WILL TO BEAUTY - Rated 
As previously announced by the publisher, I was expecting this book to come out next year: so, imagine my surprise when I found it today on a table at Waterstone, sitting inconspicuously there, just waiting for me to grab it!
A splendid book, in any sense: in the sense of aesthetic lyrical beauty, in the sense of inner poetic beauty, in the sense of stylish beauty, and so on and so forth...
You can tell the author lived with the Bard for most of his life: he almost mentally morphed into him. Moreover, there's so much of Shakespeare in the whole itinerary of the text itself... his poesy, his inspiration, his inner/outer troubles and creative vein.
The dynamic biographical story of an English genius passionately told by a skilled Scottish Shakespearean.
"For the first time in 400 years, an author has dared to take on the voice of the world's most famous playwright." So says the back flap, and it's a true statement indeed.
So, given all my enthusiasm for it, I attended the author's presentation of this book at Waterstone's Edinburgh and was totally taken by his passion and wit, especially when he read some poignant passages from the text itself. Christopher Rush taught Shakespeare for 30 years in Edinburgh, has written 12 books during that time, but all he really wanted to do was finally writing this extraordinary novel, which takes as its dramatic theme the deathbed meeting between William Shakespeare and his lawyer, as they set out his final will and testament. In fact, the title refers both to Shakespeare and, niftily enough, his will, that notoriously anti-poetic document in which Anne Hathaway's lifetime of loyalty to an unfaithful absentee was rewarded by the "gift" of his second-best bed (it was hers anyway). As he answers his lawyer's questions, the Great Bard begins to recall his life, and over 448 pages of tumultuous, passionate and glorious writing the true life of the man emerges.
This is Shakespeare as we have never been able to know him: angry, emotional, honest, reflective, joyous, despairing. How then does one bind the genius of Shakespeare to the banality of his life? Perhaps Shakespeare's curse on any who sought to disturb his bones was really aimed at those who would seek to uncover his inner history. If so, his curse has hit home. Biographers attempt this feat almost every year and the result is rarely satisfying (Bill Bryson's recent attempt is mostly depressing). Christopher Rush, on the other hand, seeks to approach the bard in the realm of the imagination.
This is a fleshy novel indeed, gorgeous, garrulous and gross. Eschewing confession to any sort of priest, Will decides to confide in Francis Collins, the lawyer who is to draw up his will. Collins, who had expected a brisk affair of items and legatees, finds himself subjected to his old friend's secret story. Rush stitches the narrative together with great colour and skill. I'd say that the first half, recounting Shakespeare's early life, surely reads more smoothly than the second, where the prose becomes more elaborate and introverted. This is partly because, with the move to London, the author must address the plays, and therefore their origins in the poet's imagination: a formidable task in itself. Rush's Shakespeare begins to ruminate, to pontificate, to muse, and here the writing style often reaches glories of expression I truly enjoyed: "...while the cold oceans washed the globe, slurped and bulged to the moonpull, and the tides sighed in their shackles." Beautiful.
This book is full of plausible explanations and a brilliant and evocative experiment on an extremely difficult subject: the rare genius of a wily old merchant-poet, whom to this day people doubt he really existed... Too good to be true.
On concluding his presentation, Rush emotionally announced that Sir Ben Kingsley had just acquired the movie rights to his novel. Empathising with his emotion, I then stood up and offered to translate his book into Italian for free !
Bravo Chris!
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