Author: Mirjam Pressler
Publisher: Dial
Rating: WARTY!
Mirjam Pressler is a noted German author, and this is an English translation of one of her novels. Based upon Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and set in the sixteenth century, a hundred years after Shakespeare's time, this novel takes the original story and bends it to the daughter's perspective. One thing I didn't like about this novel almost from the off was Pressler's habit of using foreign words immediately followed by their English translation. This was a big distraction, constantly reminding me that this was a story, and preventing me from becoming completely immersed in it. But that's just me!
In line with the original play, Jessica, Shylock's daughter, is in love with Lorenzo and he with her, but because he is Christian and she is Jewish, and he is rich and she merely the daughter of a money-lender, their future cannot be one they spend together - until it can be. However, Jessica has made it possible for herself to meet with Lorenzo, at least in the short-term, by visiting her friend, the doctor's daughter. Lorenzo also frequents this house, and so they can spend some time together if only in secret.
I really tried to get into this story but the problems I outlined in the first paragrpah (augmented by the insane number of tiems Pressler reminds us that the Jews had to wear a red hat when out of their ghetto!), plus the occasional first person chapter which featured a whiny whiny whiny "other daughter" (which I actually believe was the real daughter referenced in the title, not Jessica) just drove me completely away. I felt like I was reading a manifesto rather than a novel, and so I pretty much skimmed it, reading sections here and there and the last chapter and none of that made me feel like this rated anything other than a warty appellation. Life's too short to read a book which doe snothing to draw me in.
