November 30, 2015
In the second Hogarth retelling of Shakespeare (following Jeanette Winterson’s retelling of The Winter’s Tale), Booker winner Jacobson plunks an unchanged Shylock into present-day suburban Manchester for a take on The Merchant of Venice. When businessman and philanthropist Simon Strulovitch meets Shylock, he’s fascinated: who better to talk through his Jewish issues with? Shakespeare’s other characters get updated: Antonio is an art dealer who does favors for handsome men, among them versions of Bassanio and Gratiano—one a dopey boy toy, the other a dopier footballer. When Gratiano (here named Gratan) begins dating Strulovitch’s daughter, the question arises whether Gratan will convert, which would involve circumcision. Jacobson isn’t cheating—the circumcision is one reading of the famous pound of flesh—but here it’s the engine of the plot. The other, bigger problem is Portia, whom Jacobson recreates as a reality-show host named Anna Livia Plurabelle Cleopatra A Thing Of Beauty Is A Joy Forever Christine. This dim Portia cheats the play and saps the book’s power: there’s not much conflict when one side (Shylock and Strulovitch) has all the good lines. When Shylock and Strulovitch are swapping jokes, stories, and fears, the tale is energetic, but Jacobson’s dutiful unfolding of the original plot dissipates the book’s force, making it more of a curio than a work that stands on its own.