Lear's Shadow

by Claire Holden Rothman

I picked this book up while browsing at Chapters, I thought the story was potentially interesting.
It is the story of a middle-aged woman whose life is falling apart, her lover with whom she co-owned a yoga studio has left her and she is basically bankrupt.  She sells the yoga studio,
In desperation she takes a job as an Assistant at a Montreal summer theatre company as a jack of all trades.  The cast includes an ornery drunk, who is cast as Lear.

While she is trying to keep up with the workload of this demanding but low paying job her sisters marriage is falling apart and her father is displaying symptoms of dementia.  Her sister insists that she move in with her father as a caregiver.  She hardly gets any sleep as her father has a tendency to sleepwalk.  Eventually the sister moves into the father's home with her children.

I am not familiar with the Lear story but assume the daughter's struggle with the father is meant to reflect the Lear story.  One thing I don't understand entirely, the women's father seemed to be quite wealthy.  I don't understand why the main character didn't ask her father to help her out.  He was cantankerous and might have refused but I think she could have asked.

I have read some online reviews of the book, some people really liked it but many were lukewarm or even disappointed.  So I don't feel bad to say that taking on the Lear story and trying to pair it with the modern world could have been interesting and powerful.  I think this was a weak effort, grabbing onto a powerful story of Shakespeare for appeal but weak by comparison.