David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "ann-tyler"
Vinegar Girl
Tyler wrote VINEGAR GIRL for the Hogarth Shakespeare project. It is based on “The Taming of the Shrew”.
Kate Battista is the Kate from the original play. Having quit college in her sophomore year, she has a job as a preschool assistant teacher for four-year olds. At first she is intriguingly sarcastic as when a parent complains that her daughter is sucking her index and pinky finger. Kate advises him to have patience; she'll get over it when she pokes out her eye. As a result, Kate is always in the principal's office being threatened with termination if she doesn't mend her ways. Kate hates herself because she has a crush on one of her fellow teachers, Adam. She doesn't see herself as the kind of girl who gets all calf-eyed when a man is around, but she kind of does.
Then her scientist father comes to her with a request. Will she agree to marry his assistant Pyotr Shcherbakov who will lose his visa within the year? He is close to a cure for auto-immune deficiency, and he considers Pyotr indispensable to his research. This is where the story starts going down hill. Kate agrees to do it. Her sister, Bunny, who is sort of an empty-headed, boy-crazy fourteen-year, is outraged that her father would ask Kate to do this, which is way out of character. Pyotr is a hoot. He gets a kick out of American sayings like “Step up to the plate.” He thinks it means step up to the dinner plate. He always seems to be in a good mood; he even gets along with his land lady and her caretaker, and he has permission to plant a garden in the backyard, which Kate would love, as she was studying Botany. We never do find out why she quit, although Pyotr is about to ask her at one point. He wants her to go back to school at Johns Hopkins near where they live. Okay, by now you know where this is going. Kate doesn't have any friends; she's walks around with her head down, hoping people won't try to talk to her.
So . . . what do you think will happen? This book isn't up to Tyler's standards in nuance and unpredictability. It was obvious written for that Shakespeare project, and she didn't put her whole heart and soul into it.
Kate Battista is the Kate from the original play. Having quit college in her sophomore year, she has a job as a preschool assistant teacher for four-year olds. At first she is intriguingly sarcastic as when a parent complains that her daughter is sucking her index and pinky finger. Kate advises him to have patience; she'll get over it when she pokes out her eye. As a result, Kate is always in the principal's office being threatened with termination if she doesn't mend her ways. Kate hates herself because she has a crush on one of her fellow teachers, Adam. She doesn't see herself as the kind of girl who gets all calf-eyed when a man is around, but she kind of does.
Then her scientist father comes to her with a request. Will she agree to marry his assistant Pyotr Shcherbakov who will lose his visa within the year? He is close to a cure for auto-immune deficiency, and he considers Pyotr indispensable to his research. This is where the story starts going down hill. Kate agrees to do it. Her sister, Bunny, who is sort of an empty-headed, boy-crazy fourteen-year, is outraged that her father would ask Kate to do this, which is way out of character. Pyotr is a hoot. He gets a kick out of American sayings like “Step up to the plate.” He thinks it means step up to the dinner plate. He always seems to be in a good mood; he even gets along with his land lady and her caretaker, and he has permission to plant a garden in the backyard, which Kate would love, as she was studying Botany. We never do find out why she quit, although Pyotr is about to ask her at one point. He wants her to go back to school at Johns Hopkins near where they live. Okay, by now you know where this is going. Kate doesn't have any friends; she's walks around with her head down, hoping people won't try to talk to her.
So . . . what do you think will happen? This book isn't up to Tyler's standards in nuance and unpredictability. It was obvious written for that Shakespeare project, and she didn't put her whole heart and soul into it.
