''Vinegar Girl'' is a 2016 novel by American author

Anne Tyler Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published twenty-four novels, including '' Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'' (1982), ''The Accidental Tourist'' (1985), and ''Breathi ...

. It is the third book of

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

's "

Hogarth Shakespeare The Hogarth Shakespeare project was an effort by Hogarth Press to retell works by William Shakespeare for a more modern audience. To do this, Hogarth commissioned well-known writers to select and re-imagine the plays. Novels Authors and works ...

" project, in which contemporary novelists retell stories from Shakespeare's plays. Interviewed by Ron Charles in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Tyler said " 'The Katherina in Shakespeare’s play is insane... She’s shrieking at Petruchio from the moment she meets him. And he’s not much better. So you know I had to tone them down. I’m sure that somebody is out there, saying, ‘This isn’t a shrew at all.’ "

Plot

The plot is based on

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...

,'' updated to present-day Baltimore. Kate Battista is the unmarried 29-year-old daughter of an eccentric scientist, Dr. Louis Battista who is a scientist at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

. Having dropped out of college in her freshman year after calling a professor's research project "half-assed," she now finds herself with very limited opportunities: she works as a pre-school assistant, and takes care of Dr. Battista and her high-school-age sister Bunny. Dr. Battista's brilliant lab assistant, Pyotr, will soon have to leave the country as his student visa expires. Dr. Battista devises a plan for a

Green card marriage A sham marriage or fake marriage is a marriage of convenience entered into without intending to create a real marital relationship. This is usually for the purpose of gaining an advantage from the marriage. Definitions of sham marriage vary by ...

between Kate and Pyotr; Kate first objects to the plan, but slowly warms to the idea, both because of Pyotr's charming acceptance of her outspokenness, and because it offers her a way out of her constrained circumstances.

Reviews

Jane Smiley Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991). Biography Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a s ...

reviewed the book for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. She said "Tyler’s signature skill as a novelist is portraying her characters and her setting with such precise and amusing detail ... that pretty soon the reader is drawn in, willy-nilly. We know where this is heading, yet she does a great job putting up the roadblocks and incorporating the surprising curves."

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

critic Heller McAlpin wrote "Shakespeare, as we know, relied on numerous sources, which he bent to his own purposes for his plays. So it's in keeping with this tradition that Tyler, too, extracts what she wants from Shakespeare's ''Shrew'' and cuts his plotline about Bianca and her suitors. ''Vinegar Girl'' is a fizzy cocktail of a romantic comedy, far more sweet than acidic, about finding a mate who appreciates you for your idiosyncratic, principled self — no taming necessary.""Fizzy 'Vinegar Girl' Tames Shrewishness To Sparkle"
'' NPR.org'' (June 21, 2016).

References

{{Anne Tyler 2016 American novels Novels by Anne Tyler Novels based on plays Works based on The Taming of the Shrew Novels set in Baltimore Modern adaptations of works by William Shakespeare Johns Hopkins University Novels based on works by William Shakespeare Hogarth Press books