I, BILLY SHAKESPEARE!

by William Peter Blatty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 1965

Blatty (John Goldfarb, Please Come Homel) seems to have composed this abject and brief chronicle during a midsummer's drunken about with a tape recorder. The novel purports to be six reels of tape spirited into the States by a female CIA agent and containing the voice of Shakespeare. Plot there is none. After several tapes strung together on the theme of Willy's defense of his plays' authorship, Blatty makes a passing stab at a story by having the poet accidentally materialize in Castro's Havana headquarters. Castro hires Shakespeare to pen the script for Flaming Victory at the Bay of Pigs, based loosely upon Henry V. Mostly, the reader is offered sniping epithets at Bacon, Jonson, Marlowe and today's academicians. Occasionally, Blatty bats out an amusing truth, but really he has no gift for epithet and spleen.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION