My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare

Jess Winfield
Twelve (2008)
ISBN 9780446508858
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer for Reader Views (8/08)


Mr. Winfield does know his Shakespeare, which is evident in his writing of this book. Although sometimes a little hard to read, Mr. Winfield brings together life before William Shakespeare became the writer he was and a drug-using Will who is in graduate school in California.

Will Greenberg wants to do his master’s thesis on the religious controversy about William Shakespeare, whom he thought to be a closet Catholic during a time when Catholic’s were persecuted. Having waited to do his thesis at the last moment, Will is drawn to drugs, sex and plain shenanigans.

One would have to know something about Shakespeare to enjoy the humor prepared by Mr. Winfield in “My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare.” I found the book a tad bit hard to read with alternating between the “before” William Shakespeare and the college student Will.

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