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Who is Jodi Picoult?
Jodi Picoult takes contemporary topics and crafts them into page-turners with an element of intrigue. She's been called the "Queen of the Topical Novel." She wrote about a school shooting in Nineteen Minutes; a murder on an Amish farm in Plain Truth; and the racism suffered by an African American nurse when a White Supremicist's baby dies in her care in a novel titled Small Great Things. She's dabbled in animal conservation and wildlife research in the books Lone Wolf and Leaving Time.
When I read a Jodi Picoult novel, I am intrigued by the story and nterested in the characters. She's a storyteller extraordinaire...and I love stories!
I'm not alone in my enjoyment of her work.
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 29 novels which have been translated into 34 languages. Her books have been made into movies and optioned for television series. Picoult's work extends into the world of theater. She has worked as a Librettist on a musical adaptation of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, (one of my all-time favorite books) as well as being a Librettist for a a production of Breathe about life during COVID.
Picoult's focus is not limited to the adult world. A woman of many talents, Picoult also wrote five issues of DC Comic's Wonder Woman. She is the co-librettist for the stage musical adaptation of her two Young Adult novels, Between The Lines and Off The Page, co-written with her daughter Samantha Van Leer.
Wow. What versatility!
Picoult's novel, By Any Other Name
It takes courage and determination to publish something atypical of the rest of your work.
Picoult had the guts to do something different. Her books are known for examining contemporary issues through up-close-and-personal human stories. Her 2024 novel, By Any Other Name, focuses on the contemporary issue of gender inequality, a powerful topic, to be sure.
Melina Green is a talented female playwright in By Any Other Name. Her work has been derided by a fierce male critic known to be prejudiced against women writers. Melina is devastated by his criticism and stops actively pursuing her career. However, Melina's best friend, Andre, decides to enter a play that Melina has written into a contest. He does it, under the male alias of Mel Green. The play wins, and Andre complies with Melina's wish that he pose as the author so that there is a better chance to get it produced on bigger stages. The identity switch causes problems as the production of the play advances and Melina, the real author, poses only as Andre's (the fake author's) assistant.
But the truly gutsy thing about Picoult's novel is that the main focus of the story is not the modern one of Melina Green, but the story of Emilia Bassano, a woman during Shakespeare's time who wanted to be a playwright but who was not allowed to be because of her sex.
Shakespeare, scholars, cynics, and sex
Picoult chooses to take on the topic of Shakespeare's oeuvre and the question that's been asked for hundreds of years: Did Shakespeare really write all the works he is credited with? Is it possible that someone else helped him write the 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and various poems? Could a woman have had anything to do with Shakespeare's prowess?
Queue Emilia Bassano's entry into the story.
By telling an in-depth story, Picoult makes the case that Emilia Bassano was one of the authors of Shakespeare's work. For any die-hard Bard buffs, it's a tough argument. My beloved mentor, friend, and Shakespeare schola, is a firm believer in Shakespeare's authorship. She knows that many people throughout the last two centuries are intent on proving that the "Bard" didn't do his own work, but she doesn't buy it.
"Why is it impossible for a man to be brilliant, self-taught, and prolific? Why is it more likely that a different person wrote all those works?"
Picoult, however, wants to prove that other people, even women, contributed to Shakespeare's oeuvre.
The story that parallels the life of Melina Bassano in By Any Other Name, details Emilia Bassano's life. Her upbringing. Her relationships. Her love affairs. Her talents and aspirations. This detailed backstory lends credence to Picoult's premise: Other people contributed to the Shakespeare canon and one of those was a known female poet named Emilia Bassano.
The bigger statement, of course, is that gender equality was an issue four centuries ago and it's still an issue now.
I started out reading By Any Other Name thinking it was going to be a bit of fluff.
By the time I ended the novel, Picoult had persuaded me that maybe - just maybe - Emilia Bassano had written some plays now attributed to Shakespeare.
Parallel lives and problems
The life of Melina Green, the modern-day female playwright, parallels the life of Emilia Bassano who lived more than four centuries before her. Both face issues of discrimination against women. Both face issues of identity. Both women wonder if it's more important to get credit for your work or to get it out into the world than it is to be recognized for the creation of it.
How important is authorship, anyway? If you're a true artist, isn't your impetus to push the art out to the people, not to claim credit for doing so?
Granted, I get off on geeky things, but I thought Picoult's novel, By Any Other Name, was great fun. The parallel lives of Melina's friend, Andre, and Shakespeare's acquaintance, Kit Marlowe, delighted me, as did the ability to pick out real phrases from Shakespeare's work which Picoult has inserted throughout the text.
Do you have to be familiar with Shakespeare to read "By Any Other Name?"/
If you don't know much about Shakespeare can you read the novel and enjoy
it?
Absolutely! If you know that Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest authors of the modern world, that's all the knowledge you need. Everything else will become clear as Melina Green and Emilia Bassano's stories are told and intertwined with the skill of Jodi Picoult, a master storyteller.
Whether you want to know more about life during the late 1500s and early 1600s, whether you're interested in modern theater and the craft of writing plays, whether or not you've felt gender discrimination, read this book.
Whether the debate about Shakespeare's authorship turns you on or not, By Any Other Name is an interesting, out-of-the ordinary book and general good read.
Kudos to Jodi Picoult for creating a unique and compelling story set in the Elizabethan era and for daring to write a novel that may not be something the general public rushes into read.
Dare to be different, too. Read By Any Other Name.
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