Vinegar Girl Sparknotes

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler is a 2016 retelling of William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. The book was published as part of the “Hogarth Shakespeare” project by Random House. Tyler’s protagonist, Kate Battista, is just as strong-willed as Shakespeare’s Katherina. Likewise, both protagonists are prickly with those around them. Tyler opens Vinegar Girl with Kate in her garden her father, Dr. Battista, calls her on the phone. He forgot his lunch and would like her to bring it to him. Kate agrees, and, at Dr. Battista’s lab, she meets Pyotr, the lab assistant.

Pyotr has a problem. His visa will soon expire and he’s at risk for deportation. But Dr. Battista insists that he needs Pyotr in order to continue his research, so he wants Kate and Pyotr to marry so that Pyotr can stay in the country and in the lab. Kate takes offense to this suggestion and digs her heels in—she won’t marry Pyotr. However, the more she thinks about her own situation and her loneliness, the more she wonders if she should marry Pyotr, much as she despises the way the marriage would come about. Kate also thinks that being rushed into such a marriage is the only kind of relationship she’s worthy of.

Kate’s profession is as a preschool teacher’s aide. After she
She warns Kate about this relationship because she perceives that Pyotr is trying to direct Kate—and Bunny knows that her sister doesn’t want to be directed by anyone. Despite Bunny’s warnings that Pyotr is controlling, she pretends to be a vegetarian to please Edward. Edward has been telling Bunny about how animals are treated as well as the dangers in the meat processing industry for humans. In an effort to impress him, she claims she no longer eats meat. The irony is that while Bunny doesn’t want her older sister to be controlled by Pyotr, she’s basing her own decisions on Edward’s, therefore she’s indirectly controlled by