I, Iago

I, Iago is a retelling of Shakespeare's Othello told from the perspective of Othello's right-hand man, Iago. I have to admit that I've never read or seen Othello, but the book summary attracted me.
The novel is separated into two parts: the background and introduction to the characters and then the retelling of the play. If you've never read Othello (like me) then you might like to know that Iago is the villain in Othello, but the aim of this book is to prove that he is not (entirely) at fault for the things that go wrong in the play.
At the beginning, I loved Iago. He was honest to a fault, but he felt like the only real, down-to-earth person in the rich world of medieval Venice. I also loved that his wife, Emilia, fit in as little as he did. They were the kind of characters I could completely relate to because they didn't care about doing things the popular way. And they were so in love. Then there was a somewhat dramatic shift into the second half of the book. Iago, fed up with never being appreciated for his honesty, decides that he must learn to be more like everyone else after he is passed up for a promotion that he thought he had been guaranteed. He is angry that his wife is suddenly as caught up in the culture as everyone else (I had trouble believing she was even the same character at times) and even more upset that his best friend, Othello, does not seem to reciprocate the same level of friendship and loyalty. So he sets out to ruin everyone's life, forcing himself lie when he must, although he is often able to simply manipulate people and lead them to believe their worst fears without having to say anything to confirm them. No one believes that he would do such a thing because he has always been so humble and honest. He starts to realize that Othello is a much angrier man than anyone believed, and his schemes get out of hand several times, resulting in the death and heartbreak of some of the people he cares about most. In the end, I was happy to see that he finally realized that he had done exactly the same thing as Othello, letting fear and insecurity take hold of him and cause him to act irrationally. Both men know as the story ends that they have made far too many mistakes in moments of rage.
Around the middle I was so annoyed that Iago kept making the decisions he did, and that he and his wife had changed so much, but I came to see that he was still the same character when he looked upon the bodies of the women and admitted that he had been lying to himself about what he had done.
Overall, I was very interested in and satisfied with this interpretation of a classic Shakespeare play. I often feel that there is a real lack of motivation and depth to the characters in his work, especially when it comes to the villains. This took the story to a whole new level, and must certainly have added new elements to the narrative that are not included in the play since Iago is not the main character in the theatre performances.