Hi all, I bring you a book by a very well-known and popular author, but one that has surprised many of her readers. Oh, and please, notice that this book won’t be on sale until the 10th of October, although you can place a preorder for it.
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
What if the greatest writer of all time isn’t who we think he is?
What if he isn’t even a he?
Step back four hundred years and discover the female author who hid behind the mask of the man we know as William Shakespeare . . .
In Elizabethan London, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her education has endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but still she is allowed no voice of her own.
Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees the theatre, Emilia discovers the power of stories to beguile audiences. Secretly, she forms a plan to bring a play of her own to the stage – by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
In modern-day Manhattan, playwright Melina Green finds a woman’s voice is still worth less than a man’s. But, inspired by the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano, Melina takes a lesson from history and submits a play under a male pseudonym . . .
Moving between Elizabethan England and modern day Manhattan, By Any Other Name is a beautifully written, compelling novel that explores the theme of identity and the ways in which two women, centuries apart—one of whom might just be the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.
https://www.amazon.com/Any-Other-Name-Jodi-Picoult-ebook/dp/B0CKVMZL6D/
About the author:
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, including Mad Honey, Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.
Follow Jodi Picoult on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter: @jodipicoult
My review:
I thank NetGalley and Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House for providing me an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.
This is not the first book by Jodi Picoult I’ve read, although it has been a long time since I read any of her novels, and it is a totally different reading experience, or almost. Her writing is excellent, and she can make readers share in the feelings and thoughts of her characters and that is still the case here. But rather than being a contemporary story about some controversial or complex topic, this is a novel about two women, one in the present time (we meet Melina Green in 2013 and leave her in 2027) and the other in Elizabethan England (we meet Emilia in 1581 and accompany her until 1645). Apart from the chapters from each of the protagonists’ points of view, we also get some insights into the thoughts of a male character, Jasper Tolle (a New York Times theatre critic), and we read fragments of a play called… By Any Other Name, the play Melina has written about Emilia Bassano, her ancestor, and the first woman to publish a book of poetry in England.
Most people who are interested in classical theatre, Shakespeare in particular, will have heard about the academic debates surrounding the authorship of the plays that have been attributed to him. There are many reasons for that debate, and there have also been different candidates proposed as authors of the plays. In this novel, Picoult shares one of these theories, whilst at the same time creating a fascinating character (based on a real historical figure) and giving her readers a good sense of what living in England as a woman (a woman who was secretly Jewish) at such point was like. Emilia’s story is a tragic one in many ways, but one of the things the narrative does very well is show that her story was not unusual, and other than a few women who had been born in extraordinary circumstances (Queen Elizabeth I, for example), most women didn’t hold any power and were used, abused, ignored or made invisible by the men around them and the society of the time. I had never heard of Emilia Bassano before reading this book, and I was immediately fascinated by her, her eagerness to create, and the way she manages to survive all kinds of traumas and losses.
That part of the story is full of details that bring the era to life for readers, but they never get in the way of the action. She is surrounded by other historical figures, some better known than others (I was particularly fond of Christopher Marlowe, who in this novel becomes Emilia’s friend and a strong supporter of her writing), and she experiences all kinds of turmoil: she loses both parents, is taken as a ward by aristocrats who end up abandoning her, is sold to become a courtesan by her relatives, forced into marriage when she gets pregnant, her husband is violent and regularly abuses her, she has to hide her love for another man and her writing, submitting it under a false name, she has to abort a child by her lover and loses one of her children when still a toddler, she is left penniless on many occasions and has to find ways to support herself… Hers is a life full to the brim, and I found it compelling and moving.
Melina’s story illustrates the hurdles female playwrights face daily, even now. She almost gives up writing when a critic tells her, as a young female writer, that her work is too personal and is of no interest to anybody else (because we all know only men’s lives are of any interest), and she struggles to regain her confidence and submit her work because she does not trust herself. Her best friend, Andre, an African-American, is another playwright, and he also faces prejudices. Despite Melina’s refusal, he sends her play about her ancestor, Emilia Bassano, to a contest, under the name “Mel Green”. When he is mistaken for the playwright, Melina asks him to go along with it and pretend to be the author a bit longer, whilst she waits for the right time to reveal herself without risking the suspension of the play. But, of course, things get complicated.
I also enjoyed the part of the story about Melina, especially her interactions with Andre and Jasper (who, despite his previous negative opinion of Melina’s writing, ends up being quite a nice guy and whose neurodivergence makes him not fit easily in), although the insta-love didn’t totally work for me. I appreciated the arguments about the role of women in the theatre world, now and then, which remains mostly dominated by white men, and also the way it shows how the establishment seems intent on patting themselves on the back for any plays promoting diversity or written by anybody other than ‘the usual suspects’ (be it women, racially diverse, LGBTQ…) but find it difficult to truly level the playing field.
In my opinion, Emilia’s story is more compelling and more gripping, and although Melina’s story works well as a frame for the historical fiction part of the novel, I didn’t feel it was as strong. Emilia’s story is much longer, so those who don’t appreciate it or were expecting a novel much more in Picoult’s usual lines, might not enjoy this one.
I have mentioned the writing, and it is gorgeous. Of course, there are plenty of references to Shakespeare’s sonnets and his plays, and readers who are familiar with his(?) work are likely to enjoy picking up the references as they read (the author lists them all at the end of the novel). Anybody who has a very strong opinion about the authorship of the plays might disagree with the theory exposed here, I am sure, but Picoult makes a rather convincing case, and she also shares some of the sources of her research at the end, so that anybody interested can explore the matter further.
The novel is written in the third person throughout, and I must warn readers that there are some scenes of violence and sex (not the most explicit I’ve read, by any means, but this is not a ‘clean’ novel), so that should be taken into account when deciding to read the book or not. Oh, and don’t expect all to be doom and gloom (although there is plenty of that); there are light, joyful, and funny moments, and lots of witty repartee as well.
I enjoyed the ending. It felt like a nice closure for all the characters, and it is neither unexpected nor pedestrian.
The author includes a section of acknowledgements that gives a good insight into her process of research (evident through the pages of this novel), and as I’ve said, there is also a list of references to plays, poems, and other works included in the novel, and a bibliography with some of the sources she has studied. Some of the reviews mention an author’s note. I have only read an ARC copy, and it might be that the final version of the book has been slightly changed and something else added, but I can’t comment on that.
In sum, this is a novel that might surprise some of Picoult’s regular readers, but I think most people who love stories centred around women, historical fiction, dual-time stories, and especially those fond of Shakespeare’s plays and intrigued by the different theories about his authorship will enjoy this extraordinary novel.
A small sample of the writing.
As it turned out, you could take the pound of flesh without the blood. You could remove your heart and still feel its broken pieces rattling inside. (Reference to The Merchant of Venice)
By 1597, Emilia had lost all her angles and edges. She had sanded down whatever splinters remained, what parts of her stood out. It left her numb, which was the only way she could get through her days. If you didn’t dream, if you didn’t feel… you could not be disappointed.
Explosives. Opioids. Nuclear weapons. None of them could hold a candle to hope, the most dangerous commodity in the world.
“I do not think it made a difference.”
“Did it not? Even if you do not feel the shade of the tree you planted, others will.”
Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for this fascinating and beautiful novel, thanks to all of you for visiting, liking, sharing, commenting, and for your support. Keep reading and smiling!
Just Olga 