Anne Tyler is the author of twenty bestselling novels. She
was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh,
North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and
went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia
University. A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler’s New York Times
bestselling twentieth novel, was short-listed for the Man Booker
Prize; her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Vinegar Girl sees Anne Tyler going behind the scenes of one of
Shakespeare’s most controversial yet enduring (Kiss Me Kate, 10
Things I Hate About You) plays: "You how know sometimes a friend
will tell you something that happened to her, and you think wait,
there must be more to it than that, I’m sure there’s another side
to this. Well, that’s how I’ve always felt about The Taming of the
Shrew."
New York Times Bestseller
“Shakespeare... would be pleased, I am sure... Novels such as Anne
Tyler’s, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or
digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are
coming from at the same time. ‘Vinegar Girl’ is an earthy
reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and
thoughtful.”
--Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review
“[A] screwball comedy of manners that actually channels Jane Austen
more than Shakespeare. It's clear that [Tyler] had fun with
Vinegar Girl, and readers will too…A fizzy cocktail of a romantic
comedy, far more sweet than acidic, about finding a mate who
appreciates you for your idiosyncratic, principled self — no taming
necessary.”
--NPR.org
"[An] ingenious resetting... with considerably more humor and
gentleness than in the Bard’s version."
--Washington Post
“An effective retelling, while nodding to the original text, stands
on its own as a story in the way Iris Murdoch’s 'The Black Prince'
responds to 'Hamlet' and Aldous Huxley’s 'Brave New World' plays
with 'The Tempest.' Tyler succeeds in creating a world we believe
in...Charming...Clever."
--Boston Globe
"A perfect read."
--New York Post
“Vinegar Girl” is a fast, easy read…Held side-by-side against
Shakespeare's Shrew, the story of Kate and Pyotr is full of hidden
treasures.”
--Houston Chronicle
“Vinegar Girl has the requisite Tyler trademarks…the characters
populating Vinegar Girl are flawed, quirky, likable, self-indulgent
and astute.”
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Is there any living American writer who has written as well about
marriage as Anne Tyler? Or who has consistently been as honest
about the disconnect between fantasies of lovebirds living happily
ever after and the often sad but also funny miracle of two separate
people actually staying together? In Vinegar Girl Tyler brings
these talents to the altar of the Hogarth Shakespeare series…it's
fun, lighthearted, clever, compassionate and filled with Tyler's
always extraordinary love for her characters, liberating them here
to love each other.”
--Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
“[A] great success; Vinegar Girl is funny and endearing,
the quirky characters vintage Tyler.”
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A very funny retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the
Shrew.”
--The Sacramento Bee
"Family drama meets rom-com in a modern version of The Taming
of the Shrew. Pushy dad plus entitled little sister, cute but
clueless suitor, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author equals
must-read."
--Cosmopolitan
"A quirky tale that transports Shakespeare's The Taming of the
Shrew to Tyler's modern-day Baltimore, where a father's attempt to
shoehorn his daughter into a green-card marriage has, of course, an
unintentionally happy ending."
--W Magazine
“Tyler’s smooth prose makes Vinegar Girl, one of a series of
renowned authors’ Shakespearean updates, a light, summer read.”
--Baltimore Magazine
“Readers unfamiliar with The Taming of the Shrew will
have no problem enjoying this novel, which is funny, fun-loving and
uplifting. Those who know the original well will be intrigued by
Tyler's riffs: Is the new Kate less shrewish, or simply better
characterized, her motives and anxieties better understood? In
either case, the surprising ending, which deviates from
Shakespeare's in important ways, makes for a heartwarming
conclusion to a quirky, timeless tale.”
--Shelf Awareness
“The Taming of the Shrew meets Green Card in this
delightful reinvention that owes as much to Tyler’s quirky
sensibilities as it does to its literary forebear. Come for the
Shakespeare, stay for the wonderful Tyler.”
--Library Journal (starred review)
“Resplendent storyteller Tyler (A Spool of Blue Thread, 2015) is
perfectly paired with The Taming of the Shrew…Deeply and
pleasurably inspired by her source, Tyler is marvelously nimble and
effervescent in this charming, hilarious, and wickedly shrewd tale
of reversal and revelation.”
--Booklist (starred review)
“Anne Tyler’s Vinegar Girl, based on The Taming of the Shrew, gives
readers a modern, witty, wonderful Kate.”
--Lithub.com
International Praise for VINEGAR GIRL:
“This sparky, intelligent spin on Shakespeare's controversial
classic demolishes the old saw that you can catch more flies with
honey than vinegar.”
--The Guardian
“[A] modern take on The Taming of the Shrew.”
--Good Housekeeping
“Tyler's deepest purpose is to challenge the premises of
Shakspeare's comedy... Her gentle, funny novel insists that it is
possible, in spite of our customarily blind perversities, to find
unexpected ways of breaking free from self-destruction.”
--Times Literary Supplement
“[Vinegar Girl is] knockabout comedy at its best, genuinely
laugh-out-loud funny and, indeed, may be [Tyler’s] funniest book to
date.”
--Daily Mail
“Funny, thought-provoking, essential.”
--The Sunday Telegraph
“[A] hilarious contemporary take on the play.”
--Frankie McCoy, Evening Standard
“Tyler is uniquely capable of handling a rebarbative character like
Kate with generosity and imagination ... she consistently finds
good in unpromising people and is a sharp and very funny observer
of day-to-day life… A joy.”
--Literary Review
“Excellent.”
--Glamour
“A reflective, engaging twist on Shakespeare’s unfashionable
play.”
--Daily Express
More Praise for Anne Tyler and Her Work:
"Everyone loves Anne Tyler."
--San Francisco Chronicle
“Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably
bleaker place.”
--Newsday
“Tyler’s characters are thoroughly three-dimensional. They are our
own families; they are ourselves; and it is our own desperate
desire to understand the people we love, as well as the people who
hurt us and whom we hurt, that keeps us reading with fervor.”
--The Boston Globe
"You are involved before you even notice you were paying attention
. . . Her feel for character is so keen that even hardened
metafictionalists [who] would happily fry the whole notion of
'character' for breakfast are reduced to the role of helpless
gossips, swapping avid hunches about the possible fates of the
characters."
--Tom Shone, The New Yorker
"Tyler's eye and ear for familial give and take is unerring, her
humanity irresistible. You'll want to turn back to the first
chapter the moment you finish the last."
--People
"[A] novel by Anne Tyler is cause for celebration."
--Caroline Moore, The Sunday Telegraph
"Tyler reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting
patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives."
--Michael Dirda, Wall Street Journal
"Over five decades of exuberant shape-shifting across the fictional
landscape, Anne Tyler has cut the steady swath of a literary
stalwart, writing novel after novel whose most memorable characters
inhabit a cosmos all their own."
--Julia Glass, New York Times Book Review
"Anne Tyler never disappoints . . . Her insights about life, love,
aging, marriage, siblings, grief, and unexpected happiness grow
richer and deeper with each passing year and book."
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Anne Tyler has no peer. Her books just keep getting better and
better."
--Anita Shreve
"The wonder of Anne Tyler is how consistently clear-eyed and
truthful she remains about the nature of families and especially
marriage."
--Los Angeles Times
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