Review: 'Miranda and Caliban' by Jacqueline Carey

I didn't read The Tempest until I got to university, despite starting my love affair with Shakespeare years earlier! Unlike most of his other plays, I struggled with The Tempest a lot, confused about many of the characters, the storyline, etc. It took me a long time to develop an appreciation for the play, and up until a few days ago I would have counted it as one of my least favourite plays. And then Jacqueline Carey's Miranda and Caliban happened. Her novel has given me a whole new appreciation for the play, for the different themes playing under the surface and for Carey's excellent writing. Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

Pub. Date: Macmillan-Tor/Forge
Publisher: 14/02/2017

A lovely girl grows up in isolation where her father, a powerful magus, has spirited them to in order to keep them safe. 

We all know the tale of Prospero's quest for revenge, but what of Miranda? Or Caliban, the so-called savage Prospero chained to his will? 

In this incredible retelling of the fantastical tale, Jacqueline Carey shows readers the other side of the coin—the dutiful and tenderhearted Miranda, who loves her father but is terribly lonely. And Caliban, the strange and feral boy Prospero has bewitched to serve him. The two find solace and companionship in each other as Prospero weaves his magic and dreams of revenge. 

Always under Prospero’s jealous eye, Miranda and Caliban battle the dark, unknowable forces that bind them to the island even as the pangs of adolescence create a new awareness of each other and their doomed relationship. 

Miranda and Caliban is bestselling fantasy author Jacqueline Carey’s gorgeous retelling of The Tempest. With hypnotic prose and a wild imagination, Carey explores the themes of twisted love and unchecked power that lie at the heart of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, while serving up a fresh take on the play's iconic characters.

Adapting any classic piece of literature is a momentous task. You have to find a balance between honouring the original but also creating something new that holds up on its own. And then there is the enormous legacy that comes with someone like Shakespeare, whose name has almost become synonymous with literary excellence. I myself have often felt disparaging towards adaptations or retellings of my favourite books, since I have such an attachment to the originals. Often I have been surprised by how much I ended up loving the adaptations. Since The Tempest has always left me rather confused, I wasn't sure what to expect going into Miranda and Caliban. Would this be a straight up love story that ignores many of the issues thrown up in the play? Would the novel explore these characters in a way the play doesn't? In the end the novel completely blew me out of the water. Carey deals with the opposition between good and bad, ignorance and innocence, servitude and freedom, and brings it all together in a beautiful tragedy. For those fearing a love story, this is not a romance. Love is a part of this story, but there is much more to it.

For me the true power of Miranda and Caliban lies in how Carey liberates her two main characters from the characterisations they have been stuck in. In Shakespeare's play Miranda is very much a side-character to the Prospero-show, the kind of girl who is calm and quiet and falls in love with the first prince she sees. Caliban, on the other hand, is as close to the 'noble savage' archetype as a character can get. He is a monster, the child of a witch and a demon, and Shakespeare himself seems torn between representing him as an unjustly mistreated wretch and a cunning and sly opportunist. In Carey's Miranda and Caliban these two characters are fleshed out, given colour and life and motivations. The novel starts with a six-year old Miranda observing her father's magic, lonely on the island but aware there is a boy out there. When Caliban is lured into the house by Prospero's spells, the novel really takes off as Miranda becomes Caliban's teacher. As they grow up, they both start to strain against Prospero's tight hold over their lives and their realities, as well grow aware of each other and themselves in different ways. Carey really manages to evoke a sense of the loneliness and isolation of the island, as well as the conflicting forces pulling on both Miranda and Caliban. I want to just quickly go into some details regarding both of their characterisations.

Carey turns Miranda into a fully-fledged character. We get to witness her growing from child to woman, becoming more aware of the extent to which her father controls her whole life.  Whether it is her life before the island or the physical realities of becoming a woman, Miranda lives her life constantly in the dark, waiting for Prospero to declare her "ready". I have seen the word 'Stockholm-syndrome' floating around and in a way that does describe Miranda's relationship with her father rather well. She loves him, but that is because he is all she has. She tiptoes around him, yet hangs on his every word. By teaching Caliban, Miranda is given the chance to consider everything around her anew, to attempt to take control of her own life. Carey does the same for Caliban, imbuing his chapters with a painful awareness of his position. His chapters start out as three-word sentences, but as he learns more his chapters grow to become very insightful and beautiful. Carey addresses a lot of the themes that have made Caliban a controversial character. His origins are a point of contention for him, constantly being used to abuse him and put him down, as is his appearance. Carey's Caliban is a very deep and interesting character, who is full of emotions and conflict. As a reader you can't help but ache for both of these characters, who are so deprived and yet struggle to find silver linings.

Carey's writing in Miranda and Caliban is masterful. She captures the fluidity and eloquence of Shakespeare's language without making her writing feel or sound archaic and stuffy. Shakespeare never underestimated the power of words and this is a major theme in The Tempest, which finds a beautiful reflection in Carey's writing. A highlight is Ariel, who is the only character to retain a Shakespearian way of speaking. The novel is saturated with beautiful phrases like the one below:

"Thou art the shoals on which Caliban wilt dash his heart to pieces." 

With language like this it shouldn't come as a surprise that Miranda and Caliban is heartbreaking. As in any tale that is doomed from the start, there is a sense of dread mixed with hope that grows and grows while reading this novel. There is the hope that Miranda and Caliban will free themselves, that what you know must happen won't. In that sense Carey has well and truly mastered the art of retelling a famous story. Even though everyone knows what will happen, it doesn't matter for a single minute because the reader is too caught up in her version of the story. There is not a moment you will get bored of this novel and when it ends you'll wish it hadn't.

I give this novel...

5 Universes!

I absolutely loved Miranda and Caliban. It is a beautiful novel and a masterful retelling of a Shakespeare classic. Carey infuses her characters with a sense of life they didn't have before and you'll be sorry to see them go at the end of the novel. I'd recommend this to fans of Shakespeare, retellings and literary fiction.