Reviews for By Any Other Name
by Jodi Picoult
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Perennial best-seller Picoult, who has tackled such heady subjects as same-sex marriage, abortion, and racism, takes on another hot-button topic sure to ignite controversy and conversation: the question of Shakespearean authorship. In this dual time line tale, struggling playwright Melina Green has written a play about her ancestor Emilia Bassano, who she believes really penned many of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Frustrated with sexism in the New York theater scene in 2023, Melina pushes her Black male friend Andre, also a playwright, to claim credit for her work when a lauded but arrogant critic expresses interest in getting the play produced. This leads to a Shakespearean—or should it be Bassanian?—comedy of errors. At the same time, Picoult tells Emilia's story. Forced to become a courtesan at 13, she eventually falls in love with a handsome nobleman, but when she gets pregnant, she's married off to a brutal man and forced to earn a living penning poems and plays for a dissolute actor, namely, William Shakespeare. Some readers will undoubtedly quibble with Picoult's conclusions about the Bard, but they'll just as assuredly find themselves thoroughly engaged with the struggles of Emilia, Melina, and Andre as writers with the deck stacked against them in this timely and affecting tale.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Picoult's many, many fans will pounce on her latest incisive, pot-stirring tale, while the Shakepearean theme will attract even more readers.
Publishers Weekly
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Picoult (Wish You Were Here) offers a stimulating if muddled parallel narrative of two women writers, each of whose work is credited to a man. In 1582, poet Emilia Bassano becomes consort to Lord Hunsdon, Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain. At the time, women were forbidden to have anything to do with the theater, but when Emilia crosses paths with William Shakespeare, he’s impressed with her work and agrees to pay for the sonnets and plays she’s secretly written if he can take credit for them. Thus begins a working relationship that spans decades. In the present day, Emilia’s descendant Melina Green writes a play about Emilia and Shakespeare, but fears she won’t be able to get it produced after being told that people only relate to plays by men. Unbeknownst to Melina, her roommate, Andre, submits the play to a fringe festival under the pseudonym Mel Green, leading the artistic director to assume the writer is a man. After the play is accepted, Andre poses as Mel during the production, with Melina pretending to be his assistant. The Elizabethan sections, which follow Emilia through an unhappy marriage as the work she wrote for Shakespeare receives acclaim, are the strongest. In comparison, Picoult’s depictions of racism and sexism in the contemporary theater world are a bit simplistic. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Laura Gross, Laura Gross Literary. (Aug.)
Library Journal
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Bestselling Picoult's (Wish You Were Here) latest intricately weaves topical, timely, and profound discussions of what it means to be heard at any cost, when to listen, and how to make room. In parallel timelines, two women playwrights struggle to be heard. Each must suppress her identity to get her work performed. In 1581, Emilia Bassano lives a frustrated life. She has no agency. and she must conceal her Jewish identity. She writes her pain, love, and rage into works of art forever attributed to William Shakespeare. In the present, Melina Green's newest play, inspired by Emilia's life and work, is submitted to a contest in this field still plagued by misogyny. In a Shakespearean twist of events, it is Melina's fellow struggling playwright and best friend André who submitted Melina's play, under a male pseudonym, in an attempt to give his friend a leg up. Picoult gives Bassano/Shakespeare a run for her money with this heartbreaking delight that deftly and soundly explores theories of Shakespeare's authorship and Bassano's history. VERDICT Fans of nuanced social commentary, Shakespeare origin stories, and anyone open to giving space will enjoy this highly recommended book. Readers might even begin mentally amending "Shakespearean" to "Bassanian" after reading it.—Julie Kane
