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If I be waspish, best beware my sting -- Taming of the Shrew (Act II: scene i)
This little paperback, made into a movie in 1999, retells Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew as a high school drama: Cameron and Joey carry a torch for Bianca. Bianca wants a chance to date. The problem is, Daddy won't let her start dating before her older "shrew" of a sister, Kat, begins dating herself. Solution? Patrick Verona, who's willing to woo the difficult Kat...but only if he's compen$ated for the arduous job.
One thing leads to a-farcical-nother: Cameron tutors Bianca in French ("You speak French?" he's asked; "No, but I will," he vows.). But Bianca falls for the rough charms of Joey. Bianca goes on a date with Joey. Bianca falls out of "like" with Joey. Meanwhile, Patrick perseveres in his mi$$ion to move Kat's seemingly unshakable aversion to "unwashed high school miscreants." Patrick succeeds--then finds himself falling for Kat. Kat discovers Patrick's attentions were fueled by the profit motive ("Only at first!" he protests). It takes some sorting out, but all ends well--as is par for the course in a Shakespeare comedy.
This modern rendition of the drama has its charms. It slips in a couple of allusions to The Bard (Macbeth"s "Who could refrain that...in that heart [had] courage to make love known?"; and "Sweet love, renew thy force!" from Sonnet LVI.)
The story also has its occasional thought-provoking observations: There are two kinds of looking--one respectful, "daring not touch" the apple of one's eye, and the other "that's like slurping a Coke" (page 12). There are two kinds of changes in life: "sometimes...it's totally out of your control....Sometimes, though, you have a say in where your life is going to go" (page 96). There are two kinds of kisses between lovers: a kiss to "shut up" what one's Beloved is saying, and another kiss "because [they] understand" (page 105).
I enjoyed this book: it gave me what I expected--I wanted lightly funny, with touches of teenage angst and earnestness. And that's what I got. It's worth checking out. Students might find it fun to draw out more parallels between this story and the Shakespearean original. And parallels there always are--for while times may change, people, and the love between them, never change. And since "the course of true love never did run smooth", this means there will always be some comedy in the flowering of serious love.
This little paperback, made into a movie in 1999, retells Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew as a high school drama: Cameron and Joey carry a torch for Bianca. Bianca wants a chance to date. The problem is, Daddy won't let her start dating before her older "shrew" of a sister, Kat, begins dating herself. Solution? Patrick Verona, who's willing to woo the difficult Kat...but only if he's compen$ated for the arduous job.
One thing leads to a-farcical-nother: Cameron tutors Bianca in French ("You speak French?" he's asked; "No, but I will," he vows.). But Bianca falls for the rough charms of Joey. Bianca goes on a date with Joey. Bianca falls out of "like" with Joey. Meanwhile, Patrick perseveres in his mi$$ion to move Kat's seemingly unshakable aversion to "unwashed high school miscreants." Patrick succeeds--then finds himself falling for Kat. Kat discovers Patrick's attentions were fueled by the profit motive ("Only at first!" he protests). It takes some sorting out, but all ends well--as is par for the course in a Shakespeare comedy.
This modern rendition of the drama has its charms. It slips in a couple of allusions to The Bard (Macbeth"s "Who could refrain that...in that heart [had] courage to make love known?"; and "Sweet love, renew thy force!" from Sonnet LVI.)
The story also has its occasional thought-provoking observations: There are two kinds of looking--one respectful, "daring not touch" the apple of one's eye, and the other "that's like slurping a Coke" (page 12). There are two kinds of changes in life: "sometimes...it's totally out of your control....Sometimes, though, you have a say in where your life is going to go" (page 96). There are two kinds of kisses between lovers: a kiss to "shut up" what one's Beloved is saying, and another kiss "because [they] understand" (page 105).
I enjoyed this book: it gave me what I expected--I wanted lightly funny, with touches of teenage angst and earnestness. And that's what I got. It's worth checking out. Students might find it fun to draw out more parallels between this story and the Shakespearean original. And parallels there always are--for while times may change, people, and the love between them, never change. And since "the course of true love never did run smooth", this means there will always be some comedy in the flowering of serious love.
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