Willie Shakespeare Greenberg is not living up to his name. It's 1986, and instead of finishing his thesis on the Bard, this grad student is saying "yes" to drugs, bedding coeds, and delivering a giant psychedelic mushroom to a mysterious collector. Meanwhile (or rather, back in 1582), would-be playwright William Shakespeare is an eighteen-year-old Latin teacher whose world is turned upside down when a stranger entrusts him with a sacred relic from Rome, drawing him into an underground network of Catholic dissidents. When the lives of Willie and William begin to eerily intertwine, their wild misadventures will shape not only the "Shakespeare" each is destined to become...but the very course of history itself.
My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The two narratives in Winfield's whimsical debut are unified by their shared irreverence, humor and literary gusto. The first tale is of Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a grad student trying to prove in his hastily conceived thesis that Shakespeare was a closeted Catholic. Short on cash, stoner Willie agrees to mule a superpsychedelic mushroom and a pound of weed to a couple of Renaissance Faire enthusiasts, all the while nursing his infatuation with Dashka Demitra, his sexy thesis adviser. Willie's journey is interspersed with accounts of the other Shakespeare as he, in the months leading up to his wedding, has run-ins with hallucinatory substances and comely women while delivering a secret package to a Catholic dissident. Willie's a lovable schlemiel whose clumsy strides toward attaining a genuine understanding of Shakespeare's work mirror in many ways the Bard's quest to become the great playwright we now study. Winfield uses his deep understanding of Shakespeare's work and times (he is a founding member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company) to great effect, and his affection for the material shines throughout. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Winfield, cofounder of the comedy troupe Reduced Shakespeare Company, brings an intimate knowledge of the Bard as well as an infectious sense of humor to this witty first novel. In a dual narrative, we follow both Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a perpetually stoned graduate student, and the young playwright himself as he tentatively feels his way toward his destiny. Having spent the past two years struggling to come up with a master’s thesis in his Shakespeare studies, Willie finds himself desperately short of cash when his father cuts off his funding. He impulsively agrees to deliver drugs, including a gigantic psychedelic mushroom, to a buyer at the Renaissance Faire, traveling to the site with his latest infatuation, a sexy fellow grad student. Meanwhile, 18-year-old William, fond of wordplay and even fonder of women, agrees to deliver a package to an oppressed Catholic firebrand. Each story mirrors the other as the two young men gradually grow wiser about both the ways of the world and their own emotional shortcomings. Bawdy puns, a clever construction, and a deliciously irreverent sense of humor make this debut novel irresistible. --Joanne Wilkinson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Often, historical characters in fiction are portrayed in the fullness of their achievement. In "My Name Is Will", Shakespeare is presented prior to his becoming a great and well known playwright; he is eighteen, just discovering his talent and starting to figure out his life. This can be a much more interesting period of a character's life I think than the later periods. In this case, it is made even more interesting because Shakespeare is portrayed as a Catholic actively involved with the Catholic underground in England. As Shakespeare is coming to understand his own character and getting to know the bonny maids of Stratford, he is also deeply involved in dangerous intrigues at a fascinating time in English history. All of which is quite a bit of fun.
Shakespeare's story is interspersed with the story of Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a Master's student working on his thesis on Shakespeare and also discovering who he is. In parallel fashion, adroitly handled, both the historical and contemporary Shakespeares find themselves and get their lives going. I think this is one of the key narrative challenges of the piece -- making these parallel stories complement each other -- but it is adroitly handled and I would not want to give up the contemporary reflection of Shakespeare.
So...fun on many levels. The story of Elizabethan intrigue was very compelling and could have been a book in itself. The self-discovery of the lead characters was very well handled, making it a more personal and three-dimensional story. Winfield, who co-created and acted in the Reduced Shakespeare Company, has a flawless ear for Elizabethan language and punnery without which the book would not have worked; as it is, it does all come out perfectly, which greatly adds to the realism and charm of the work.
I recommend My Name Is Will to anyone who wants a little escapism, a bit of intrigue, a new look at Shakespeare and a lot of romance this summer.
Shakespeare's story is interspersed with the story of Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a Master's student working on his thesis on Shakespeare and also discovering who he is. In parallel fashion, adroitly handled, both the historical and contemporary Shakespeares find themselves and get their lives going. I think this is one of the key narrative challenges of the piece -- making these parallel stories complement each other -- but it is adroitly handled and I would not want to give up the contemporary reflection of Shakespeare.
So...fun on many levels. The story of Elizabethan intrigue was very compelling and could have been a book in itself. The self-discovery of the lead characters was very well handled, making it a more personal and three-dimensional story. Winfield, who co-created and acted in the Reduced Shakespeare Company, has a flawless ear for Elizabethan language and punnery without which the book would not have worked; as it is, it does all come out perfectly, which greatly adds to the realism and charm of the work.
I recommend My Name Is Will to anyone who wants a little escapism, a bit of intrigue, a new look at Shakespeare and a lot of romance this summer.
16 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Meet Willie Shakespeare Greenberg - a struggling thesis-writer, small-scale drug user and future scholar. Meet also William Shakespeare - a womanizing youth, closeted Catholic and future bard. Two men, 300 years apart in time, but joined by name and history.
My Name Is Will is the story of two Wills who have more in common than one would think at a first glance, because really - isn't it almost sacrilege to suggest that a 1986's pothead and wanna-be thesis writer should have anything at all in common with the greatest bard in English history? At the surface, one would think so, but then, how much do we know about Shakespeare's life before he became. well, Shakespeare?
Isn't it very logical to assume that his life couldn't have been all smooth sailing for him to be able to write of such passionate love and dysfunctional families as we see in his plays and sonnets? Jess Winfield clearly thinks so, and manages to weave a fascinating tale where every second chapter follows William Shakespeare in the weeks up to his marriage to Anne Hathaway, and every second chapter follows Willie Shakespeare in his quest for knowledge about himself, and his famous namesake.
In the beginning one has to get used to the jumping back and forth in time as each chapter ends, but like in Peg Kerr's The Wild Swans, the transitions work and the two stories in one mesh together very well as I constantly found hints in one of what would happen (or had happened) in the other.
My Name Is Will is subtitled "A Novel of Sex, Drugs and Shakepeare" for a good reason. It is not very reverent, and Shakespeare lovers who are easily offended should probably stay clear of the book. However, I appreciated seeing even a fictionalized human side of the legendary bard. It is perhaps not a very scholarly read, but definitely a very enjoyable one.
Oh and yes, we are given at least a hint of an answer to the old and burning question: why did Shakespeare leave Anne his "second-best bed" in his will.
Armchair Interviews says: Learn and laugh at the same time.
My Name Is Will is the story of two Wills who have more in common than one would think at a first glance, because really - isn't it almost sacrilege to suggest that a 1986's pothead and wanna-be thesis writer should have anything at all in common with the greatest bard in English history? At the surface, one would think so, but then, how much do we know about Shakespeare's life before he became. well, Shakespeare?
Isn't it very logical to assume that his life couldn't have been all smooth sailing for him to be able to write of such passionate love and dysfunctional families as we see in his plays and sonnets? Jess Winfield clearly thinks so, and manages to weave a fascinating tale where every second chapter follows William Shakespeare in the weeks up to his marriage to Anne Hathaway, and every second chapter follows Willie Shakespeare in his quest for knowledge about himself, and his famous namesake.
In the beginning one has to get used to the jumping back and forth in time as each chapter ends, but like in Peg Kerr's The Wild Swans, the transitions work and the two stories in one mesh together very well as I constantly found hints in one of what would happen (or had happened) in the other.
My Name Is Will is subtitled "A Novel of Sex, Drugs and Shakepeare" for a good reason. It is not very reverent, and Shakespeare lovers who are easily offended should probably stay clear of the book. However, I appreciated seeing even a fictionalized human side of the legendary bard. It is perhaps not a very scholarly read, but definitely a very enjoyable one.
Oh and yes, we are given at least a hint of an answer to the old and burning question: why did Shakespeare leave Anne his "second-best bed" in his will.
Armchair Interviews says: Learn and laugh at the same time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"My Name is Will" is an extraordinary piece of written theater. It has a magical pacing, serious one moment, hysterically funny the next. Jess Winfield knows how to work an audience masterfully--if you haven't see the Reduced Shakespeare Comany, rent the DVD. His writing reminds me of Neal Stephenson (with a lot fewer pages and much tighter action) and Joe Quirk's brilliant and wonderful "Ultimate Rush." There are very few authors who make me regularly make me break out in big belly laughs and gleeful giggling. Over and again, I had to put the book down until I could focus again.
The humanity of William and Willie moved me, bringing me back to the struggles and challenges I faced when I was younger (I would have been a few years behind Willie, majoring in English and rebelling against Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs in the mid-80s). The brilliant puns and playfulness were perfectly balanced, not too much, and as often as not needing a double-or-triple take to catch (and I'm sure I missed as many as I found).
The wonderful details of William's life created a picture a a real person, having the real experiences that would allow him to write what he did: His sassy, smart, strong-willed girlfriend Rosaline; the apothecary; the witch in the woods; the merry band of amateur players . . . wonderful characters you could imagine young William meeting in 16th century rural England, and later turning into some of his most wonderful characters.
I checked the book out from the library, inhaled it, and just returned it. I wish I'd hung on to it, as now I want to read it again--I never do that! I'll be back for it in the morning.
The humanity of William and Willie moved me, bringing me back to the struggles and challenges I faced when I was younger (I would have been a few years behind Willie, majoring in English and rebelling against Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs in the mid-80s). The brilliant puns and playfulness were perfectly balanced, not too much, and as often as not needing a double-or-triple take to catch (and I'm sure I missed as many as I found).
The wonderful details of William's life created a picture a a real person, having the real experiences that would allow him to write what he did: His sassy, smart, strong-willed girlfriend Rosaline; the apothecary; the witch in the woods; the merry band of amateur players . . . wonderful characters you could imagine young William meeting in 16th century rural England, and later turning into some of his most wonderful characters.
I checked the book out from the library, inhaled it, and just returned it. I wish I'd hung on to it, as now I want to read it again--I never do that! I'll be back for it in the morning.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
For Shakespeare Fans
I liked all the Shakespeare references, and the such. But if you haven't read a lot of Shakespeare you will find this book boring. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Daniel T. Virtue
Brilliant and FUN!
There is no question Jess Winfield is a Shakespearian guru. It is a fun and entertaining read. OF COURSE the story line of William Shakespeare is gorgeous with a greater richness... Read more
Published 19 months ago by K. Jones
a fun read
I really like reading this book. I was a Literature major at UCSC myself and can visualize many of the campus setting Winfield references. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Senor Seifert
Sex, Drugs, Shakespeare...And organic ambien
I was excited to read this book. I really was. Winfield has a prominent position in the Shakespeare community, and the idea of intertwining a modern day graduate student and... Read more
Published on March 15, 2010 by Napoleon Bloom
LOVED IT!
I loved this book so much, I searched for the author online and found his contact information so I could tell him myself. Read more
Published on February 13, 2010 by Heather A. Teysko
It's a good one
I kept putting this book off just because I don't really understand Shakespeare and so I skimmed the fist few chapters and they included various verses and lines from some of his... Read more
Published on September 27, 2009 by Leslie
To read or not to read?
I loved the connections between the past and present Wills. However, their characterization was so similar that at times I couldn't keep their story lines apart. Read more
Published on August 13, 2009 by IEatBooks4Breakfast
my name is will--book review
SmokingStruggling UC Santa Cruz grad student Willie Shakespeare Greenberg is trying to write his thesis about the Bard. Kind of. Read more
Published on August 11, 2009 by Julie
Sex, Drugs & Shakespeare
Synopsis:
Set simultaneously in California in 1986 and in England in 1582, My Name is Will introduces us to two young William Shakespeares. Read more
Set simultaneously in California in 1986 and in England in 1582, My Name is Will introduces us to two young William Shakespeares. Read more
Published on July 27, 2009 by M. Lapus
A Fun Read
An inventive and entertaining novel that juxtaposes William Shakespeare's life at age 18 with 1980's era doppelganger Willie Shakespeare Greenburg, a slacker grad student at UC... Read more
Published on July 25, 2009 by fizbinboy
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
