Reviews

Shylock Is My Name by Howard Jacobson

dancinrio's review

2.0

I found this book a massive struggle. There were bits where the prose was beautiful. There were bits where the story was fantastic. But as a whole work I just found it so hard to read that it felt like wading though treacle.

kitt_can_read's review

A couple of reasons for DNFing, neither of which are the fault of the book. 

Firstly, I keep dipping my toes back in Shakespeare-adjacent work and I always run away screaming cause it’s TOO SOON. I don’t think I have room in my soul for a Shakespeare retelling right now because all the fun Easter eggs to the original play in this were giving me war flashbacks. Shakespeare is my own personal ‘Nam. 

Secondly, maybe it’s where I’m at right now but I struggled to get into it, the writing style is beautiful but a bit to flowery for me. I found it a bit hard to follow for that reason. 

However I will return to this someday as I think the premise is interesting!!

leslie_ann_thornton's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No

1.0

melohpa's review against another edition

1.0

Don't get me started on the penises! I learned more about circumcision than I EVER wanted to know! See my full review at https://topplingbookpile.blogspot.com/2020/07/shylock-is-my-name-by-howard-jacobson.html

leighe's review

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

colorfulleo92's review

2.0

I've enjoyed reading the Shakespeare project hogart did. Haven't picked anyone up in a long time, don't know of it was because I though I have run out of books to read or I just forgot. anywho I wasn't impressed by this book. It wasn't a book for me. Didn't get invested in the characters and feelt like very "shallow" writting.

helenagravahs's review

1.0

Pg 22:
“She became a lesbian for a year”. Instant 1 star. The blatant racism in the rest of the chapter gave me no choice but to DNF, only two chapters in.

amn028's review

2.0

I was expecting something completely different and so I'm not sure if my disappointment was due to that or the book itself. The story was okay and some of the characters were interesting. However, at times it felt like a slog to get through. When it was good, it was really good. The ending was worth the slog through.

skullfullofbooks's review

It feels empty, almost like the author took the play and just added a touch more to it. There's no real sense of setting or place in time. It might be my fault for not knowing the play it's based on but we hit the section where the 13 year old is flirting with men and saying she's in her 20s and I was like, I'm good. I'll tap out. 

ldv's review

4.0

A very intellectual and elegant re-imagining Merchant of Venice. In this version, the events we know from the play have occurred and Shylock finds himself in the home of a non-religious Jew Strukowotsky (or something like that, I forget how to spell it). Shylock is more or less a household name. However, events extremely like those of Shakespeare's play happen in this version and Shylock gets to comment on the why and how his story unfolded like it did, plus he gets to advise on how he might do it differently if he was faced with the situation again. There are lots of "line dropping" (lines from the play inserted into the novel) sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. The parallel characters all have similar names, so that makes the parallels easy. Plus, if you're Jewish, you'll probably get more out of the discussions about what it means to be a Jew or not, traditions or religions, than I did. I suspect this book is more intelligent than I could discern (mainly for the Judaism discussions), and it uses big words. The writing style is also a bit different, though I couldn't put my fingers on it. I really like this one, but its audience is definitely Shakespeare-lovers.