Not quite what I was expecting truth is told, though I find the author's research about whether Shakespeare could have really been an Italian intriguing.

Partially in think the fault lie in the fact that as much as MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is a favorite it's been forever since I either read the play or seen it traditionally presented (in the last 3 years I've seen it updated to the 1950s, the Joss Whedon version, the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version and a LGBT version--obviously none were traditional). Like everything with Don Pedro at the end had me going "wtf did I miss in the original play?"

And I could have done without all the other references to Shakespeare's plays.

I did however see a poetic justice to what caused the rift between the 2 would be enemy lovers. In the end it was nothing more and nothing less then the very human notion of getting one's due. Playful maliciousness not meant to harm so much as poke fun at Benedick's expense. ( )

Beatrice, a young woman from Verona, is walking her cousin’s estate in Sicily when she sees a Moor making love to a white woman who wears an identical wedding band to his. Though at first surprised that interracial marriage is even possible, Beatrice comes away wanting a husband too, especially one who’ll desire her so powerfully.

As it happens, her uncle is about to play host to Spanish noblemen representing the power that rules Sicily; joining them are Benedick and Claudio, merchants’ sons from Padua and Florence, respectively. Beatrice and Benedick fall for each other on sight, while Claudio cozies up to her cousin, Hero.

Readers familiar with Much Ado about Nothing will recognize this setup as backstory for Shakespeare’s comedy. Maybe you’ve also identified the passionate couple on the beach as Othello and Desdemona. And when you hear that Beatrice’s older brother is named Teobaldo (aka Tybalt), and that a feud between the Montecchi and Capuletti families is tearing apart Verona, you’ll know to keep an eye peeled for Romeo and Giulietta.

This bold contrivance promises a rollicking story and a bushel of grand themes: jealousy, the nature of love, the sexual double standard, how appearances deceive, split loyalties, and so forth. But Beatrice and Benedick falters from the get-go, and the narrative seldom rises above what feels ordained. It’s never easy to create tension in a well-known story, but Fiorato tries by adding plot rather than by deepening her characters. That’s a mistake.

The trouble begins with her premise, which supposes that Shakespeare was Sicilian. I might accept that notion for the two hours’ traffic of her stage if she portrayed him as a rising poet and dramatist, a charismatic figure caught up in his verse. But her ink-stained scribbler’s capacity for invention takes a distant third behind the terrible wrongs done him and his thirst for revenge. He claims the mantle of authorship solely by spouting words that have since become famous, which prompts either a wink-wink, nudge-nudge or uneasy laughter.

Worse, Beatrice and Benedick quote random snippets from Guess Who and even pen sonnets from the same source. You too can write great literature in your spare time, without any practice at all!

This implausible conceit would matter a lot less if the characters, especially the men, amounted to more than a collection of attitudes, locked in place for an obvious purpose. Benedick, aside from his looks and ability with a rapier (how he learned is never adequately explained), has little to recommend him, and his pride, ideas about women, and approach to life seem handed to him rather than born from within. As the wheels turn, you sense that he’s got a long journey to make, and much ado about transforming himself, before the final drama with Beatrice takes place.

Moreover, for no good reason, he immediately embraces as great friend Don Pedro, a Spanish nobleman who wears villainy barely concealed below his charm. Yet it takes Benedick, supposedly a perceptive fellow, a very long time to get the message. Further, he does so while serving Don Pedro aboard ship in the Spanish Armada, a nod to the political theme.

But the conflict between Don Pedro and Benedick could unfold anywhere, and burdening the narrative with yet another epic story—one with an inevitable ending—is too much. Maybe more to the point, Fiorato’s narrative seems to lose its moorings at sea, while it's far more authoritative at the Spanish court, where, for example, King Philip II keeps a red-headed dwarf as a caricature of England’s Queen Elizabeth. What a fabulous scene, full of tension from unexpected undercurrents.

That leaves it up to Beatrice to save this hodgepodge, but she can’t. How she got to be so independent-minded, capable with a sword, or virtually oblivious of sex until watching Othello and Desdemona are only some of the questions I have. Her conversion to ardent feminism feels unnecessarily earnest, maybe because she doesn’t have that far to travel.

Further, I’m not clear how a woman who holds feminist views (and knows how to defend herself physically) surrenders so meekly to her tyrannical father. One such surrender, however, provides what I think is the author’s best scene. Before male witnesses, a doctor brusquely examines Beatrice to prove her virginity so that a marriage contract may be drawn up.

Nothing speaks more eloquently than this humiliating, abusive act, which needs no further commentary. I wish the rest of Beatrice and Benedick had shown the same directness and economy. ( )

This backstory of the couple from Much Ado About Nothing was a good idea but lacks something in its execution. The witty dialogue between the pair is too forced, the villainy not forceful enough. I was put off by the introduction of a character named Michelangelo Crollalanza, supposedly a brilliant Sicilian born poet/playwright . Hint: he writes sonnets. Really! I struggled to finish this and admit to a lot of skimming.
Library book. ( )

Beatrice and Benedick is a historical romantic comedy set in late 16th century Messina, Sicily. Beatrice and Benedick are known to us as characters from the Shakespeare play Much Ado about Nothing, Two young couples, Claudio and Hero, and Beatrice and Benedick, are drawn to each other but are separated by a mixture of mischief making, misunderstandings and contrariness.

The reader doesn’t require any knowledge of the play before reading this story, although I would now be more interested in watching it on stage or film.

It is quite a long novel with a busy cast of characters, with the story told as a first person narrative, alternating between Beatrice and Benedick. There is a lot of scene setting which slows down the story, but I found the context quite interesting – the characters are young aristocrats and there is much at stake for their families in marrying them off, hence Leonato’s despair when Hero appears to have been dishonoured (in fact she is innocent and the whole thing is someone else’s trickery). Then there are lots of scenes of banter between Benedick and Beatrice, who are clearly drawn to each other but neither will admit it without some positive interference by their friends.

This is the first book I have read by Marina Fiorato – I enjoyed it and would happily read her others, especially another historical.

I received a review copy of this book through the Amazon Vine programme. ( )