Jacobson’s Shylock requires a lot more fleshing out
Shylock Is My Name is not a straightforward modern rendering of Merchant
Fiction; Shylock Is My Name; By Howard Jacobson; Hogarth Press, €22.60
When Howard Jacobson was first approached about writing a contemporary novel based on a Shakespeare play to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death he asked if he could update Hamlet. Hamlet was already taken, his agent informed him. “Let me guess,” Jacobson jibed. “They want me to take The Merchant of Venice.”
The pairing is, of course, an obvious one. ...