Second Fiddle Shakespeare

There’s something you don’t hear everyday.

I knew about Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters, her debut novel about a father and his three daughters who spend a good chunk of their time quoting Shakespeare.  I actually have a copy around here someplace that was sent to me as a gift (thanks!)

I just assumed that it followed the standard format, where somebody took a bunch of Shakespeare as foundation and then wrote a story around it.  I mean, after all – weird sisters? Father and his three daughters? Seemed obvious. But this interview with the author is where I spotted the “second fiddle” thing, because it’s here that she comes right out and says that all the Shakespeare content is not an homage, but rather the “workhorses” for getting her bigger point across.

I wonder about that.  Like I said, I’ve not yet read the book.  Is it even possible for Shakespeare to play second fiddle?  You have to imagine that most of the press she got was for the Shakespeare connection.  And I’d bet that most of the people that read it, did so for the Shakespeare.  So is she really saying that she gave us the ol’ bait and switch, dangling some Shakespeare and setting the readers’ expectations, only to deliver something different?

Any of you read the book?  I’m curious what the dedicated Shakespeare geeks thought of it.  Did you come for the Shakespeare and leave disappointed?