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NAMING THY NAME

Name: NAMING THY NAME
Author: Elaine Scarry
ISBN: 978-0-374-27993-6

CROSS TALK IN SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

by Elaine Scarry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 2016

Close readers of Shakespeare will respect Scarry’s arduous homework but likely won’t be convinced by her conclusions.

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Who was the “young man” William Shakespeare addressed in his sonnets?

That’s the never-ending mystery wide-ranging literary scholar Scarry (Aesthetics and General Theory of Value/Harvard Univ.; Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom, 2014, etc.) sets out to resolve in her latest book. The list of contenders is already long, but Scarry comes up with a new one: Shakespeare’s contemporary Henry Constable. The author theorizes that the sonnets are, actually, only part of a conversation between the poets, who left cryptic mash notes to each other in their work. Her proof mostly amounts to highly imaginative, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, code-breaking—such as her discovery that lines of the sonnets have the letters of Constable’s name scattered within them (not sequentially, mind you, just there). Also, a nickname for Henry is Hal, and the sonnets use words like “shall” and “halt”—and sometimes “will” is close by. Also, there’s that last name, and Shakespeare often uses “constancy” or “constant.” Constable’s own poems likewise seem to Scarry to both directly answer his genius friend and leave behind similar anagrams. Beyond the textual argument, there’s the historical possibility that their paths crossed as Elizabethan England was undergoing endless religious conflict; maybe Shakespeare even provided cover to the Catholic Constable, who returned the favor by nursing his beloved through his final illness. As a novel, like Anthony Burgess’ Nothing Like the Sun, or a movie, like Shakespeare in Love, the story has possibilities; as speculative literary detective work, it feels forced. Almost from the beginning, Scarry seems less like the redoubtable polymath of legend—whose past subjects have ranged from torture to critical care to plane crashes—and more like a mad scholar whose delusional literary criticism takes on a life of its own.

Close readers of Shakespeare will respect Scarry’s arduous homework but likely won’t be convinced by her conclusions.

Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-374-27993-6

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THERMONUCLEAR MONARCHY
by Elaine Scarry

- BOOK REVIEW
DREAMING BY THE BOOK
by Elaine Scarry

- BOOK REVIEW
ON BEAUTY AND BEING JUST
by Elaine Scarry

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THE LAUREL AND THE IVY

THE STORY OF CHARLES STEWART PARNELL AND IRISH NATIONALISM

by Robert Kee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

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This study of Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell's impact on Irish nationalism and on the course of British politics traverses an already well-traveled road. Prolific English historian Kee (1939: In the Shadow of War, 1984, etc.) brings to Irish history a careful, unimpassioned view, which is useful in tracing the evolution of Parnell, an Anglo-Irish Protestant landlord with little early interest in politics, into a leader who embodied and directed the nationalism of the Irish people. After entering the House of Commons at the age of 28, Parnell quickly brought the art of obstruction to new heights, became chairman of the Home Rule party within six years, and within five more had brought the Liberal Government to the point of introducing a Home Rule Bill that would have been considered ``no more than a rhetorical chimera'' when he first entered Parliament. In doing so, he helped turn out two British governments, one Liberal and one Conservative, and, by maneuvering the Liberals into adopting Home Rule, helped to turn out a third. He did so by a remarkably skillful use of parliamentary procedure, by creating the first disciplined democratic party of modern times, and by maneuvering to hold the balance of power between the Liberals and the Conservatives. He remains, however, as Kee notes, an elusive figure, and it is hard now to understand why British Prime Minister William Gladstone called Parnell the most remarkable man he had ever met. His fall was as swift as his rise; he was cited as co- respondent in the divorce petition of one of his colleagues, Willie O'Shea, and the scandal compromised the course of Irish nationalism for the next generation. Parnell died in 1891 at the age of 45, just four months after he had married his mistress. A careful, considered, judicious biography, but uninspired and oh, so long.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-241-12858-7

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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HOW TO BE HAP-HAP-HAPPY LIKE ME

by Merrill Markoe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

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A former head writer for ``Late Night with David Letterman'' satirizes popular ``happiness materials'' (books, calendars, etc.) with her own entertaining (self-) investigations. Markoe (What the Dogs Have Taught Me, not reviewed) treads somewhere between the absurdism of Dave Barry and the intricacies of Henry Alford, with her own L.A. female spin. Each of her 33 brief chapters begins with a ``happiness hint,'' followed by her own efforts to follow the advice. So ``extend a social invitation to someone you've always been afraid to approach'' leads, natch, to dinner—courtesy of a TV Guide assignment—with the famous-chested Fabio, who bravely annotates his publicity photos for Markoe. Following the counsel of doyenne Martha Stewart on selecting a party theme, the author determines that, given her chaotic table settings and decorations, her theme should be ``the breakup of the Soviet Union.'' Deciding to take a new class, Markoe ends up at a session for would-be dominatrixes (``I realize I'm not in Comp. Lit. anymore''). Her muse guides her through a Medieval Times dinner, a meditation on pets, a close analysis of answering machine messages, and a visit with a psychic interior decorator. Markoe's targets are within the safe maw of mainstream pop culture; only occasionally does she exhibit real bite: when analyzing Madonna's book Sex, she tags la Ciccone as ``the world's first self-employed centerfold,'' and after going to see the play The Real Live Brady Bunch, she observes, ``All that binds us is shared dopey media experience.'' Well, that's a good reason to make fun of it, and for Markoe to try harder when a few efforts—like a satire on the Amy Fisher movies and a tour of movie star homes—go limp. Chuckleworthy in small doses—and a strong argument for caution. (Author tour)