Play Book Tag discussion

A "modern retelling" of The Taming of the Shrew, where all the characters are one-dimensional, and the plot is shallow! Yes, this had some entertainment value, it was light-hearted and fun, reads quickly, there is a lot of very funny humor. But altogether skippable. This combined The Taming of The Shrew with The Proposal (the movie), where Kate is supposed to marry a man for a green card. The sister, Bianca, and other 'suitors' are all but forgotten in this version.

If you know the story of the Taming of the Shrew, you know the ending (if not and don't want to be spoiled, stray your eyes away now). The big problem with this book, is I almost felt anti-feminist after reading it. Kate becomes 'tamed'. She was a pretty strong-willed character in the beginning. She is supposed to be independent, and I was looking forward to how this would play into her taming- but it didn't. She just became meek, predictable, and literally gave a speech about how hard men have it in this world because of their "need to hide their emotions". Literally Kate speaks of how much HARDER it is to be a man than a woman. I think a lot of the wedding was supposed to be 'a comedy of errors'- but it really was just a disaster that ended in misogyny.

Firmly off the list, then - that ending sounds awful!

I wonder if there are some old stories that there's just no good way to make them modern.
What we can easily accept from someone writing in the 17 century, just doesn't work when someone writes it in the 2000's

(even 'ten things I hate about you' is problematic if you start analyzing it)

I read somewhere that Anne Tyler stated that she hates Shakespeare. Which begs the question: why be part of the Hogarth project in the first place?

Couple that with my difficulty connecting with her writing in general, and this one has been a firm nope for me since it came out. Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson did a fantastic job with their plays!

Tracy wrote: "I read somewhere that Anne Tyler stated that she hates Shakespeare. Which begs the question: why be part of the Hogarth project in the first place?

Couple that with my difficulty connecting with ..."

I'm with you regarding Anne Tyler

Idit wrote: "I wonder if there are some old stories that there's just no good way to make them modern.
What we can easily accept from someone writing in the 17 century, just doesn't work when someone writes it ..."

I think 10 Things I Hate About You did a really good job... As a lover of Shakespeare and especially modern adaptations I think Tyler just didn't even try.

If she doesn't like Shakespeare she absolutely should've just declined to participate. What a waste...

Sounds like you (Joi) and I landed exactly the same on this one. That speech at the end! (smh)

Thanks for the review Joi confirming what others have been saying about the terrible plot line and characters. Life is too short to read a book containing these when there are so many other beautiful and better written stories out there. It's off my TBR too!

*takes off TBR*

I felt like there was a lot of potential with The Taming of the Shrew to modernize- switch it up, make it a woman taming a man, changing the ending so she stomps off and says "screw you" to him, make it more about equality, there could have been more than a few ways to accomplish this.

Didn't realize that Anne Tyler was hesitant to do this. I've only read A Spool of Blue Thread by her and didn't love it. I think she is more known for the "slow burning" character stories and family dramas? Seems this wasn't the best match.

I normally feel bad for putting people "off" of books in case there is a chance they'll like it- but not in this case.