other Jeanette Winterson books I've read, but just could not connect to this one.So, not giving up on either Winterson or the Hogarth Press Shakespeare Project. 3 stars because it was too good to give up on, but left me happy to move on after finishing.

This review is based on an uncorrected proof that I won in a GoodReads give away. 4.5 stars. I loved it. But this contains things that are catnip to me: a Shakespearean story retold by a talented writer. I saw The Winter’s Tale performed last year, so it was reasonably fresh in my mind as I read The Gap of Time. Winterson, Winter’s Tale, how perfect.Winterson has the writing chops to pull this off. I love the playfulness of her writing in this novel—totally appropriate, as Shakespeare wrote p

Thematically, this was a good follow-on from a read of Nicole Krauss’ exquisite The History of Love (see my review HERE): the first few pages alone included death, bereavement, forgiveness, revenge, loss of a child, identity, God, loyalty and love - as well as capitalism, mercy killing, and madness. Stylistically, there was no comparison: this is a simpler story - despite the numerous references to changing the speed, or even direction of time - and it’s mostly told in rather crude and wooden pr...

“I discover that grief means living with someone who is not there.”Boy do I have mixed feelings about this book. “The Gap of Time” is a cover version of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”, a play I love. This novel is part of the “Hogarth Shakespeare” a project where noted contemporary authors write cover versions of Shakespeare’s works. I will read more in this series, but not because of “The Gap of Time.”I have never read any of Jeanette Winterson’s work before, and she clearly is a gifted writ...

I do like this book, but to a certain extent the jury is still out as far as how I feel about it.Winterson was the first author to release her book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series and for that reason alone this must have been a big challenge and ‘retelling’ Shakespeare must be a daunting (if not overwhelming) prospect for any author.‘The Winters’ Tale’ is clearly a book which is very close to Winterson’s heart – perhaps too close? Which may explain her somewhat overly reverential and therefore...

I was provided a copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.The Gap of Time is a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" as part of a larger series of authors doing the same for several of his works. (You can read more about the project at The Guardian). Retelling is used loosely, as the names are not the same, nor are all of the situations. The themes of jealousy, forgiveness, parenting - they're all still here!So how should I examine th...

I should note that Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale has never been a favorite. I've always wanted Leo to die. Yeah, I know it's about forgiveness, but still.So, this is okay. There are parts of that are wonderful. Like where Leo is watching MiMi and co via webcam. His reaction is nothing but an attack on rape culture and is masterfully done. Yet, sometimes, it doesn't quite work. Having the American characters use words like knickers and spelling tires - tyres, seems off. It was good, just not g...