Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

2019 A to Z Challenge - "V"
2019 May Motif Challenge - One Sitting Reads
Color Coded Challenge - Any other color = Pink

While this is not the first of the Shakespeare retellings being published by Hogarth Shakespeare, it is MY first read of the series.  1. It fit my challenges, 2. It was the 1st one I purchased of the series (though I have picked up all the ones currently published) and 3. I have previously read and seen adaptations of the original Shakespeare work "Taming of the Shrew".

Though to be thorough I did re-read Taming.  This is the purpose, for me, in picking up this retelling series, to re-read or in some cases initially read Shakespeare's works.

I enjoy Anne Tyler's works and for the most part I enjoyed her take on Taming.  What I missed was the comedy (though the book's copy proclaims comedy abounds here).  Shakespeare's plays are categorized as comedy, tragedy and history with his comedies and tragedies usually centered around romance.  The shtick in many of his comedies is characters in disguise and mistaken identity, as well as loads of word play.  I felt Tyler went for basic romance in her version which is what made it just so-so for me.  It was an easy read (I did do it in basically one sitting, well, over the course of one day) and the characters were pretty well developed.  As in the original, there is the father and his 2 daughters (Kate and Bunny), a tutor is thrown in, and the troubled daughter's "love" interest (Pyotr), but that's pretty much where any similarity ends.

While Taming is one of my favorites by the Bard (more for his word play rather than the misogyny), and even though this was not a 5 star retelling for me, I will still read the other Hogarth books and I will continue to read Anne Tyler's original works.

Summary:  Preschool teacher, Kate feels stuck running house and home for her scientist father and uppity younger sister, Bunny.  Plus she's always in trouble at work for her unusual opinions and forthright manner.  Her father, Dr. Battista has other problems.  He is on the verge of a research breakthrough, but his brilliant lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported.  Dr. Battista comes up with an outrageous plan to enable Pyotr to stay in the country, but he relies on Kate to help him.  She is furious - this time he's really asking too much.

Quotes:  "The unsatisfying thing about practicing restraint was that nobody knew you were practicing it."

"You could really feel physically wounded if someone hurt your feelings badly enough."