Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Four: Vinegar Girl

So Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler, is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (one of my favorite Shakespeares, incidentally) from Hogarth Shakespeare, a publishing company committed to commissioning modern retellings of all the Shakespeare plays.  Many elements of The Taming of the Shrew had to be adjusted to make sense in modern context, and it was interesting to see how Tyler chose to do so.  I particularly liked her choice to reimagine the reason for Kate's marriage as a plot to get her father's research assistant American citizenship since his visa is about to expire.  While many people may dislike The Taming of the Shrew as an example of misogyny, I've never read it that way.  (I'll email a copy of my tenth-grade English essay to anyone who wants to know why, upon request, but basically I've always seen it more as a commentary on the importance of behaving kindly, for both women and men, although I can certainly see how it could be interpreted as a play about the proper (ie subservient) role of women.)  Anyway, Vinegar Girl is quite short and what it lacks in sweetness (not that sweetness is altogether lacking) it makes up for in humor.  I found the end both satisfying and slightly discomfiting--an odd combination, to say the least, but I won't say more for fear of spoiling the book.  If you enjoy The Taming of the Shrew, I definitely recommend checking out Vinegar Girl, or if you're just looking for fiction that's both entertaining and thought-provoking, give Vinegar Girl a try.