Scholars often question the authenticity of William Shakespeare's prolific and impressive canon, but in Jess Winfield's "My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare," one aspect of his life is certain?it was a party. Winfield leaves many questions unanswered: Is it really plausible that the son of a tanner from Stratford-Upon-Avon could be the master of the theater? He had only a limited formal education, so how does one explain his immense vocabulary? But while Winfield does not try to prove or debunk the real identity of Shakespeare, he offers an engaging spin on the playwright's life in his debut novel.
The novel is divided into alternating storylines. William Shakespeare Greenberg is an English grad student at University of California, Santa Cruz, in the 80s. Willie, as he's called, is having trouble putting his finger on his thesis. He knows Shakespeare will be his topic, but is no longer sure why the playwright resonates with him, aside from his having the bard's surname as his middle name.
Willie's intellectual focus is frequently interrupted by other explorations of the psyche, namely experimentations with combinations of mushrooms and pot in large quantities. Lustful and misdirected, Willie searches for a better understanding of Shakespeare as well as a buyer for the largest mushroom he's ever seen.
Meanwhile, back in the 14th century, William Shakespeare is busy pissing off authority and spouting sonnets. Winfield allows Shakespeare to bed many a lass in the fields. Young William has a quick tongue and is working as an English master at a boy's school. The Shakespeare that Winfield describes is virulent and lively and the author glibly imagines the source of some of the bard's most famous poetry.
Winfield intertwines Willie and William's lives in two ways. Sections of Willie's completed thesis introduce each section that takes the reader to William's present, while Shakespeare quotes are included at the start of each of Willie's. The bare bones of the latter's thesis are that William was a secret Catholic. The William of the novel obliges by becoming embroiled in the underground world of the papists of which his mother is one. This component allows for more drama and for yet another twist of the Shakespeare biography. Winfield's second ploy is to have the two characters' realities intersect bizarrely, and somewhat ineffectively, toward the close of the novel.
Winfield does a fair job of evoking the atmosphere of the 1500s. I was satisfactorily disgusted by the squalor in which the people of England lived at the time. Winfield has no qualms about using graphic imagery to conjure a scene or an emotion. Both time periods were vivid but Shakespeare's proved the more striking because of its unfamiliarity.
The drugs and sex, to which the title refers, abound. William indulges in liquid substance abuse available while Willie dips into the much vaster array of psychedelics. Both gentlemen plentifully indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. Their paramours are lovely and/or seductive. William has a charming way with the ladies whereas Willie seems to end up with his partners out of sheer luck. Winfield goes to town a bit with his illustrations of their love affairs. There are fields and dark corners for William's dalliances, while Willie is allowed a more colorful array of futons, tents and, in one particularly spicy instance, the back of a bus.
"My Name is Will" is crammed with wisecracks and puns. Winfield is a little heavy-handed and forces too many parallels between his two protagonists, but the novel is undeniably fun. As only an amateur fan of Shakespeare, I can't imagine the effect this book will have on real aficionados. But if you like a laugh, a quick read, and steamy literature from time to time, "My Name is Will" is a great way to fill a few cloudy afternoons.