Since I have an unpublished novel written with more than one point of view, I know how difficult that device can be. That’s why I give all possible kudos to Jess Winfield‘s excellent book “My Name is Will.”
Not only does he juggle two main characters from two distinct periods of time, but one of them is William Shakespeare as an 18-year-old going through (hypothetically) the experiences which shaped his writing career. At the same time, we watch Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a perpetual grad student with an interest in The Bard, wind his way through a maze of (as the subtitle “A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare” tells us) relationships, illicit substances and general mayhem.
Winfield knows his subject. He helped found the Reduced Shakespeare Company comedy troupe, where he co-wrote and performed the stage parody “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).”
That’s why I had to trust, after a few chapters, that the whole story of William and Willie would eventually make sense. It seemed a stretch at first, but as Willie went through his adventures and very believable situations in William’s life gave credence to the notion that he experienced things that he could turn into his famous scenes, the twin stories worked very well together.
i think the thing which accomplished this was how Winfield did not approach the Shakespeare scenes with any kind of reverence. All too often, people romanticize the past without considering that people lived in often horrible conditions at that time and – no matter what movies might tell us – things could be just as base and crude as they are now. They just wore fancier clothes.
So by creating a believable kinship between Willie and William, Winfield makes you begin to connect the common thread of humanity which has made Shakespeare’s plays so timeless. This makes it easier for the one chaotic chapter where the reader really can’t tell whether the story is following Willie or William.
Don’t get intimidated by the picture of Shakespeare on the cover. The hilarity and irreverence will make this book enjoyable even if your only reference for his work is the production of “Hamlet” from “Gilligan’s Island.”