Vinegar Girl

Pulitzer Prize winner and American master Anne Tyler brings us an inspired, witty and irresistible contemporary take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies. Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner. Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost. When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around? Review by Anastasia Hadjidemetri What do you do when you don't like a book? Do you close it with a decisive thump, and resolve to never read works from that author again? I certainly do. Then I might use the book as a door stopper, foot stool or even as a seat booster. (Yellow Pages are hard to come by these days.) But what do you do if you don't like a book ... and you're a celebrated writer? You re-write the whole book, obviously. Wait...what? That's what Anne Tyler has done. Confessing that she finds Shakespeare's plots terrible, and declaring Taming of the Shrew particularly outlandish, she set out to make the story more believable. To tone done the exaggerations. So what do we have as a result? Vinegar Girl, Anne Tyler's brilliant new novel. It's a love story. Not your average love story, though. It's funny. And it's witty. Our heroine is a sassy sourpuss, who was 'invited to leave college' for telling her botany professor that his explanation of photosynthesis was half-assed. She has no patience for small children but has a love of beef jerky. Chomp chomp. Our hero is a brainy scientist, with a heavy foreign accent who has a proclivity for dishing out catchy (ahem) proverbs from his country. And an obsession with bananas. I shall refrain from making phallic references here. Vinegar Girl is a modern rom-com. Whilst nobody gets naked and there are no references to throbbing members or bulging muscles, there's plenty of heat. Think: when fire meets gasoline. So why bother with Vinegar Girl? Because Shakespeare is hard. And time-consuming. And no one has time to pour over SparkNotes anymore. If nothing else, the cover is beau-ti-ful. Never shall it become a door stopper. Or a foot stool. Or seat booster. I might even re-read it again now. Bye.