Mona Awad’s 2021 novel All’s Well was the first book I checked off my winter break reading list. All’s Well wasn’t just a story I picked up, but one I devoured. I’d heard of Awad and her works within the past couple of years, though All’s Well seems to be the less recognized younger sibling of her popular novel Bunny. Though I logged it late in the year, it was easily one of my favorite reads of 2023—and one I’ll be thinking about well into next year.
All’s Well follows Miranda Fitch, a theater professor in an underfunded program at a small college. Miranda, once an actor herself, suffers from chronic pain after a fall from stage that left her teaching instead of starring in plays. As the director of the department’s annual Shakespeare production, Miranda attempts to put on All’s Well That Ends Well, but her students are hell-bent on doing Macbeth instead. As Miranda deals with the nightmare of mutinous students and doctors who disregard her pain, she meets three mysterious men in a pub who promise Miranda the finale she hopes for. As the play nears its opening, Miranda and those around her descend into utter chaos. Awad writes with a bitter humor that reflects the theatrics of the story.
All’s Well is a must-read if:
- You did theater in high school and now speak bitterly of your crazed director and cast politics
- You took the Shakespeare English class this fall and simultaneously worked backstage on the UC Davis production of As You Like It, and while you feel like you overdid it on Shakespeare, you want to humor yourself
Awad masterfully interpolates Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well and Macbeth into Miranda’s story. Most explicit is the trio of magical men from the pub who immediately evoke the three witches from Macbeth—they literally say “Double double, toil and trouble.” But, carrying the plot of All’s Well are intertwining parallels to both Shakespeare plays. Miranda sees herself in All’s Well That Ends Well’s complicated heroine Helen, but her directorial tyranny ends up resembling Macbeth instead. Conversely, the story’s genre reflects the “problem” of All’s Well That Ends Well—it is not quite a comedy or tragedy. Though I’m no Shakespeare scholar and I haven’t read All’s Well That Ends Well or Macbeth, a Wikipedia browsing of both plays gave me the knowledge I needed to appreciate how Awad weaves the plays into her own story about the same plays.
Equally compelling is Miranda’s reasoning for being dead-set on staging All’s Well That Ends Well. The students don’t like All’s Well That Ends Well because it doesn’t make sense. The characters are unlikeable, but not sympathetic. The happy ending is illogical. It is not satisfying. Instead, they highly anticipate Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, filled with murders and witchcraft. But, Miranda, whose life is constrained by her chronic pain that seems to have no explanation or cure, does not want to relive more tragedy on stage. Instead, All’s Well That Ends Well, in all of its illogic, provides a hope that a problem can be resolved neatly. Though the story of All’s Well That Ends Well doesn’t have a clear resolution, all is well in the end. Miranda hopes for a similar conclusion for her and her chronic pain, too.
Ultimately, All’s Well takes the story of a struggling director set on staging a play no one wants to do, and turns it into a darkly comedic, nightmarish Shakespearean trip.