Bite-sized book reviews
Bite-sized book reviews
Book Club
This book ended up being chosen in not one but two of my book clubs this year. Maybe I have been living under a rock, but I had never really heard the theory that Shakespeare might not have written his own plays. Some suggest it could have been a collective of writers working under the name, while others believe it might have been a woman. That last idea is what Picoult explores in this novel.
The story is heavily researched. While it is still a novel and she takes creative liberties, Picoult grounds it in as much historical context as possible. The narrative runs on two tracks: one in the present, following Melina Green, a contemporary playwright who discovers she is descended from the woman who may have written for Shakespeare, and one in the past, showing how such a story could have unfolded.
It is a book about sexism in the 1500s and today, about women’s voices in art, and about who gets to decide what is worthy of being produced and remembered. It definitely changed how I think about Shakespeare, and it left me with a lot to chew on.