Book Club Experience: Hamnet

 Hi Y'all

I was concerned about this assignment because the only book club I knew of from the prior week (March 3rd through the 10th) was my library's Adult Contemporary Book Club, which was reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. While I would be willing to read Project Hail Mary since I enjoy science-fiction, although generally of the young adult genre, I was worried that I did not have enough time to read and prepare for the meeting. Then, Melissa, a friend from college, called and asked if I wanted to grab dinner after she was done with her study group (she's an English Lit major). Since I did the same program, which involved many of the same professors and topics, I was curious about the book they were reviewing. It was a Shakespeare class, and they were going to discuss Hamnet. I was so excited since I had read Hamnet in school and loved it. A lightbulb went off, and I asked her if I could listen to her group. She was surprised but agreed to let me listen in as long as her other group members agreed to it. I told her to let me know before Thursday (the 7th); otherwise, I would have to go to the Contemporary Book Club without finishing the book. 

While I waited for her to call me back, I wanted to check that a study group could meet the criteria for a book club. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, a book club is "a group of people who meet regularly to discuss books they are reading" (2024, par. 2). For me, a study group of English Lit students that meet weekly to discuss their current Shakespearan book qualifies. It is an established group of five members with a set amount of time before each meeting, and when they get together, they are focused on the book and its elements. Sometimes, they change the meeting site from their university library to one of the group's dorms or apartments, but overall, the meeting location remains the same. They even bring food! It usually's chips or snacks that the individuals bring, but it's still food. Most of this, I asked my friend when she called back and said I could come! 

Now, I had to drive there, which was around 30-40 minutes away, but everyone else lived on their campus or nearby. I was lucky to still have my book, with all my annotations in it, so I did not have to find another copy of it. I met everyone at the library in a far corner where we could talk comfortably and not disturb the other people there. While I did not reread the whole book, I did reread a few of the most important chapters and my annotations throughout the book. 

In general, the book is about Shakespeare and his wife Agnes in England during the 1580s, when the plague (the Black Death) was running rampant across the country. It has multiple points of view and travels back and forth in time. A few interesting aspects of the book are that Agnes is definitely the main character, and Shakespeare is never actually named. Instead, he is described by other things, such as Agnes' husband, the playwright, or a young Latin tutor. This allows his family, friends, and, eventually, his grief to be the main focus instead of stardom associated with his name. 

The meeting was around an hour and a half long once everyone was settled. I would say Melissa is the group's unofficial leader, or at least she was when I was there. She started with a simple question that began many English Lit conservations: "What did you [guys] think of the book?" (I teased her about it later since she hates it when a professor starts a discussion with that question.) It got the required head nods and shrugged shoulders. One member, Anna, mentioned how she really liked how the focus was on Agne and not Shakespeare since she thinks he gets a lot of attention already. The others agreed, and another member, Ben, said he liked Hamnet's perspective, especially since it gave a more personal feeling to the family's grief after he died. It allowed him to connect with Hamnet more and almost mourn for him too when he died (that was me per-phrasing). Agnes was brought up again, and they talked about her character and everything she had endured throughout her life. They then spoke about the multiple points of view and how some liked it, and some did not. For some, it was a little confusing, which they contributed to the only difference in character switch being a break in the paragraph. Overall, they did not follow any dedicated outline of topics and just covered important characters, elements, and themes. They seemed very respectful of each other, with only a few instances of someone interrupting the other, though they mostly apologized afterward for doing so. I could tell what they really wanted to do was confirm that everyone basically had the same experience or feelings toward the book. At the end, they talked about what they would focus on in their weekly class essay. Everyone had a different theme for their essay; Melissa, for example, was going to focus on the theme of grief in the book, and Anna was going to focus on Shakespeare being nameless. 

Everyone was happy at the end and was looking forward to reading next week's book: Romeo and Juliet. It was mainly because it meant the class would watch the movie after reading the book (Melissa told me which version, but since I dislike Romeo and Juliet, I didn't bother to remember, although I did recommend Gnomeo and Juliet.) We all said goodbye and went our separate ways. As a book club, they had to focus more on literary elements than what I would expect a typical book club to talk about. Through I would think that it would follow along the same lines of talking about characters and themes. Finally, I would say a book club is made upon its members, not only what they focus on, but its environment as well. Friendly individuals will create a friendly group. If they all read and enjoyed the book, there would be lots to talk about (same if not everyone agreed with everything the book had to say.)

References

O’Farrell, M. (2020b). Hamnet. Vintage Books. 

Merriam-Webster. (2024). Book club definition & meaning. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/book%20club 

Touchstone Pictures. (2011). Gnomeo & Juliet [Film]. United States. 

Vernon Township Public Library. (2024, March 7). Adult contemporary book club. Vernon Township Public Library. https://www.vtpl.lib.in.us/event/adult-contemporary-book-club-16/ 

Weir, A. (2021). Project hail mary. Ballantine Books.