Books on Tap read Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler at Champion Brewery on September 5. Anne Tyler’s retelling of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew was a delightful summer read in which everyone made it out happy (or happyish) ever after. Many participants had read Tyler’s other novels but only a few had read or seen the original play. As was pointed out, marriages don’t fare well in Shakespeare. This particular work seems ripe for adaptation because the original reads as cruel and misogynistic to the modern audience.
In Tyler’s playful, broadly funny version, Kate is in her late 20s and lives at home with her eccentric scientist father and 15 year old sister. Having dropped out of college after insulting a professor, she seems stuck. She is wildly out of sync with the ethos of the pre-school where she works, she follows her father’s bizarre efficeniety regime at home and is at odds with her outgoing sister. Her life is shaken up when her father strongly suggests she marry his Russian lab assistant Pytor, who is in danger of being deported when his visa runs out later in the year.
Against her inclination, she begins to see the benefit in teaming up with Pytor. It’s not a fully emancipated stance, because she’s still viewing the marriage as a transaction and a fairly patriarchal one at that. However, she acknowledges that compromises are necessary in a relationship and that if she gives Pytor room to express all of his feelings (loneliness, joy, grief, curiosity) they can share the emotional work.
What we most enjoyed in this work was the call back to other adaptations (“Kiss me, Katya”), the comedy and the gentle, sympathetic touch Tyler took with all her characters. While it may not be a classic in it’s own right, it did spark some of us to check out her other novels.
More Information:
Reviews from The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, The New York Times and NPR.
Other Hogarth Shakespeare Titles
Books on Tap Information:
- Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx (October 3)
- The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (November 7)
- Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (December 5)
- No January meeting
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (February 6)
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