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lokipokey75 's review for:
Vinegar Girl
by Anne Tyler
Vinegar Girl is like a bad rom-com -- unromantic, unbelievable, and ultimately, underwhelming.
Kate Battista, our main character, is an elementary school teaching assistant whose father, a crazy, out-of-touch scientist wants her to marry his assistant, a foreigner named Pyotr, so that he can stay in the country to help him complete an important project. Kate initially refuses this arrangement, but decides to go along with the scheme when she thinks her home life won't change very much. What ensues is a predictable, and oddly offensive tale that manipulates its main character more than it empowers her.
For anybody who thinks this is going to be a feminist take on the "The Taming of the Shrew", don't kid yourself. This entire story is built on manipulation. Kate's father guilts her into marrying a stranger, her sister Bunny pesters her into feeling like she's always making the wrong decision, and Pyotr basically takes her away from her home to live with him without really giving her much of a choice. We never get to see Kate do what she wants; she just kind of cruises along, believing what's happening is what she wants to happen. She's dealt a bad hand, yet ends up still taking the hand of a man who isn't all that great. I'm not telling who.
The story-telling that is clever (Kate learning about her mother's death, her job as a teacher, etc.) is also inessential. It adds little in terms of characterization and it's insignificant in the overall context of the story. Even Kate's gardening hobby didn't play that big of a part. It just felt wedged in there, like many other things Anne includes.
At least it moves quickly. Anne's writing is sparse, mostly dialogue and action. But so much of this story felt like a wash that, by the end, I actually asked myself, "That's it?"
In short, Kate's life just isn't fun to read about. A frustrating home life and a less-than-stellar romance give little pay-off. Kate, and the reader, deserve a lot better.
Kate Battista, our main character, is an elementary school teaching assistant whose father, a crazy, out-of-touch scientist wants her to marry his assistant, a foreigner named Pyotr, so that he can stay in the country to help him complete an important project. Kate initially refuses this arrangement, but decides to go along with the scheme when she thinks her home life won't change very much. What ensues is a predictable, and oddly offensive tale that manipulates its main character more than it empowers her.
For anybody who thinks this is going to be a feminist take on the "The Taming of the Shrew", don't kid yourself. This entire story is built on manipulation. Kate's father guilts her into marrying a stranger, her sister Bunny pesters her into feeling like she's always making the wrong decision, and Pyotr basically takes her away from her home to live with him without really giving her much of a choice. We never get to see Kate do what she wants; she just kind of cruises along, believing what's happening is what she wants to happen. She's dealt a bad hand, yet ends up still taking the hand of a man who isn't all that great. I'm not telling who.
The story-telling that is clever (Kate learning about her mother's death, her job as a teacher, etc.) is also inessential. It adds little in terms of characterization and it's insignificant in the overall context of the story. Even Kate's gardening hobby didn't play that big of a part. It just felt wedged in there, like many other things Anne includes.
At least it moves quickly. Anne's writing is sparse, mostly dialogue and action. But so much of this story felt like a wash that, by the end, I actually asked myself, "That's it?"
In short, Kate's life just isn't fun to read about. A frustrating home life and a less-than-stellar romance give little pay-off. Kate, and the reader, deserve a lot better.