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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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(The Taming of the) Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

21/8/2016

8 Comments

 
I was once at a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company which was aborted after the interval because the safety curtain had got stuck. My disappointment at missing the final acts was mitigated by the fact that the play being performed was The Taming of the Shrew: one of his more challenging plays for anyone with even the most watered-down feminist inclinations. So I was intrigued to discover that, as part of Hogarth Press’s Initiative to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, prolific novelist Anne Tyler, author of A Spool of Blue Thread, had been commissioned to come up with a twenty-first century rewrite.

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Kate Battista is a college dropout in her late 20s, living with her widowed father and younger sister, Bunny, as general dogsbody to the family and child-hating teaching assistant at a nursery. Rarely able to see beyond the walls of his research lab, and anxious that his brilliant assistant, Pyotr, might be deported in a few months when his work visa expires, her father proposes that Pyotr and Kate should marry. Initially, Kate fails to notice that Pyotr is courting her; later she’s appalled that her father should even conceive of the idea.

Anne Tyler has done a magnificent job of updating Shakespeare’s problematic play, while remaining largely faithful to the original story. While, at first, it seems she’s come to this project with her tongue firmly in her cheek, with exaggerated characterisation and not-so-subtle humour, by the end, I was totally convinced and moved by the denouement. The shrew-tamer’s misogyny is replaced by language and cultural difference, as well as shock at the kidnap of the laboratory mice; the shrew’s subjugation swapped for an analysis of gender differences in emotional literacy.
I also came to appreciate the humour, once I overcame my concern that Kate’s lack of friends or ambition might be indicative of undiagnosed depression, and/or an attachment disorder, especially given that her mother was thought to have withdrawn into herself after her birth. Dr Battista’s systems for reducing the effort of housework, including never unloading the dishwasher, reminded me of Cheryl in The First Bad Man, as well as one of my friends who also developed a computer-generated shopping list organised around the layout of the supermarket as a way of ensuring her husband did his fair share of the work.

Vinegar Girl is that rare thing: a light summer read that doesn’t leave you feeling you’ve overdosed on sun and sangria. As usual, my review copy came from the publishers. I’m now keen to sample some of the other books in the series.

I read and reviewed this book a month ago, but have been hanging on for a suitable opportunity to post it. The time seems right, as I’m just returning to my blogligations after a few days away from my desk. I thought I was being clever to schedule my post on writing while walking to appear following a day roaming the moors, but hadn’t anticipated the stronger connection with what I was doing at the exact moment my words were launched into the blogosphere. A few hours in to a three-day music course, I was trying to explain to a friend that my disorientation in the queue for tea (although interestingly, I had no such difficulties helping myself to a biscuit) was because, as an extreme introvert, I was overwhelmed by the intensity. A migraine the following morning signalled that I should have acceded to my limits and left early.

Despite that, I enjoyed the musical activities, all on a Shakespearean theme. Although we didn’t get to sing anything from Kiss Me Kate, the orchestra did a fabulous medley of Cole Porter’s tunes, which gives me a good enough link to The Vinegar Girl.
While the attitudes to women portrayed in the play on which both are based appear outdated, the fellow who penned them is still celebrated today. Shakespeare might be long dead, but he’s no dinosaur. But fossils are the subject of the latest Carrot Ranch flash fiction challenge. (Apologies if you can hear the creak of the links straining: the segue was much smoother in my head.)

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Jurassic beach

“Let me carry that!”

She’d appreciated the man’s assistance earlier, when the ticket machine regurgitated her last pound coin. But now she wondered if he were some dinosaur hunting damsels in distress.

He held out a segment of grey beef rock, marked like a ram’s horn. “One tiny ammonite in three hours!” His gaze embraced her clanking hoard. “You’ve obviously got the knack.”

Her body ached from tapping at the limestone. It was a long trek to the car with a heavy sack dragging on her shoulders.

“Thanks.” She’d always rebuff misogyny, but manners merited a smile.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Charli Mills link
22/8/2016 09:10:31 am

That's definitely the Bard's top debated play at the Mills house. It is actually my husband's favorite Shakespearean play, which seems at odds for a man who is not misogynistic. But he loves Petruchio's "humor" and his daughter's and son have often ribbed him about it. But he also has interesting insights. I think this is a book we'd read together. Jurassic Beach! Actually, I want to know how to get there! So much complexity for the modern woman, yet heavy our burdens can be. I hope you are recouping from the intensity, and have had quiet moments alone.

Reply
Annecdotist
23/8/2016 03:35:56 pm

How fascinating, Charli, that it should be your husband’s favourite – will be interested in what he makes of this version. Yes there’s a stretch of beach on the south coast famous for fossils. I think one would be hard pressed to come away with a bag full – and these days it strictly out of order to use a geological hammer – but even I picked up a couple of ammonites when we were there a few years ago.
A much quieter week for me this week, and hopefully catching up with desk activities.

Reply
Sarah link
22/8/2016 06:17:50 pm

I had no idea this "rewrite" was even out there. Thank you for sharing, Anne. This one I'm totally getting. Looking forward to reading it!

Nice take on the flash and in keeping with your review. I don't know how you manage that.

Reply
Annecdotist
23/8/2016 03:36:31 pm

Should suit you, Sarah, as, like Anne Tyler’s other novels, it’s set in Baltimore – not that I think you’re in Baltimore but a bit nearer than both me and Shakespeare!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
24/8/2016 07:59:38 am

Oh those offers of help. Do we accept or don't we? Are the intentions what we perceive? Presumably she wouldn't have filled the bag if she'd thought help was required to get it to the car.
When I was a child there was an expectation that no child would sit (e.g. on a bus) while an adult was standing. No man would sit while a woman was standing either. Now most people I know would be offended if anyone offered them a seat, thinking it to be an ageist action. When I was a child, anyone over 23 was old, and over 40 a dinosaur!

Reply
Annecdotist
27/8/2016 03:44:24 pm

Ha, you're right! I wrote about being offered a seat on a bus here
http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdotal/old-age-a-danger-zone-for-writers
(and you commented), but generally I'd rather thank people for being polite than fight about it. There are more important battles to be had, I think, and the day will come when we're extremely grateful for that anyone considers our comfort!

Reply
Jeanne Lombardo link
25/8/2016 09:11:50 pm

What a delight to revisit Anne Tyler, an author I greatly enjoyed in my 20s and 30s. Have not read her work recently so interesting to note her latest project. What a task to update something like that! And loved the flash. I am a real rock hound myself and imaging indulging it that hobby on an English moor is almost too tantalizing. Sigh. Appreciated, too, your nod to the complexities of manners today, the rightful suspicion balancing with gratitude. Loved the small details too...."regurgitated her last pound coin," "marked like a ram's horn. Lovely.

Reply
Annecdotist
27/8/2016 03:47:44 pm

Thanks, Jeanne. The publishers have kindly sent me the other two already published, plus Margaret Atwood's retelling of The Tempest, so I'm looking forward to reading them and sharing my reflections.

Reply



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