The Nations of Denmark - A haunting retelling of Hamlet
The Nations of Denmark is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, except in this telling, Hamlet is a red-haired, 13-year-old daughter of a Vietnam veteran.
As unbelievable as it may sound, the novel has a basis in fact. When the body of Alford's brother-in-law was discovered in a forest in Tickfaw, Louisiana, he and his wife traveled there from Birmingham, Alabama to attend the funeral. Friends and relatives thought his brother-in-law had been murdered. As a former journalist, Alford immediately went into investigative mode. He did not uncover a murder, but he did uncover a secret that nearly destroyed the family.
Instead of setting the story in Louisiana where most of the actual events occurred, he set it in Denmark, Mississippi so that the novel would resonate with Shakespeare’s play.
"The forests of Denmark are dark places," he says. "This is the perfect setting for the novel — real American country."
A young girl finds fear and salvation in the forest of Denmark.
Besides the name Denmark, readers familiar with Shakespeare’s play will find other similar elements in The Nations of Denmark:
In Shakespeare’s play, the ghost of Hamlet’s father returns to demand that his son revenge his murder. In The Nations of Denmark, a ghost appears to the girl protagonist as well. Near the end of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet battles another in a sword fight. That fence-and-parry becomes a battle of switchblades in The Nations of Denmark.
This novel deals with the legendary themes found in Hamlet such as loyalty and revenge but include other issues: child abuse and cultural displacement, for example.
"In my writing," says Alford, "I have remained true to the spirit of the play and true to the events surrounding my brother-in-law’s death."
Read the Prologue
Victor Hugo feared seeing the red-haired girl in person but was eager to see her face because, as young as he was, he had known tragedy, and the whole story of this girl was a tragedy. They said she'd murdered her brother. The girl had started a fire in a metal drum to keep insects away. Smoke rose from the barrel and plumed at the shed’s awning where nature had tucked a wasp nest, like a miniature paper lantern, between rust-stained boards.
She sat on the sawmill, kicking out her legs -- her bright red hair, flashing and changing hues.
To amuse themselves, and to bury their own fears, his father and the other adults from Guatemala called her Ajitz Co'xol, the Red Witch of the Hill.
He looked into her eyes, staring from shadows cast from the shed. He sensed some giant, slow-footed god sat behind those eyes, a thing that had passed through many calendars.
He believed in evil spirits, and here was one, the shadow of a person. He could tell from her eyes. The circles inside the whites were pure black. At the margins of this blackness, light flicked like sheeted ghosts. Ghost-to-ghost, they floated in the narrow spaces. Light and darkness met. The girl smiled, and each ghost, unfettered, slipped up from its grave.
A Person and a Half
Bruce has been an avid exerciser since high school, so it was only natural that he use his knowledge and passion for fitness and health. "This is my niche in the nonfiction and creative nonfiction field," he said.
According to Art Spikol of Writer's Digest, "Plenty of writers find niches that let them write what they enjoy ..."
Bruce became a certified personal trainer, aerobics and cycling instructor so that he could write from a position of authority and knowledge. He plans to write several books in this field.
He is currently collecting information for a biography based on the life of Kemichelle Taylor. Taylor received her master's degree in recreational therapy at the University of South Alabama and is a part-time personal trainer. She was one of more than a dozen people profiled in the fourth annual USA TODAY Weight-loss Challenge. Taylor lost 215 pounds.
Kemichelle Taylor, 33, works with Robert Allen Tharpe Jr., 24, at Planet Fitness.
Alabama woman goes from struggling dieter to fitness trainer
By Nanci Hellmich
USA TODAY
Monday, April 23, 2007
She wore a size 8 during her freshman year in 1992, but she had jumped to a size 18 by the time she left college in 1997. She continued to gain for the next few years until she was barely squeezing into a size 24.
Creative Nonfiction
