Is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell worth your time?

Since moving into a new home, I needed to start getting involved in the community so I joined the local library book club. 

Although there was one book that was to be read I was to start with the book that the group had read before and that was Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. 

However, I am considering starting to write my blog again more consistently while reading that book. I decided to start with the book that they had read before that. That was Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. So I will begin.

 What is the synopsis?

The book is set in Elizabethan times when Queen Elizabeth the 1st on the throne. It is about a woman and her family. It begins with the loss of a child called Hamnet and then goes back to when the woman Agnes falls pregnant before marriage. Then loops back to the present time for her and how she deals with the loss and the family's own reaction.

The themes:

There are a group themes for this novel and they are:

• Death

• Love

• History

• Family dynamics

Death:

This is an obvious one with the death of Hamnet. So it is easy to see. Although a short one.

Love:

This one is not such an obvious one although it is combined with death because of Hamnet's death but also the early love between Agnes and her lover who becomes her husband while pregnant. And when they drift apart.

History:

This one is again so obvious as Maggie O'Farrell has used language and description as well as setting. She used a specific dateline of 1596 as this is when the child Hamnet died as a main link for the entire book.

Family dynamics:

This theme is a little more subtle than the others but it is the biggest one. The reason for this is many people are secondary characters. These included Agnes’s husband, siblings, children, parents and in-laws. 

My Thoughts:

For me, this was a tough book to start especially with the split in the beginning. But I pushed through and enjoyed it. Because I heard about it before reading it. I was intrigued by how Maggie O'Farrell wrote it. She used the historical truth as a basis. It is based on the time of William Shakespeare's life and the actual death of his son who is called Hamnet. Maggie also told the truth from Agnes, his first wife's point of view. Although much of the story is fiction, those bits are based on truth. So is it worth it?  Well, that is up to you! I did enjoy many of the subplots as well as the main one.