Lin Enger's Undiscovered Country is an average, though ultimately disappointing, read. Taking place in Battlepoint, Minnesota, Undiscovered Country is a revisiting of Shakespeare's Hamlet that fails mostly in generating the sort of excitement and suspense of its predecessor.
Jesse Matson has a problem. His father either committed suicide or he didn't. According to Jesse's father, a determined ghost who appears periodically minus the top half of his head and one eye, Jesse's uncle, Clay, is to blame. Hearing this, Jesse begins his Hamlet-like pursuit of the truth and vengeance for his father. Genevieve, Enger's Gertrude, is the refusing-to-see-the-truth-of-her-own-actions mother to Jesse and, as the story goes, lover to Clay. Finally, there's no Hamlet without Ophelia, and Christine, a lovely Hispanic with a troubled family life, fills in there too.
Undiscovered Country is an uninspiring landscape. Minnesota's winter, through which most of the story takes place, is a bear trap of cold and frosty voices. The cold breath exhalations make for lovely parallels to Jesse's father's ghost, but overall, the perpetually white scenes in which this dark story is told are about as interesting as vanilla ice cream. Spring does come to Minnesota, but it comes so very late as to be almost an afterthought instead of the revelation that it was likely intended to be. The story then, taking many a cue from the landscape, seems to intend interest but fails on the side of bland prose. There is nothing original here, and in the case of re-imaginings, original is almost always the key.
That being said, if you are a fan of Hamlet and wonder why no one has thought to mix Shakespeare with deer stands and Viking memorabilia, Undiscovered Country may be perfect for you. It is an easy read and relatively fast (though less than compelling). And though the story veers from Hamlet enough to make the case for a life separate from the master work, it still does so in a predictable fashion and in less fashionable places. It is less haunting than it might have been, and my guess, it was intended to be. Clay's innocence and guilt are more certain than necessary, Genevieve is relieved of culpability, and the ending seems better fit for a lesser work. All in all, Enger's work is simply mediocre in light of and with regard to its well-told jumping-off.
Undiscovered Country is written by Lin Enger and published by Little, Brown, and Co., 2008.
—2008-11-14 14:49:48
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