海角大神

Jodi Picoult is no stranger to bestseller lists 鈥� or controversy. For more than three decades, she has turned out issue-driven blockbusters that zero in on sensitive moral issues including race, LGBTQ+ rights, and the death penalty.聽聽

鈥淏y Any Other Name鈥� takes on another lightning rod topic: the provenance of Shakespeare鈥檚 plays. Picoult鈥檚 extensively researched and richly imagined novel embraces the theory that a stable of writers 鈥� including a woman named Emilia Bassano 鈥� actually wrote the Bard of Avon鈥檚 plays.聽

In a fascinating author鈥檚 note, Picoult clearly presents her arguments in favor of Bassano鈥檚 authorship. She also writes, 鈥淚 get a lot of hate mail 鈥� it鈥檚 part of the job when one鈥檚 novels cover gun control, abortion rights, Covid, and more 鈥� but I鈥檓 expecting the antagonism to be off the charts for this novel.鈥� Apparently hell hath no fury like a Stratfordian Shakespeare loyalist scorned.聽聽

鈥淏y Any Other Name鈥� features a braided narrative about two women playwrights: Bassano, born in London in 1569 to Italian-born musicians who played at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and Melina Green, a 2013 graduate of Bard College (wink, wink) from Connecticut. In order to have their work produced and their voices heard, both of these women, born centuries apart, need to pretend their plays were written by a man.聽

Emilia, based on an actual woman who in 1611 became the first published female poet in England, is the more compelling of the two characters. Picoult embellishes what little is known about her, spinning a story of a quick-witted, 鈥渟ilver-eyed鈥� beauty who is raised and educated 鈥渁bove her station鈥� by the Countess of Kent. But Emilia鈥檚 childhood ends at age 13 when, in a financial arrangement brokered by a cousin, she becomes the courtesan of a much older man. Lord Hunsdon, also known as the Lord Chamberlain, essentially controlled London theater by licensing and censoring shows. Emilia learns the trade by helping him, but she has no delusions about her precarious place in society, or in her 鈥渂eautiful cage鈥� as Hunsdon鈥檚 mistress.聽聽聽

Picoult cooks up one terrible ordeal after another for her heroine 鈥� including a forced marriage to a violently abusive man, the premature deaths of her closest friends (including the playwright Christopher 鈥淜it鈥� Marlowe), a stint in a filthy, rat-infested debtor鈥檚 prison, and the loss of her children. It all adds up to a stark portrait of what it means for a woman to have so little control over her life.聽

The bleakness is alleviated by a passionate but risky clandestine affair between Emilia and the handsome young Earl of Southampton, which Picoult invents from whole cloth. Other sources of fulfillment are her sweet son Henry and her furtive, woefully underpaid playwriting gigs for William Shakespeare, whom Picoult portrays as both untalented and unscrupulous.聽

Picoult has fun weaving lines from various Shakespeare plays into her narrative, including 鈥淭he Taming of the Shrew,鈥� 鈥淥thello,鈥� 鈥淗amlet,鈥� and 鈥淩omeo and Juliet.鈥� Each of these plays reflects what Emilia is going through as she pens them: her husband鈥檚 beastly attempts to 鈥渢ame鈥� her; his jealous rages; and thwarted love caused by feuding families or social inequality. Picoult also presents a radically different reading of Shakespeare鈥檚 most famous sonnet, in which she has Emilia comparing her dead baby girl, rather than a lover, to a summer鈥檚 day.聽聽

Shakespearean lines are also sprinkled through the contemporary chapters of 鈥淏y Any Other Name,鈥� in which Melina, a struggling young New York playwright, writes a powerful, eponymous play about her ancestor Emilia Bassano鈥檚 struggles to have her voice heard. Melina finally attracts a producer鈥檚 attention when her best friend, a gay Black man who鈥檚 also an aspiring playwright, submits her play to a competition under the androgynous byline Mel Green. Mayhem involving mistaken identities ensues. (Think 鈥淭welfth Night.鈥�) So does a star-crossed romance with a drama critic that turns into another comedy of errors.聽

Subtlety is not Picoult鈥檚 strength, but strong storytelling and strongly held convictions about human rights are. Her love scenes are unfortunately tinted a deep purple and peopled with characters who breathe their lines rather than say them. (鈥溾�滻 did not think to see you today,鈥� Emilia breathed.鈥�)聽 聽 聽 聽

Combining two interwoven narratives separated by centuries is a time-honored way for writers to explore parallels between eras and probe gaps in historical certainty. Few have done this to greater effect than Ali Smith, whose clever novel, 鈥淗ow to Be Both,鈥� takes on different shades of meaning depending on which section, contemporary or historical, you read first. In A.S. Byatt鈥檚 鈥淧ossession,鈥� which is structured like an academic mystery, the contemporary heroine is, like Melina, both thematically and genetically tied to the novel鈥檚 historical protagonist.聽聽

A question underlying 鈥淏y Any Other Name鈥� is whether it鈥檚 more important for your work or your name to endure. Picoult argues in this substantive novel that, while a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, even sweeter is being recognized for your achievements.聽