The Gap of Time is a modern-day retelling of A Winter's Tale. If you, like me, had never read A Winter's Tale, there's a brief synopsis of it at the beginning of the book. I thought that was helpful for comparison purposes.
In Winterson's version, a very wealthy man goes crazy with jealousy when he thinks his pregnant wife is actually pregnant with their best friend's baby. After a violent outburst, he plots to get rid of the baby, but through his careless and crazy actions, ends up losing the baby and causing the accidental death of his son. But don't worry. This is one tragedy that has a happy ending.
The only thing I didn't like was the author inserting herself right at the end of the story. Instead of giving us a page break or writing under an "Afterword" heading, the story stops and the author steps in to explain the significance of the story for her among all of Shakespeare's works. I was still "in" the story, and this was an unwelcome distraction.
Also, don't expect this retelling to be any easier to read than Shakespeare. There were parts that I found confusing, mainly when trying to to figure out WHERE everybody was geographically speaking and when reading one character's explanation of his video game.
But other than that, the story itself is very intriguing and obviously transcends time. Shakespeare fans might like to see how Winterson reimagines the story for a modern-day audience.
The Gap of Time is published by Hogarth Shakespeare and is on bookstore shelves now. I received a free review copy from Blogging for Books for my honest review.
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