Mini-Review: "Will in the World"

I just finished reading Stephen Greenblatt's Shakespeare semi-biography "Will in the World," and I highly recommend it--assuming you're into Shakespeariana. If you're a beginner who wants just the facts (as I was...and still am) this might not be your best bet. It's less a straightforward, born-here lived-here died-here biography. The subtitle sums it up best "How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare."

Turns out that Shakespeare becoming Shakespeare is a fascinating story. Greenblatt does a good job of taking the most tenuous of things--a page from a diary, letters found in the attic--and spinning a plausible connection between them and Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare grabs hold of James I's book on witches (he was real into witches) and transforms it into the Weird Sisters. He sees a masque staged for Queen Elizabeth (featuring a giant mechanical dolphin!) and from that we get "A Midsummer Nights Dream."

So, in short, it's a good book, a fascinating book, a rather dense book. If you're not interested in a deep character analysis of Shylock, among other things, then stay away for your own sake. But if you want to go a bit deeper then "Shakespeare: How Great Was He?," I'd give it a hearty two thumbs up.

We now return to our regular diet of bizarre news items and lame jokes. Pardon the interruption.