Michael Thorn reviews Shylock's Daughter

MICHAEL THORN's review
slightly expanded from Literary Review, September issue...:

Shylock's Daughter by Mirjam Pressler, translated by Brian Murdoch, could be called a 'novelisation' of Shakespeare's play, 'The Merchant of Venice', except that I can think of few previous novelisations of a film or play that succeed so brilliantly in creating a world and atmosphere of their very own. Set in The Ghetto, Venice, in 1568, at the turn of the Jewish year 5327/8, this is an extraordinarily powerful novel, with the author telling a "very Jewish story" in which her sympathies are solidly on the side of Shylock, who emerges here as a tragic figure of considerable nobility. His daughter Jessica's rejection of her Jewish heritage, for the sake of an intoxicated romance with a Gentile, is treated with scant sympathy.

At the end of the novel, Shylock sees his biggest mistake as not having acted quickly enough in the business of choosing a husband for Jessica. A novel that comes down so heavily in favour of arranged marriages inside closed systems of faith, as opposed to a romantic and multicultural free-for-all, is certain to arouse strong reader reactions. In my view, as in Shakespeare's (by inference), Jessica deserves a greater level of authorial understanding. Adult readers who enjoy the novels of Chaim Potok, and their examination of Orthodox Jews who manage to hold onto a changed but enlightened faith, will find much to admire in Pressler's novel, but they will miss Potok's identification with a yearning to experience unfamiliar manners.

The book adds a major new character to Shakespeare's cast. Dalilah, Shylock's foster-daughter, contributes first-person voice chapters throughout the narrative and becomes Pressler's true heroine, leaving the Ghetto but staying within the traditions of her faith.

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Laraine Barker Pauline Chandler Posey Furnish Mai Min Li Sophie Masson Beverley Naidoo Rachel Newcombe Glynis Nickerson Liz Rose Ann Sharman Michael Thorn	MICHAEL THORN's review slightly expanded from Literary Review, September issue...: Shylock's Daughter by Mirjam Pressler, translated by Brian Murdoch, could be called a 'novelisation' of Shakespeare's play, 'The Merchant of Venice', except that I can think of few previous novelisations of a film or play that succeed so brilliantly in creating a world and atmosphere of their very own. Set in The Ghetto, Venice, in 1568, at the turn of the Jewish year 5327/8, this is an extraordinarily powerful novel, with the author telling a "very Jewish story" in which her sympathies are solidly on the side of Shylock, who emerges here as a tragic figure of considerable nobility. His daughter Jessica's rejection of her Jewish heritage, for the sake of an intoxicated romance with a Gentile, is treated with scant sympathy. At the end of the novel, Shylock sees his biggest mistake as not having acted quickly enough in the business of choosing a husband for Jessica. A novel that comes down so heavily in favour of arranged marriages inside closed systems of faith, as opposed to a romantic and multicultural free-for-all, is certain to arouse strong reader reactions. In my view, as in Shakespeare's (by inference), Jessica deserves a greater level of authorial understanding. Adult readers who enjoy the novels of Chaim Potok, and their examination of Orthodox Jews who manage to hold onto a changed but enlightened faith, will find much to admire in Pressler's novel, but they will miss Potok's identification with a yearning to experience unfamiliar manners. The book adds a major new character to Shakespeare's cast. Dalilah, Shylock's foster-daughter, contributes first-person voice chapters throughout the narrative and becomes Pressler's true heroine, leaving the Ghetto but staying within the traditions of her faith.