IS something rotten in Denmark??

John Updike's new novel presents a new way to look at "Hamlet". Just as Shakespeare drew from historical sources as the basis for his portrait of murder, madness, and revenge, Updike draws on Hamlet, and on some of Shakespeare's own sources, to raise questions about Shakespeare's interpretation of the story, and especially if Claudius was truly the villain Shakespeare portrays.

The action of Gertrude and Claudius extends from when Gertrude (or Geruthe, as she is called in Part One), a plump sixteen year old, is bridling at her father's insistence that she marry Horwendil (who turns out to be Hamlet's father), whom she considers "unsubtle". We also see Gertrude as a mature woman, and finally as the middle-aged queen involved in an illicit affair with her king's brother.

The action of Gertrude and Claudius stops where Hamlet starts, but it would not do Updike justice to call this a prequel. Rather, by adopting Gertrude's point of view, Updike does no less than question not only the classical interpretation of Hamlet (for after all, if questions remain about Hamlet's sanity, there is little question of the justice of his cause, or of Claudius' villainy), but also explores the strictures imposed by society on an intelligent, headstrong woman. By the end of the novel we are questioning whether Shakespeare really got it right, whether Gertrude and Claudius were victims rather than perpetrators, and, by extension, whether the bloodbath at the end of Hamlet could have been avoided.

Readers familiar with Updike's work will not be surprised to find some of Updike's common themes, from the compromises and mixed blessings that come with most domestic arrangements to the terrible, almost irresistible power of sex, conveyed in Updike's usual lapidary prose. (I had seen that phrase before, but it was not until I read Updike that I clearly knew what it meant.) While the setting and Updike's language are initially somewhat off-putting, it doesn't take long for the reader to warm to the subject. Gertrude and Claudius does not meet the standard of Updike's best work, but it worked better for me than his last several novels. I would recommend this, not only for the Updike fan, but for the general reader interested in a fresh perspective on a classic tale.