Fiction Book Reviews

Book Review: My Name is Will

By Sandy Amazeen Jul 15, 2008, 21:20 GMT

"Utterly delicious, original, witty, hilarious and brilliant. Shakespeare In Love on magic mushrooms. The Bard has never been this much fun." -Christopher Buckley, author of Boomsday and Thank You For Smoking A Tale of two Shakespeares... Struggling UC Santa Cruz grad student Willie Shakespeare Greenberg is trying to write his thesis about the Bard. Kind of... Cut off by his father for laziness, and desperate for dough, ...more

Willie Shakespeare is a would-be writer struggling to sell the concept of his thesis project, demonstrating that William Shakespeare was a closet Catholic, to Dashka Demitra, his sexy thesis adviser. Fortunately, Dashka shares his taste for an assortment of street drugs so he succeeds, by the skin of his teeth to sell the concept. Willie agrees to be a drug mule involved with mushrooms and pot, how difficult could it be, only to have it turn into a major adventure for all concerned.

Interspersed with the contemporary Willie are the separate musings of his famous namesake as he tries teaching a classroom of disinterested schoolboys, copes with an upcoming wedding and slowly emerges from his formative years to become a legendary writer. At first glance, one would think the two Williams have nothing in common but then looks can be deceiving.

Although a bit disjointed and difficult to follow, especially during the first half of the book, this unusual take on Shakespeare has a slight Hunter Thompson edge that will show the Bard in a whole new light. The somewhat confusing climax maintains a surreal feel as reality and hallucination overlap and the two Wills realize their potential. This book won’t be to everyone’s liking but those with an interest in Shakespearian works might want to check it out.