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Vinegar Girl

the Taming of the Shrew Retold
Oct 07, 2016
OK. before we go any further, lets just say this is not the book for a feminist to read and take seriously. And the fact it is labelled fiction - contemporary women is just laughable. Anne Tyler doesn't have much to work with considering the original is The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, but she creates a slightly sit-com storyline of Kate Battista being ask to marry her fathers lab assistant so he can get a green card and stay in the country, where he will continue to work on something that is ultimately for the good of humanity. In real life its known as fraud and you can be legally charged for it as a crime. There is nothing particularly likeable about any of the characters. Kate comes across as a rather rude and socially stupid woman, her younger sister Bunny is a self-entitled, boy hungry teenager, Dr. Battista is the kind of scientist character that makes you sigh in exasperation because he is of overly muddle headed and Pytor is the inordinately eager foreign groom to be. This is a story that will make you want to reach for the primary work and realise that things are very different in 1590 when it was originally written. It will help with the urge to roll the eyes and snort in frustration. Its just OK. Not one I would exhort you to read.