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A review by readerkat8
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Part of the Hogarth series of Shakespeare retellings.
Vinegar Girl is loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew. Kate Baptista is stalled in life - a college dropout, at home taking care of her neglectful father and spoiled younger sister Bianca "Bunny", and working as a teacher's aide in a preschool.
Until her father propositions her to marry his lab assistant Pyotr to secure his green card.
For some reason Kate agrees and comes to see the marriage as real instead of just pretend for the authorities.
This book had promise but there was only a loose association with The Taming of the Shrew, and the biggest flaw was how the book defanged Kate - not because she was "tamed," but from the very beginning. There was none of the fire and determination that makes the orginal Katherine her own woman.
Pyotr was the only character with any real redeeming characteristics; the others just seemed like caricatures that morphed to fit a given scene.
I listened to the audiobook and the narration was good.
Vinegar Girl is loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew. Kate Baptista is stalled in life - a college dropout, at home taking care of her neglectful father and spoiled younger sister Bianca "Bunny", and working as a teacher's aide in a preschool.
Until her father propositions her to marry his lab assistant Pyotr to secure his green card.
For some reason Kate agrees and comes to see the marriage as real instead of just pretend for the authorities.
This book had promise but there was only a loose association with The Taming of the Shrew, and the biggest flaw was how the book defanged Kate - not because she was "tamed," but from the very beginning. There was none of the fire and determination that makes the orginal Katherine her own woman.
Pyotr was the only character with any real redeeming characteristics; the others just seemed like caricatures that morphed to fit a given scene.
I listened to the audiobook and the narration was good.