A very intellectual and elegant re-imagining Merchant of Venice. In this version, the events we know from the play have occurred and Shylock finds himself in the home of a non-religious Jew Strukowotsky (or something like that, I forget how to spell it). Shylock is more or less a household name. However, events extremely like those of Shakespeare's play happen in this version and Shylock gets to comment on the why and how his story unfolded like it did, plus he gets to advise on how he might do it differently if he was faced with the situation again. There are lots of "line dropping" (lines from the play inserted into the novel) sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. The parallel characters all have similar names, so that makes the parallels easy. Plus, if you're Jewish, you'll probably get more out of the discussions about what it means to be a Jew or not, traditions or religions, than I did. I suspect this book is more intelligent than I could discern (mainly for the Judaism discussions), and it uses big words. The writing style is also a bit different, though I couldn't put my fingers on it. I really like this one, but its audience is definitely Shakespeare-lovers.

Jacobson's modern day version of The Merchant of Venice for the Hogarth Shakespeare series falls short. He makes use of Nazis and Anti-Semitism themes in a rather raunchy tale with a modern merchant Simon Strulovitch, father of Beatrice. I do not recommend this to anyone, and I'm glad this completes my read of the series because I would not have read others including Margaret Atwood's brilliant installment if I'd read this one first. ( )

As the name suggests, this is a modern author's take on retelling The Merchant of Venice for a contemporary audience. I often enjoy Shakespeare adaptations that are done well, so of course I figured I'd check this one out. Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed with this one as I'd hoped. Jacobson's take on the story is confusing, incredibly complex, and difficult to wade through. I'm not sure if he intended it as more of an intellectual take than a literary one, but it came across to me as highly inaccessible in the writing style and overall storytelling.

That said, it is a creative take in comparing the original tale to how a similar situation might play out in the modern world. For the concept alone, I do have to give the author some credit. And that's why this pulls three stars from me when I probably would have been inclined to rate it lower based on my overall enjoyment and reading of the book.

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review.] ( )

First things first: I must confess that I have not read "The Merchant of Venice."

Second: I'm having a really hard time with this contemporary fiction challenge that I've set for myself this year.

Third: I know very little about modern Judaism (and certainly not anything near what I've studied about modern/post-modern/emergent Christianity).

Four: I still enjoyed this book. I wasn't entirely sure what was happening with the character of Shylock being actually present in the modern era, or how the modern characters were portrayed in comparison to the ones in the play. However, I found the discussions about religious vs secular expression of faith relatable and interesting in the non-Protestant framing. There are a lot of quirky characters in this novel -- perhaps a little too over-the-top to be believable -- but I imagine the Shakespearean originals were the same way.

I'm looking forward to future novels in this Hogarth Shakespeare series. ( )

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Recently, I'm going through a Shakespeare period, its climax probably the three plays I'll be seeing in the Globe in two weeks time (For those of you who're interested: A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth). The Merchant of Venice, upon which Shylock is My Name is based, however is one of those plays that I still rather unfamiliar with. Both the story and the character of Shylock to be honest.

It felt like a great miss when I was reading Shylock is my name. Not only was I unable to see all the parallels between the story and the play, I also didn't know what to expect at all. Strangely enough, perhaps for those who're familiar with The Merchant of Venice, I didn't expect this story at all.

Most of the dialogue, most of the story even, surround about the two main characters, Strulovitch and Shylock, two old men who above all seem to be angry at the world. Due to their negative world view, the whole back has something depressing over it, which for me caused it to be not an easy read at all. I kept putting it away, because it was so depressing. This is why it cost me months to finish it. It's not what I would call a nice or enjoyable read. At least not when reading. Now that I'm finished, I can't say that I regret reading it. The prose was very beautiful, and would certainly be a reason to pick up another book by Howard Jacobson, but only if the theme is less depressing.

Thanks to Blogging for Books for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )