Review: ‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier

Jo at Jo’s Book Blog recommended ‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier- and I absolutely loved it.

‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier plot summary

‘New Boy’ is a retelling of Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’, but instead of being set in Jacobean times, it is set in a 1970s elementary school playground.

I thought this idea was really interesting, and I was really excited to read a retelling of my favourite Shakespeare play!

The book follows one day in the life of a group of 11-year-olds at elementary school. The main focus is the arrival of a new boy, Osei, who is from Ghana. Unlike everyone else in the elementary school (and basically the whole town) Osei is black.

Osei soon becomes involved with Dee, the popular girl of the school. Osei’s growing power in the playground leads to Ian and Rod conspiring against him. With the help of Mimi, they turn Osei against Dee, making him think that Dee has been cheating on him with Casper.

For anyone who has read the original play, this storyline is very similar to that of the original play. Osei, Dee, Ian, Rod, Mimi and Casper represent Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Roderigo, Emilia, and Cassio respectively.

The two teachers, Mr Brabant and Miss Lode, also clearly represent Brabantio, Desdemona’s over-protective father, and Lodovico, a minor character in the play.

‘New Boy’ setting

I loved the setting in this book. The use of a retelling of Shakespeare’s play in a 1970s setting is fascinating. The 1970s were a time of oppression, with ‘New Boy’ looking at the Civil Rights Movement and racism of the period. It made the perfect backdrop to this disturbing story.

The use of characters such as Mr Brabant demonstrates the racism of this era. The fact that Osei is the only black student also singles him out.

Mr Brabant has a problem with Osei being near Dee, similar to Othello and Desdemona’s “scandalous” relationship in the original play, showing the prejudices relating to interracial couples.

Mr Brabant sees Osei as aggressive and sexual because of harmful racial stereotypes.

When my mum was at school in the 1980s, there was only one black student in her entire school- which was in a small English mining village. When I went to the same school years later, there were only two black students. Tight-knit communities were incredibly white-dominated, and some still are today.

By using the arrival of a new black student, as well as the backdrop of a racist America, the novel has an interesting and relevant setting.

‘Othello’ vs ‘New Boy’

In this book, I loved spotting the similarities and differences between ‘Othello’ and ‘New Boy’.

I loved the way that Ian’s motives for messing with Osei were just as confused and twisted as Iago’s motives in the actual play. Ian conspires against Osei because he worries about his growing power over the playground, as well as his prejudices.

I also liked how Chevalier presented a direct motive for Mimi’s action regarding the pencil case, as in the original play, there is no motive for Emilia to give the handkerchief to Iago.

Chevalier used a strawberry-spotted pencil case instead of a handkerchief, which was also a clever idea, as it put the play into the context of the playground.

Characters in ‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier

I really liked the characters in this novel, and each character took on the traits of the characters in the play.

As an example, the use of Blanca to represent the Courtesan Bianca shows a great amount of detail and research, with Blanca being an attention-seeking little girl, constantly showing off and putting Bianca into a modern-day context.

However, in the play, you can’t help but admire Iago for his cunning and meticulous planning. I don’t feel like this came through in the book. I had no admiration for Ian, and he wasn’t as two-sided as Iago.

My thoughts on ‘New Boy’

Overall, I thought ‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier was a brilliant book, and I really enjoyed the clear parallels between this book and the original play.

I thought the use of a 1970s setting was a great idea, and it really exaggerated the racial undertones that underpin Ian’s reasons for conspiring against Osei.

The use of a backdrop of racial hatred and radical black rights protests also made the book very interesting and exaggerated the clear prejudices created in the playground, by not only the children but also the teachers.

There are so many more things I could say that I loved about this book, but I’ll leave you to discover all its excellent details.

I liked this book because I liked spotting the similarities to the play, but I think that you could also enjoy it having not read Shakespeare’s ‘Othello.’

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What did you think of my review of ‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier? Did you enjoy this book? Did you know the original play before reading the novel?

Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

Happy reading x

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