By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult ...five stars plus

 

I admit that when I read the description of this book, I was afraid that it wasn’t for me. I’ve followed Jodi Picoult for years and have watched as she’s transitioned from her fascinating fiction to forays into live theater. I worried that this book would be so focused on “behind the scenes” that I wouldn’t find it interesting.

I was wrong!

 By Any Other Name is a split narrative novel, with the narrators being Melina Green, in 2024, and Emilia Bassano, 1582 to her death in 1645. Both women are playwrights, though neither are recognized for it. The difference is, though slim, Melina can legally and morally be a playwright, while Emilia cannot. Women simply do not have agency or rights in Elizabethan England.

But as writers know, when called to write, there is no option. So, despite her inability to get her plays produced, Melina continues to write. She stumbles upon an ancestor who published one of the first books of poetry by a woman author, Emilia Bassano. The more she learns about Emilia, the more she is convinced that Emilia found a way to get her own plays produced, by selling them to a man who had access to the theater, when she did not. The man? William Shakespeare.

The more we learn about Emilia, through Melina’s (i.e. Jodi’s!) research the more we are also convinced. Any woman today who’s ever had a man take credit for her work will understand. We do it because it is the way things are done. The young lawyer asked to write an opinion letter for her boss to sign understands. The medical professional who is granted a sub byline on the paper she has spent all her time researching yields to the doctor in charge. The TA who spends her time in the classroom and her free time making discoveries for her “mentor” understands. It is common, and there is no reason not to accept that it happened in the 1500s either.

Jodi Picoult is an amazing writer, and she brings these characters, and all the people they interact with, to life. Those characters are diverse: from the gay roommate, also an undiscovered talent, to her neurodivergent critic who opens his mind.

I love this book. I wanted to rush through it to publish this review on the publication day, but found myself too engaged, to invested in the text to rush. The author’s note and acknowledgements are fascinating and not to be missed as well.

I always feel more informed when I read a Jodi Picoult book, as she doesn’t shy from the controversial issues of the day. I suspect there will be controversy over this too, though it won’t make journalistic headlines. Nor will the theories and conclusions she’s reached disappear from the minds of those who read it. This is fiction, and historical fiction, at its finest.

The book was released on August 20, 2024, by Random House/Ballantine. Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.