“Vinegar Girl” is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series of modern retellings of Shakespeare. It updates “The Taming of the Shrew.” I love a clever modern adaptation of Shakespeare – Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet” is ingenious in the way it uses the original words with an updated setting, and the BBC’s Shakespeare ReTold from 2005 updated the stories as well as the setting (the three witches as rubbish collectors – fantastic).
I’m liking
This book was very easy to read and had some clever ways of picking up bits of the original story and fitting them into 21st century USA. The characters were likeable. Anne Tyler managed to be true to Shakespeare while also bringing her own touch to the story. Younger sister “Bunny” was as annoying as I remember her being!
Things that made me go hmmmm
Knowing the original story meant that I wasn’t too surprised by most of what happened, although I did wonder if there would be a big twist.
I didn’t find Kate’s relationship with Pyotr all that convincing. In the Shakespeare, the thing I enjoy most is the way Katharina and Petruchio are both strong characters and that they love trying to outsmart each other, finally coming together as they recognise each other’s wit and intelligence. I didn’t see that same spark between Kate and Pyotr, although Anne Tyler tried to show both characters changing and growing.
I think Tyler was stuck between wanting to remain true to the story but also be creative.
The conclusion
“Vinegar Girl” could be used as an introduction to “The Taming of the Shrew” for someone who doesn’t know anything about it at all. For someone like me, who knows the story well enough to see things coming, but not well enough to spot all the references, it was an enjoyable but not particularly memorable read. The book would also be of interest to a real Shakespeare buff, who would pick up on all the little allusions that I missed.
This book was kindly provided for review purposes by the publisher.
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler is published by Hogarth, RRP $34.00.
