By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult – a Review

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Description:
Two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.

In 1581, Emilia Bassano—like most young women of her day—is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theater in England, and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history.

In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina—like Emilia—be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed?

Told in intertwining narratives, this sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on—even if it means they will be forgotten.

Review:

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult is a standalone novel about two woman’s POV that take place in present time and in a different era, 1581.   The two heroines are Melina Green in the present, who is a talented writer; and Emilia Bassano, who also is a writer, but her talent is not recognized openly, as women were not accepted.  Both women hide their names behind a man, as women were not acknowledged.

Emilia Bassano, at a very young age, is forced to become Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, and for years he treated her well. He takes her to the theatre in London, and she secretly writes her own poems and plays. Working secretly, Emilia has to sell her play to male playwrights, in order to get her work on the stage. She makes an agreement with a young actor, William Shakespeare to be the playwright of her work. Later on in life, when Emilia became pregnant, she was forced again to a marriage, since she had no money, and her husband treated her badly, always beating her up.  That was a very sad part of the story.

In the present, Melina Green is inspired by her ancestor Emilia Bassano to write her story, and make her voice heard, though she needs to get Andre (her roommate and gay friend) to present the play, and pretend to be his assistant. Her play actually wins the contest, with Andre entering her play into a competition, which she wins.  Jasper, a former critic of her work, begins to become attracted to Melina, and slowly she reveals that Emilia Bassano’s book was her work.  Though there are five centuries between the timelines, it seems that male privilege is still in power.  

I will say that I thought the book was a bit slow in the first half, though it did pick up later on.  I read that Picoult did a lot of research and stands by her feeling that Emilia Bassano’s work was the true playwright for William Shakespeare.  Melinda in the present time, manages to finally have a chance to show her play, with help from Jasper.  The historical part of the past, will have Emilia, as she gets older, begin to write her own books; with Bassano actually being a real person.

By Any Other Name was an interesting story, with historical fiction, feminism, passion, heartache, and love.  It was a different kind of story by Jodi Picoult, which was very well written. If you are interested in possible real-life changes from the past, I suggest you read By Any Other Name.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher