My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare

A decent enough concept (having 2 stories that are loosely tied together alternate chapters), but the story itself seemed a little thin. It has it's funny moments and kept me interested enough to want to know how it ended. ( )

The subtitle to this book is "A Novel of Sex, Drugs and Shakespeare." That's about as accurate a description as I think you can get.It is relatively well-written, though some of the descriptive passages felt a little forced. I thought that Winfield navigates the time flip (alternating chapters follow two distinct timelines) very well. The stories parallel each other enough to make sense, but not so much as to be repetitive. I think the flipping is useful as well in building some suspense, since you always have to wait to find out what happens next in either timeline.Both the sex and drugs parts of the book are well handled. They are presented to be highly entertaining, but not quite so much as to be gratuitous. They are also written in a way that makes it hard to believe these are not based on autobiographical accounts. Assuming they are not (as Winfield claims in an interview at the end of the book), I think that's an accomplishment - writing things that are just believable enough to have maybe happened but just crazy enough to be hard to believe.The Shakespeare bits are entertaining as well. It is clear that Winfield is both well versed in Shakespeare, and well practiced at playing with Shakespeare (neither being a surprise, given his background). I was especially impressed with the Elizabethan dialogue. I'm sure a true scholar would have many things to criticize, but if it was more authentic I imagine it would have been slow and tedious to follow. It got the point across - I could imagine Shakespeare speaking in the way Winfeild portrayed, even if I know it might not be accurate.In the interest of full disclosure, I read this after a string of non-fiction books, so anything was likely to feel engaging and entertaining. Regardless, I enjoyed the reading, and would recommend it to anyone looking for something fun, and a little irreverent. ( )

There's a reason this was on the clearance rack. It tries too hard to be funny, witty, and to push the envelope. Unfortunately, it isn't successful. ( )

I'm very fond of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged which Jess Winfield was a co-author on as a founding member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. I love Shakespeare and am always happy to see him performed and to see people play with him and his words and ideas (as opposed to treating him like an old dead irrelevant white guy). This is Winfield's first novel so I figured I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me. It tried too hard, ultimately, and that made me impatient so I abandoned it. I read today that they're performing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival - go see it if you can! ( )

I know him! Well, sort of. My parents were friends with him in the 80s. ( )