For Puck's sake...

So, evidently back in 2010, I started and never finished Chris Adrian's The Great Night, and bothered to mention it on Facebook. So, I requested it again and finally finished it on lunch today. And remembered why I never finished it 7 years ago.

It's an interesting concept but a really terrible execution of the premise.

Let me explain. It's billed as a retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and insofar as Titania and Puck being characters, it does have that in common with the original. There is a troupe of actors in the park on Midsummer Night, although they're rehearsing a musical version of Soylent Green to guilt the mayor of San Francisco into quitting his program of killing the homeless for food. And instead of 4 young lovers, we have 3 people with some commonalities trapped within Buena Vista Park as the fairies run free.

As the set up, it's Midsummer. Titania is missing Oberon, who vanished following a rather bad fight years prior. She decides to free Puck from his bondage, and he goes all beastly and starts trying to kill everyone, saving the Queen for last.

In the meantime, we have the actors (as mentioned above) running around, and three people who got lost on their way to a party in the neighborhood. Henry, the gay pediatrician who's lover just delivered a Taylor Swift breakup to him; Will, who's ex is supposed to be at the party he was trying to get to; and Molly, who dropped out of Chaplain training to become a clerk.

We spend much time in their heads, reliving their pasts and eventually find the connection between the three of them. We also learn slowly about why Titania got so mad with Oberon, dealing with a mortal boy who died of leukemia during his time as a changeling Underhill.

Oh yes, mortality is one of the biggest underlying themes in a book about mostly immortal beings. And not very subtly handled either. From Molly's ex's suicide to Henry's missing youth, to Will's inability to relate to women... To Titania eventually accepting that even the immortal can die and Puck realizing his own role in the shenanigans.

Honestly, save yourself the trouble of suffering through reading this and go read Shakespeare in the original Klingon instead.