A review by fayebean
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future by James Shapiro

3.0

i like the conceit and thought it was an interesting book but... Shakespeare's works are overly magnified and so some of the anxieties that spring up in our culture and intersect with the performance of his plays have a lot to do with the outsized role he plays in our English language and literature classes at the expense of other authors, playwrights and cultures. This may not have been the book to wrestle with that but there is implication that Shakespeare speaks to all people at all times and has something profound to say to us about our past and future and I am not sure that that is the case. I though it was interesting but a little shallow for such a well reviewed book.