Welcome to Litsy!

Modern re-telling of “The Merchant of Venice“ transposed to Cheshire explores antisemitism but I was never really sure whether Shylock was really there or just a mental construct of Simon Strulovitch's.

@ShyBookOwl
#FirstLineFridays

Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, this is Jacobson‘s reinterpretation of The Merchant of Venice. The novel has two aspects. One, a reworking of the plot of the play, gives a bizarre alternative plot that fell flat for me. The other, Shakespeare‘s Shylock brought into the 21st century, provided much insight into anti-semitism, and is by far the more interesting part of the book. Shylock steals the show.

#DoubleSpin
@TheAromaofBooks

My #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin selections for March.

@TheAromaofBooks

I don't know why I chose a gnome as a backdrop for this book photo. Maybe it's just because he's ridiculously cute.

Anyway, starting another book from the Hogarth Shakespeare project! 🤓 This one is a retelling of The Merchant of Venice.

Another one from the Hogarth Shakespeare series. A retelling of the Merchant of Venice, a play I haven‘t read since high school, fell a bit flat. I was pretty bored throughout, but when I was able to pay attention, Jacobson does have a way with conveying the Jewish identity.

“Light is to be cherished in the way great painters like Leonardo and Caravaggio cherished it: as an illumination of meaning, as a way of distinguishing between the mundane darkness of things and the glow that can come with understanding and discrimination. You lose a sense of beauty and volume if everything is light.”

I'm giving this a "pick" with a caveat. I have not read The Merchant of Venice and so can't speak to this as a retelling. The plot here is secondary (almost non-existent), but as a discussion of (1) anti-Semitism and (2) parent-child relationships, it's quite interesting. There are a couple of passages---one about light, the other about mercy---that I found especially compelling. I'll try to transcribe quotes from the audio and post.

"It is one of those better-to-be-dead-than-alive days you get in the North of England in February, the space between the land and sky a mere letterbox of squeezed light, the sky itself unfathomably banal."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Two new sources of befuddlement today: the sourdough starter I was gifted and the tagged book. It's possible that some familiarity with The Merchant of Venice would help elucidate the latter, but I doubt it would help much with the sourdough starter.

The one has been on my #TBR forever, and I really ought to whip it off the pile and read it; The Merchant of Venice is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays.

#NameInTheTitle #MagnificentMarch
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

I try to never bail on books but I have to this time. I got partway through on audio from the library, but then I was sick for a week and then away from home for weeks and didn‘t do any listening. It auto returned to the library, and I have no idea how far through I was and honestly wasn‘t enjoying it at the time. I just don‘t see myself getting it back out and trying to work out how far through I was, so it‘s a bail from me.

My brain hurts after reading this 🤯
The book is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series retelling the The Merchant of Venice.

It was erratic and very confusing and I don't really know what happened 🤔

#seriesRead @TheSpineView

Book 4 of 5 lowest rated on my Goodreads tbr. Experiment has not been successful thus far, I have not been impressed with previous 3.

This is part of the Hogarth series where they retell Shakespeare. This one is based on the Merchant of Venice which I haven't read. I'm not sure if its where my mind is at the moment or if its the book but I struggled with this one. It felt very philosophical and I couldn't work out if Shylock was a real person or Strulovitch's conscience. I did it as an audio and loved the narrator.

Unfortunately I was sold a bit of a dummy here. As a huge fan of Shakespeare, I was keenly looking forward to reading this book, but I just couldn‘t make myself like it. Read my Goodreads review at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614272-shylock-is-my-name. #howardjacobson #shylockismyname #shakespeare #literature #literaryfiction #williamshakespeare

Rolling gently into Sunday. Enjoying this novel revisiting The Merchant of Venice so far. #book #books #bookstagram #currentlyreading #howardjacobson #shylockismyname #muswellhill #muswellhillbilly #n10 #booksandcoffee #coffeeandbooks #caffeine #caffeineaddict #wakeupandsmellthecoffee #wakeupandsmellthecoffin #shakespeare #hogarthshakespeare #themerchantofvenice

I LOVED this Hogarth Shakespeare re-vision of the Merchant of Venice. It was funny, it was philosophical, and it was inventive. Highly recommended.

I've only just started this, but I'm loving it already (book mail is the best mail!!) 📚❤️📚❤️

What does everyone else do when they hit a wall with a book?- i actually like this book but the dialogue is so clever that i am struggling- i generally don't give up on books and im now halfway through but its definitely slowed my reading down! Maybe 'too clever by half' - that is actually a quote from the shakespeares lost drama The Mere chants of tennis, his epic play about a Scottish Wimbledon champion which he wrote as a sequel to macbeth.

This is one of those posts where i wish id been on litsy 15 months ago when i saw the author discussing his take on the merchant of venice in Manchester's beautiful John Rylands library. He was one of those speakers who i could have listened to for ages, funny and intelligent. Anyway my physical reading group are doing any of the Shakespeare adaptations next week and i love this first paragraph.

Reading at the park before yoga...Life is Good! 😌

It feels like I'm wading through treacle! Can someone please tell me if there's any light at the end of this seemingly never-ending tunnel? Or do I do myself a favour and throw in the towel now?!

I wanted to love this but it really dragged for me. The writing was beautiful and it's an intellectual book with humorous moments (usually my favorite types of books) but for some reason I really struggled with it. Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, this book is inspired by Merchant of Venice, which I have not read, and perhaps why I didn't love it.

#aprilbookshowers First line of my current read. I kind of love this first sentence. However, at 50 pages in, I'm finding the rest of it dragging for me.

I took SHYLOCK IS MY NAME to see THE MERCHANT OF VENICE tonight. True book nerd inception. 🤓

Well some of this book was like a slog. And some of it went really fast. It's not my favorite of the Hogarth Shakespeares, but worth a read. It's definitely a work out for the gray cells. I couldn't decide if Shylock was actually there in the story or if he was just a figment of the protagonist's imagination.

This book is not in fulfillment of any book challenge. Just cleaning up my stack of library holds.

At breakfast Shylock said, "I can't help noticing that you appear dishevelled and perturbed. I take it you have had no sleep and that your emotions are in disarray."

"You could just say I look like shit. "

The novel starts off as a sort of colloquy between Simon Strulovitch & Shylock, discussing Jewish identity, humor, & families (esp the relationships betw fathers & daughters.) Then the story kicks into gear as Simon lives out the 16th c play, The Merchant of Venice, against the backdrop of an upscale neighborhood in 21st c England. The comedy is a bit forced and the humor somewhat dry & subtle. Overall the plot line feels encumbered by neuroticism

Half Way Status Update: So, I've been wondering about the double protagonists in this book: Are there really two protagonists? Or is Shylock an alter ego of Simon Strulovitch? Is the book's initialism, SIMN, an allusion to the seemingly schizophrenic nature of the heroic element? Will the author answer these questions within the context of the story? Guess I'll find out about the last one as I push on...

This may not be the book for me. I'm only a couple of chapters in; but I already feel lost; or rather that HJ is writing out an answer, but I don't even know what the question is! Is it because I don't have an adequate understanding of what it's like to be Jewish? I won't bail; but I do hope the point of this book becomes clears or that a plot comes into focus :-/

I know I've only read two of books in the Hogarth Shakespeare series but I'm already excited about the prospect of more Shakespeare retelling by some of today's bestselling authors - this is an image that I found on the Crown Publishing website, and while it is obvious its a bit old (Atwood's books is still untitled here), it does show that some other retellings are being planned 📚
#TBR #shakespeare #retellings

"Saluting Shakespeare with new versions of his stories is a bit like saluting Mozart by commissioning Philip Glass to write a new opera to the plot of "Cosi Fan Tutte""

Love the New Yorker ???

I read the Pelican Shakespeare edition of "The Merchant of Venice" earlier this year; but I picked up a copy of the Folger Shakespeare Library edition a couple weeks ago to re-read in anticipation of getting getting Howard Jacobson's 'Shylock is My Name' #HogarthShakespeare #TBRTuesday

Book Mail. 🎉📚🎉📚🎉

Feeding me more Hogarth Shakespeare!

First day back at uni and I am totally exhausted but I've already had a brilliant talk by Howard Jacobson. What a funny, smart guy and such an enrapturing orator.

P.S the shortlist for the Goldsmiths prize is well worth a look!!

I requested that my library purchase this book at midnight last night, and it just got here. 😃❤️💙💚🙌🏻📚 #librarylove #evpl #somethingforsept SO HAPPY!

I didn't have time to read this one before returning it to the library, but it seemed like a good choice for #bookfacefriday I'm excited to read it at some point!

This year's first signed copy: a novelisation of The Merchant of Venice, in celebration of Ol' Wills' 400th birthday by the incredibly sharp and poignant Howard Jacobson. #edbookfest

'No father can completely want his daughter to be happy.' Shylock sucked air in through his teeth. 'That's harsh philosophy.' 'No, it's harsh psychology.' #muchangst

I love the Merchant of Venice and have issues about liking it sometimes. I really liked this take on it - and this whole series of reimagined Shakespeare.

"No father can completely want his daughter to be happy"
"That's harsh philosophy"
"No, it's harsh psychology"