DUNBAR By Edward St. Aubyn


Generous Beth Fedyn sent me an ARC of Edward St. Aubyn’s Dunbar. Hogarth Press came up with a great marketing idea: invite writers to “retell” Shakespeare’s plays in novel form. St. Aubyn’s Dunbar is a contemporary novel where Dunbar is a billionaire and his greedy daughters seek to take over his very profitable media company. The daughters have corrupted Dunbar’s doctor with sex and money so Dunbar opens the novel sitting in a nursing home with his wits addled by drugs and age. In St. Aubyn’s version of King Lear, everyone is double-crossing everyone else. I’ve enjoyed Edward St. Aubyn’s previous novels. You can read my reviews here and here. I haven’t read any of the other novels in this series (more will be published in the years ahead), but when you’re retelling a classic story, it’s tricky work. GRADE: B
HOGARTH SHHAKESPEARE SERIES:
The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson (The Winter’s Tale)
3.72 avg rating (out of 5 points) — 4,307 ratings — published 2015

Shylock Is My Name by Howard Jacobson (The Merchant of Venice)
3.17 avg rating — 1,113 ratings — published 2016

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (The Taming of the Shrew)
3.41 avg rating — 18,479 ratings — published 2016

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (The Tempest)
3.89 avg rating — 11,912 ratings — published 2016

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier (Othello)
3.52 avg rating — 2,593 ratings — published 2017

Macbeth by Jo Nesbø (Macbeth)
4.07 avg rating — 29 ratings – published 2016

Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn (King Lear)
3.49 avg rating — 359 ratings — published 2017

13 thoughts on “DUNBAR By Edward St. Aubyn

  1. Jeff Meyerson

    Interesting concept.

    I must admit that despite the high praise everywhere, I have not been successful getting into the St Aubyn books.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, I just returned from picking up our fresh Plainville 15-lb turkey. We’ll bake the turkey and stuffing tomorrow. Diane has green salad, jello salad, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls on the menu. More could be added if it strikes her fancy. We’re having apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie for dessert. I’ll be making 14 cups of coffee in our new Cuisinart coffee maker (a lot of coffee drinkers will be attending our feast). What’s on your menu?

      Reply
      1. R. K. Robinson

        That seems like a small bird for several people plus leftovers. Ours is 16-lb for the two of us, but we like the leftovers, make turkey soup, etc.

        So it’s turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, cranberry, pumpkin pie. I’ll dial up the Insulin a little, but still not have any stuffing, cranberry or pie and should be okay. It’s just the two of us, as always, so there’ll be plenty.

      2. george Post author

        Rick, that sounds delicious! Diane, Patrick, Katie, and I invited my brother and his wife to join us tomorrow. A 15 lb. turkey should be plenty (Patrick’s a vegetarian). Our niece and her husband might drop by for dessert. Some of Patrick and Katie’s friends are sure to drop over for pie, too.

  2. Jeff Meyerson

    Sounds good, both of you.. As I was just telling Jackie, you cannot have too much turkey for me. She doesn’t like dark meat, so we just have a turkey breast, stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes, corn, cranberry Jello mold, and sugar-free chocolate pudding (and coffee, of course) for dessert. We usually have enough to have it three times – Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

    Then we’ll do it again at Christmas.

    Reply

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