Vinegar Girl
by Anne Tyler
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0804141266
- ISBN 13
- 9780804141260
- Seller
-
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Hogarth, June 2016. First American. Hardcover . Very Good/Very Good.
Reviews
On Aug 14 2016, CloggieDownunder said:
"She had always been such a handful – a thorny child, a sullen teenager, a failure as a college student. What was to be done with her? But now they had the answer: marry her off. They would never give her another moment's thought"
Vinegar Girl is the twenty-first novel by American author, Anne Tyler, and is written under the Hogarth Shakespeare banner. It is billed as William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew retold. At twenty-nine, Kate Battista is in a dead-end job she doesn't particularly like, and saddled with looking after her air-head fifteen-year-old sister and her workaholic father. Kate is no shrinking violet though: she lets them know what irritates her in no uncertain terms. Her boss suggests she practice restraint but: "The unsatisfying thing about practicing restraint was that nobody knew you were practicing it"
So when Dr Louis Battista suggests she marry Pyotr Shcherbakov, his brilliant research assistant, whose O-1 visa is about to run out, she lets her father know how she feels: "We are not in another culture, and this is not an arranged marriage. This is human trafficking….You're sending me to live with a stranger, sleep with a stranger, just for your own personal gain"
Pyotr tries to court Kate, despite her irritability, her rudeness and her flat refusal to help. And despite the gross insult she perceives at the suggestion, his enthusiasm, his lack of guile and his straight talking begins to weaken her resolve "…they say you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" she tells him. "Yes, they would," Pyotr said, mysteriously. "But why would you want to catch flies, hah? Answer me that, vinegar girl"
Anne Tyler's version of this classic Shakespeare tale is an absolute delight. Her characters are ordinary people with flaws and believable quirks; their dialogue is just as ordinary and everyday; and yet, they are endearing, each in their own way. Her descriptive prose is marvellous: "an unhealthy-looking young man with patchy beige chin whiskers that reminded Kate of lichen". And the tale is filled with humour: the reader will find themselves smiling, chuckling and (at least at the wedding ceremony) laughing out loud. Witty and funny.
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Details
- Bookseller
- A Cappella Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 277113
- Title
- Vinegar Girl
- Author
- Anne Tyler
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First American
- ISBN 10
- 0804141266
- ISBN 13
- 9780804141260
- Publisher
- Hogarth
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- June 2016
- Pages
- 224
Terms of Sale
A Cappella Books
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About the Seller
A Cappella Books
Biblio member since 2005
Atlanta, Georgia
About A Cappella Books
https://mailchi.mp/acappellabooks/signed-books-from-online-marketplaces
A Cappella Books is a full service used, new & out-of-print bookstore located in the heart of Atlanta's bohemian district, Little 5 Points, since 1989. We stock a general selection of some 20 to 30, 000 paperbacks & hardcovers, ranging from the common to the quite scarce. Our specialties reflect the personality of our neighborhood and, to varying degrees, our staff. But don't be fooled, we really have something for almost everybody who loves books. Come see us.
A Cappella Books is a full service used, new & out-of-print bookstore located in the heart of Atlanta's bohemian district, Little 5 Points, since 1989. We stock a general selection of some 20 to 30, 000 paperbacks & hardcovers, ranging from the common to the quite scarce. Our specialties reflect the personality of our neighborhood and, to varying degrees, our staff. But don't be fooled, we really have something for almost everybody who loves books. Come see us.