I, Iago by Nicole Galland

A clever, thoughtful novel, this is a retelling of Shakespeare's Othello from the viewpoint of Iago, the villain of the play. Like many of Shakespeare's plays, the motives of the characters in Othello are open to interpretation. Volumes of literary commentary have been written about Othello, but by retelling the story as a novel, this book takes a fresh look at the character of Iago and his motives.

We all know what happens, of course. Iago plays on the jealousy and insecurity of the Moor Othello, the general of the Venetian Army, and his innocent wife Desdemona. Things get out of hand, of course, since it is a tragedy. Othello murders Desdemona, and Iago murders his best friend and his wife.

The novel starts, not with the beginning of the play, but with the childhood of Iago, and fills us in on the backstory of his character that is missing from the play, thus giving us a better understanding of his motives. The second half of the novel covers the action of the play, but since it is told from the first person perspective of Iago, we do not see any of the action in which he is not involved, and are not privy to the private thoughts of any of the other characters. This is very effective. My take on Iago, as presented in the novel, is that he loved Othello, and was jealous after being passed over in his promotion, and at the attention given to Desdemona.

I was also impressed with the author's use of dialog. She used modern English, of course, but it has the flavor of Shakespeare's dialog, with it's use of word play and puns and double entendres.

The novel is clever, carefully planned, and well written. Highly recommended.