Book #25 - The Tragedy of Arthur

My aunt and uncle (which really means "my dad's cousin and her husband" and has no direct translation in English) are avid readers and awesome book buyers.  They're the ones who gave me The People of the Book, which I read earlier this year (and very much enjoyed).  For my FORTIETH (ahem) birthday this year, they gave me Arthur Phillips newest, The Tragedy of Arthur.

The premise of the book is that Arthur Phillips (the author, and a novelist of some repute) is in a bit of a crisis.  His father, a notorious and convicted con-man, has handed him a previously undiscovered Shakespeare play about Arthur, King of the Britons.

And now, I'm at a point I imagine reviewers / bloggers / opinionaters of all stripes encounter:  do you reveal significant plot points so that you can discuss the meat of it?  Or do you keep them mum, only saying "yay!' or "NAY!" so that you are only serving as a crossroads?

I am going to assume that most of my readers -- all 3 of you -- are either more well-read than I (meaning you've already read this) or are more sophisticated readers (meaning that you can read something for the enjoyment of it, regardless of plot points).  So I'm going to go into my reaction more specifically, at risk of ruining some surprises.  [your chance to opt out, if you're dying to maintain the surprise of this novel!]

On purpose, when I was reading this book (okay, I'll say it, this NOVEL!), I didn't do any google or wikipedia research. It's written very autobiographically, as though A.P. has a twin sister, and a con-artist dad, and a discontented wife in Prague, etc. etc.  And I didn't want to know truth from fiction.

For most of it.

The last 1/6 of the book is the text of the "Shakespeare" play, The Tragedy of Arthur.  And suddenly, I didn't care if it was real or imagined or fabricated or discovered. I just knew I didn't want to read it.  Man, I tried.  I really did.  But after about 10ish pages of Shakespearish language, I knew I had to set it aside if I ever had any hope of moving on to the next book.

Perhaps this is evidence that the play "discovered" by Phillip's father is genuinely Shakespeare!  I think it's just bolstering the case that I'm something of a Philistine.