By Any Other Name

Was soooo excited when I saw this at Target.  Immediately went onto all three library accounts to reserve the physical and digital books.  I was like... 199 out of 200 in most cases!!  Then all of a sudden... on back to back to back days... the libraries ping me saying the book is available.  Good things come to those who wait... But waiting doesn't necessarily equate to good things.  Not in the case of this installment of Picoult who apparently, has struck out again after 2022's combo piece, Mad Honey.

It's the holiday season... which is aptly timed because "By Any Other Name" is like Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol... a time period piece traversing the multi-verses of modern day Melina (Mel) and the Shakespearean Era of Emilia.  The two are linked by genealogical lineage - the great, great, great grand parent of the other... and the latter is also the creative byproduct of the former, where modern day Melina, who hides her identity behind a non-binary name, recollects the triumphs and gut-wrenching/all-too-real defeats of the muse that helped shape modern day high school English classes. Though there is a contrast of the gender and class struggles from the gaps in centuries, Picoult deep dives into the raw and genuine discrimination that blindly exists or is aptly accepted today with the voice of the minority being crushed by the stalwarths of society established not by their own faults... but traces back to Eve giving the apple to Adam, or Adam accepting the apple from Eve.   

Poetry is my not cup of tea... nor is the ideaology that Shakespeare or Victorian? English will cause one to float on a cloud.  What floated... were the turning pages skipping the irrelevant only to find nothing was missed with every passing cloud.  Picoult did light a fire under me with her all too graphic and vivid description of domestic violence and the recovery of it.  Having been in two delivery rooms.. I was standing right there in the delivery room next to a 17th century midwife, no epidural, and miracle of life.  I'd be remiss if I did not mention the eroticism in the love-making scenes juxtaposed with the act of pro-creation or carnal satisfaction. 

As was the theme throughout the book... this compare and contrast left me doing the same with her previous works.  Still vital... is Picoult's amazing use of metaphors. Character buildup... disdain or empathy alike.  Long gone is that final twist that's as staple as Columbo's "one more thing."  As the reader turns the pages... or in some cases, fast-forwards the pages... one can't hope and wish that this book was not actually written by Jodi... but by Mel or Emila... or by any other name...