The benefits of belonging to a book club go beyond the reading, the discussion, and the camaraderie with friends and colleagues. For me, of equal importance, involves discovering new authors I might not consider for solo reading. My Father Had a Daughter: Judith Shakespeare’s Tale by Grace Tiffany is a perfect example. According to her website, Grace Tiffany is a professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature at Western Michigan University, and the author of five historical novels. Her fiction has been honored by the American Library Association and by Book Sense 76, the “best books” list of the association of American independent book sellers. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

At one time, I devoured as much historical fiction as I could, but like my phase reading fantasy/science fiction, it passed. Tiffany’s take on Shakespeare’s youngest daughter, might just revive that phase. In researching for this review, I see that she has a new novel, Paint, which delves into the mysterious “Dark Lady,” about whom Shakespeare wrote almost 30 sonnets.

Judith was the twin daughter of Hamnet, Shakespeare’s second and third children. Hamnet dies when he was about 11, and the circumstances are unknown. The young girl felt guilty about her brother’s death, missed her father, and feared her fate if she stayed in Stratford. So she cuts her hair, wears boys clothing, and makes her way to London. She passes as a boy, and gets a job in a pub serving ale. Nearby, the Globe theater has recently been constructed, and she visits the site. She approaches Richard Burbage, the premier actor on the Renaissance stage, and begs and cajoles him into giving her a small part in a play. She narrowly escapes the notice of her father supervising rehearsals.

Tiffany’s style captures the feel of Elizabethan England. She writes, “My brother […] was open-faced and bold, and he did what I wanted, and for that I loved him. That he was a boy and ten minutes my elder did not lead him to run riot over my desires; he was gentle and he listened and laughed out loud at all and any of my ideas and plots and was the willing reflection of my spirit. We would hang from the ash trees like monkeys, though the first time we did it my smock fell over my face. From then on, he lent me his second pair of trunks and hose, and in those I climbed as high as a squirrel. We played mumblety-peg in the garden and then, when we were six and he went to school and I had to stay home, he lent me his hornbook to show me what he had learned each day, so we learned to read together” (4). Judith faced a life of falling further and further behind the men in her life. But the free-spirited Jude was not about to let that happen.

One of the fun things about the novel is the allusions to plays sprinkled throughout. For example, when Will sends his daughter back to her mother, he comforts her when, “he kissed the top of [her head, and said] ‘All’s well that ends well, Jude’” (180). Tiffany also puts references to the “Dark Lady,” Macbeth, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Julius Caesar. My Father Had a Daughter by Grace Tiffany, is a delightful read even for those not familiar with Shakespeare and his works. 5 stars

--Jim, 8/24/14 ( )

This is an imaginative tale of a daughter of William Shakespeare, which assumes the existence of Shakespeare as the traditional low born, mostly self taught, playwright and actor. The author is herself a professor teaching Shakespeare. I enjoyed this book though some of the action seems strained. The ease with which Judith Shakespeare as a teenager slips into London and survives is somewhat unbelievable but if the author had spent the time necessary to make that transition believable, the charm of this book would be lost. It would be too long. We all know that much is assumed here and the author focuses on her character who is very interesting and complex. It is a good read and literary compared to, for example, Philippa Gregory. ( )

Told through Judith Shakespeare's eyes, the novel opens in Stratford with the twins Judith and Hamnet yearning for their father to come home. They spend hours playing Titania and Oberon down by the riverside hoping to call him home with their magic spells.

But during one of these games tragedy strikes, and when Judith finds scraps of a new play that seems to mock her grief, she follows her father to London in outrage. Once there, however, she quickly becomes just as enamoured with the world of theater as her father. And slowly she begins to understand him.

The title of the novel comes from one of Viola's speeches in Twelfth Night, and Twelfth Night holds a great deal of meaning for Judith. She uses the play as a means to revenge, to express her sorrow, to an adventure.

Judith's strong spirit makes her restless in the limited life allotted her as a woman, but her periodic adventures and the way she savors them are very risky, impetuous and real. That said I found the part in London a little unoriginal. It seems I've read that same plot line often, and this added very little of import to those readings. I greatly preferred the scenes at home in Stratford.

As Judith grows older, her observations of the relationship between her parents grow more keen and insightful. This grants a fascinating look at what Shakespeare's home life in Stratford may have been like - something generally neglected by those writing about the Bard. ( )

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