Dear Fellow Reader,

It is only mid to late August, but I can tell that fall is coming. Partly because it gets so much cooler at night. It is like the sun just can’t keep the warmth up all day and night anymore. That it is tired and just needs a break. I notice the mornings are quieter also. In the spring, the early mornings are alive with birds vying for notice. As we move into fall, they are much quieter. The garden gives off signals that different plants are starting to call it quits. Always sad to see but I must admit that I do like that little bite in the air. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of warm days left. I always think that it gets hot just as the kids go back to school. The little girls are dying to wear all those new back-to-school clothes, but it is just too hot for them.

By Any Other Name is the new novel by Jodi Picoult. I confess that, even though highly recommended, I have not read many books by Jodi Picoult. A quick lookup tells me that she had 28 books and novellas. I know that I have read at least one other. So, I want to say this is her first foray into historical fiction, but I am probably incorrect. This story is the story of two women separated in time. Emilia Bassano was born in 1569 and Melina Green was born around 1995.  

As the book opens, we meet Melina Green. She is a playwright who is a senior at Bard College and is urged by her professor to enter a Bard College-sponsored playwriting competition. The prize was a guaranteed slot at the Samuel French Off Off-Broadway Short Play Festival. Her professor repeats that while her writing is clear and compelling, it is emotionally sterile. He wants her to show more of herself in her work. She didn’t feel that anyone really wanted to know her. She writes a new play and enters it. Her play makes it to the final round of the competition. The final round has a surprise judge, the theater critic from the New York Times, Jasper Tolle. Her play does not win the competition, and she is humiliated by the criticism that was given to her by Jasper Tolle.

While she was writing the play, she received a letter from her father. Her father had gotten interested in genealogy and he was writing to tell her that she was related to the first published female poet in England, Emilia Bassano.

In the book, the story of Emilia Bassano starts in the year 1581, when she is 12 years old and an orphan. She learned that the countess, who had taken care of her, would be leaving. Emilia’s parents are dead but she still has cousins and other relatives who live in London. Emilia’s family were court musicians. Emilia had a full education with the countess, reading, writing, languages, and dancing. (She knew more about music than the countess.) Emilia would go weekly to London to visit her family, where they lived in the Italian community. Her family was Jewish, and this was the night that they celebrated with Shabbat dinner. Judaism was forbidden so they celebrated in secret.

Melina Green becomes fascinated by her relative and does more research about her. As the story progresses, Melina writes a play based on the life of Emilia. Through the play, she proposes a theory that Emilia wrote some the plays credited to Shakespeare. When the play is complete, Melina’s best friend, Andre drunkenly submits it to a competition under the name Mel Green.

The story progresses at a good pace. Both characters meet obstacles and conquer them; love, loss, success and failures are part of both lives.

It took me a little bit to get into the book but then I really enjoyed it. I think I was chafing against reading yet another book that has characters that take you back and forth in time. There is a lot of meat in this book. Lots of different things happen to the characters. The hardships do not seem contrived which makes it easier to read and enjoy the story. The book was interesting.

This is a definite “read it”. I think you will be happy that you did.

Here is a link to a TikTok of Jodi Picoult talking about Shakespeare and Emilia Bassano. https://www.tiktok.com/@jodipicoult/video/7374792241115598126.

Thanks for reading!