Review: Vinegar Girl
Anne Tyler
Hogarth
2016
Vinegar Girl adds
to the list of Shakespeare’s plays retold for current Western audiences that
Hogarth has produced. A time line for
this project can be found here. http://crownpublishing.com/hogarth-shakespeare/
Anne Tyler has tackled The
Taming of the Shrew. That Shakespearian
comedy has come under rather severe criticism recently for the portrayal of “taming”
in ways that are not at all considered amusing by many women in today’s
marketplace. Given that sentiment Tyler
had to blaze a trail that departs significantly from the one Shakespeare trod. Not
an easy task since much of the original depends outrageous situations and
dialogues, and a setup that takes advantage of a man who could be understood by
today’s reader as an individual trapped in an addictive behavior needing help, not
ridicule.
I’ll probably be a minority opinion, but I think that this
book failed, and not from the lack of writing skill. Tyler’s skills are well known. For me, this represents a taming of the
original work to the point that it becomes little more than a contrived beach
read romance. Sorry. As you can tell, it’s not one that I can
recommend. The back cover gives the
basic story line and is available to read from the online sources now. The book itself is scheduled for release later
this year.
Vinegar Girl did
make me wonder what the others in the series have to offer. To date I find three
titles have been published and I plan to take a look at them. If nothing else, it’ll mean I have to read
some Shakespeare. How bad can that be? Maybe the originals have endured for reasons
other than representing cultural norms. I’m
not the one to decide that.
I received this book from the publisher in return for a
review.
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