Shakespeare On Toast

"You've never heard a Shakespeare sonnet until you've heard it rapped..."
Wait..what?? Shakespeare and rap? In the same sentence, in connection with each other? Yes, that's right.

At a fundamental level, no matter how much most of us who want to sound intellectual spout quotes from Shakespeare's work, most of the spouts are actually scared to pieces if faced with the prospect of actually reading on of his plays.

I studied The Merchant Of Venice for my 10th grade board exams - read it, dissected it, learned parts of it by heart, and tried to score as many marks in the test as possible. But, I confess, I didn't enjoy it. The whole experience kind of put me off Shakespeare. Until I read Shakespeare On Toast.

Ben Crystal tries to remove the ordinary reader's apprehensions about getting into Shakespeare's work, and largely succeeds. By the time you finish the book, you'll probably be raring to go and get your hands on a copy of The Tempest, Hamlet, or maybe even (gasp!!) a Collected Works edition.

The appeal of this tome lies in the treatment. It is humorous and witty, without dumbing it down. It's very easy to read, the sentences flow with a very casual conversational style. I like how there's usage of conversational expressions like "wanna". It is almost like the writer is sitting across to you and telling you why  you shouldn't let the almost mythical stature of Shakespeare scare you off. It's like he's saying "Hey, you're missing a good thing, buddy!" over a cup of coffee.

The author tries to de-mystify Shakespeare, who has been put on a pedestal and more or less deified. This intimidates most prospective readers. But Shakespeare was not writing for a bunch of elitist Eng.Lit. professors, he wrote plays for the populace. These plays were watched by ordinary people with little or no education or exposure to diverse people and cultures. This is the point Ben Crystal makes - he doesn't seek to explain or analyze, but to convince readers that Shakespeare (whoever he was), wrote for the people; and if you by-pass all the critical analysis and put the plays where they really belong - on the stage - they make much more sense (and they're way more enjoyable, too!).

Anecdotes and interesting facts bring Shakespeare home to the reader, and show how profoundly modern English is influenced by his work - 1700 words, and a plethora of expressions. The book also explains how most of Shakespeare is not as difficult to understand as one would think. Only 5% of the words used by him are unfamiliar to those living in the 21st century.

The author also tries to give readers an idea about theatre in Elizabethan times; the stage,the lives of the actors, the extent and scope of their rehearsals, the costumes, and much else. What emerges is a vivid picture of the whirlwind schedule of Elizabethan actors, who had very little time to rehearse (if any), and how Shakespeare used meter and other hints in the text of his plays to indicate how the scenes should be acted.
Which brings us to two of the most dreaded words in English - iambic pentameter. This is the fearsome dragon that guards Shakespeare's verse. And Mr. Crystal (my hero..!!) tames it to a nice little cuddly pet with his amazingly lucid explanation of the meter and it's use in Shakespeare's verse.

The division of the chapters into acts and scenes is a nice little touch, one of many, in fact. The liberal use of pop-culture references makes this book that much more appealing and approachable. And there are these cool little boxes interspersed throughout the text. They contain the most delicious little snippets: how much did it cost to go to the theatre in Elizabethan times?, Shakespeare and soap opera, A day in the life of an Elizabethan actor, "I think, therefore I iamb", and my personal favorite - Colorful insults in Shakespeare's plays.

This is a charming, insightful and well-researched book that manages to keep your attention until the last page - and leaves you wanting for more. Maybe I will have a go at those sonnets again, eh? Cheerio!! :)