Customer Reviews

Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved

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I really loved this book. It's a fun, intelligent look at what might have been going on in the minds of Shakespeare's women. The author does a great job of telling the stories of women who are often silent in Shakespeare's plays, like Ophelia and Lady Capulet. There are also terrific stories about Shakespeare's wife, daughter and about Queen Elizabeth. I especially liked the story of his daughter, Judith and the one about Lady Macbeth. I read this sitting on my deck and it was a great start for the summer.

To read *Her Infinite Variety* is to be dazzled by Pamela Berkman's imaginative capacity. From story to story, she displays a rare ability to intuit the gaps in our knowledge of Shakespeare's women--the ones in his life as well as the ones in his art--and then to fill in those gaps with the delicate filigree of her fiction. Yet while these stories display a delicately rigorous structure, the language holding them together is as vibrant and sexy as the women they depict. If you have never enjoyed Shakespeare, buy this book. Berkman's tart-tongued Titania, her haunted Ophelia, and her utterly down-to-earth Bard (rescued, finally, from both scholars and souvenir-sellers) will make you reconsider.

Pamela Berkman's Her Infinite Variety is a clever/humorous/insightful blend of a few facts and a lot of fiction. It is a fictional treatment of the lives of the women of Shakespeare. Six of the stories are about the women in his life, and four the women of his plays. Or we might say that three about women of his plays and one about a fairy -- Titania.

Ms Berkman has done all of the work required for historic fiction: she writes of everything from the laws of the time to the family linen. To this she has added an inspired imagination and outstanding writing.

The result is an excellent collection of linked stories -- it almost adds up to a novel about Shakespear. She has taken what little we know of these figures and constructed plausible, fascinating, three-dimensional women.

I would have entitled this review "Her Infinite Imagination," but someone has already used it.

The author knows her Shakespeare and easily and convincingly immerses the reader into Elizabethan English life and attitudes. I sometimes get fed up with fiction, but these stories are exactly what I want : they are imaginative and well-written, take me to another world, and give insight into what makes people who they are and why they think and do what they do.

What a great, poignant, sexy, insightful book this is. Berkman displays a remarkable versatility of style and depth of imagination in these pages. She seems literally to jump into the skin of Shakespeare's women, both fictional and historical. One doesn't have to be a Shakespeare buff to appreciate the mastery and promise this young writer demonstrates in her stories. Kudos to Pamela Berkman! I hope we see a lot more from her.

Berkman's stories give us a multifaceted prism--"the women he loved"--through which to view Shakespeare's works and days. In Duty, we get a glimpse of the secrets Juliet's mother must hide, giving broader dimensions to the classic love story. No Cause reminds us that the people in the Bard's sublunary life were real, with needs more immediate than the call of mere literature. My favorite story (Magic Wand) has Titania bridging these worlds with an Orlando-esque sweep through time and levels of reality (which is more real--the midsummer fairy world Shakespeare created or the world that buys Globe Theatre keychains?), portraying a muse who must be written in order to live and who must live to enable a writer to create lives. These little gems are witty and thoughtful; I look forward to a deeper novel from this young author.

This is a great book. I was torn between wanting to race through each story and wanting slow down so I could savor it. Telling these Shakespearean stories from the women's perspective is such a great idea it's amazing nobody else did it first.

I won't give away the plots, but my favorite story is pobably "Dark Blue," about Ophelia from Hamlet. The story has a really insightful take on what a young girl in love with a prince must have felt, as things developed and unraveled. There are some beautiful, lyrical descriptions of the characters and situations. She mixes the simpleness of everyday things, like choosing a piece of jewelry, with some mystery, madness and tragedy. It's a powerful combination.

The other stories are full of variety and fresh perspectives. What would Juliet's mother be thinking and feeling at the morgue, there with Romeo's family? How did the women in Shakespeare's own life influence him?

I loved this book. It's the best thing I've read in years and I've been giving it as a present to all my friends.

HER INFINITE VARIETY IS A BLAST. I NEVER KNEW MUCH ABOUT SHAKESPEARE, OR CARED, BUT THIS WRITER IS SO SMART AND FUNNY ABOUT ONE ASPECT OF HIS PLAYS--THE WOMEN'S ANGLE. OUR READING GROUP WISHED IT WERE LONGER, AND THAT'S A FIRST!

I LOVED this book, and I'm not even a big Shakespeare fan. To me, this book offers a way to better understand and enjoy the plays--by imagining the women's stories in a really full and rich way. Plus, the book ends up reading like a novel, because the stories are chronological--you end up getting a fascinating picture of the life of Shakespeare. Wonderfully written, evocative, lyrical--a truly fabulous read!

Would a Rose by any other name not smell as sweet? Why not ask the Rose? That's very much what Ms. Berkman has done as she explores the Bard from the perspective of the women in his life. (What could they have been thinking? Read all here.) While academics have spent their time exploring the finite detail of what made Willie tick, Berkman has taking a refreshing approach here, with fictional viewpoints ranging from romantic, to steamy, to whimsical. This is a great read for a midsummer's night, especially for those of us hoping to store-up a few fresh images to carry along to a Shakespeare festival. We can only hope Ms. Berkman will supply a sequel soon to stave off our winter of discontent.