Book Review: ME AND SHAKESPEARE by Herman Gollob

Me and Shakespeare: Adventures with the Bard by Herman Gollob

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Why shouldn't I, why couldn't I, enlarge my field of vision before the screen went blank? ... I stood in the middle of the yard, an old man made mad by a love of Shakespeare...I could feel bursting inside me, still there with a vengeance... that heightened sensitivity to the promise of life."

Having endured a particularly rough past couple of weeks, I reached out for this book to fill my near-desperate need for civilization. And man, I certainly got it in spades!

Part graduate-thesis-substitute, part memoir, part lesson plan, and mostly a passionate fan's undertaking to list down any and all experiences relating to The Bard... this book was an unexpected joy to read. It is not an easy read, nor at times not even pleasant --with the author's tendency to name drop famous actors, directors, and intellectuals, and then insert a condescending line about them should their opinion differ from his -- but it shines with fervor and zeal for the pure joy of learning, of seeking civilized environments and the company of civilized men who seek to expand themselves through the study of literature, no matter what age they may be.

I read parts of it in public and couldn't help chuckle out loud at some parts! While far from being the humble narrator readers more easily warm to, the erudite Herman Gollob certainly CAN write! After all, he DID retire a Senior VP of Doubleday, having edited the likes of James Clavell and Leon Uris, among others. Despite the lack of formal academic credentials (he had yet to "get that goddamned M.A.!"), his literariness shone through with restatements of famous poems, assuming that his reader would be familiar enough with Gerard Manley Hopkins and others to pick up on the references.

The book is divided into four major parts: his background before embracing Shakespeare studies (informally) upon retiring, becoming a teacher at the age of 67 and jotting down outlines of his lectures, his adventures in Oxford during a Shakespeare summer course, and his quest to interview and watch Shakespeare experts direct professional actors.

Gollob saw the Divine Hand in everything, seeing the truth that there is indeed a divinity that shapes our ends. He also saw most clearly how self-enrichment had to have purpose beyond study for its own sake.

Gollob calls Shakespeare "The Cosmic Poet." His theses? That Shakespeare retold Holy Scripture, enacted in his multiple plays, all of them metaphors for how interwoven mankind is with God and the cosmos.

This is a treasure trove for teachers, actors, directors, and lovers of literature. And for anyone who grows old. In short, it's a must-read for all.



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