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Shylock is My Name

Shylock is My Name

The Merchant of Venice Retold
DramaLiterary Fiction
Published
2016
Language
English

Synopsis

In this entry in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, art collector and single father Simon Strulovitch encounters Shylock at a cemetery, each visiting the grave of a wife. Strulovitch invites him home, and the two men's lives entwine as Strulovitch struggles with his daughter Beatrice's relationship with a footballer notorious for a Nazi salute, while Shylock alternates between grief for his late wife and anger at his own daughter Jessica's rejection of her Jewish identity. The novel restages The Merchant of Venice's central conflicts — a bond, a debt, a demand for restitution — in a contemporary English setting, using Shylock's presence to probe questions of prejudice, mercy, and inheritance the original play left unresolved.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

Thought-ProvokingPhilosophicalMelancholic

Genres

Drama Literary Fiction Contemporary Literature

About the author

H
Howard Jacobson

Howard Jacobson (born 25 August 1942 in Manchester, England) is a British novelist and journalist. Educated at Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied under F.R. Leavis, he lectured at the University of Sydney and later at Selwyn College, Cambridge and Wolverhampton Polytechnic before publishing his first novel, Coming from Behind, in 1983. He won the 2010 Booker Prize for The Finkler Question, the first comic novel to win the prize since Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils in 1986. His other no...

Characters

Simon StrulovitchProtagonist

A grieving Jewish art collector and single father.

ShylockProtagonist

Shakespeare's Shylock, who appears as a present-day companion to Strulovitch.

Beatrice StrulovitchSupporting

Simon's daughter, whose relationship with a footballer troubles him.

All characters in Shylock is My Name

Frequently asked questions

  • Do I need to have read The Merchant of Venice first?

    It helps but isn't required. The novel restages the play's central conflict with its own context, though familiarity with Shylock's original bargain deepens the read.