Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith.

 I was introduced to the concept (conspiracy theory) that William Shakespeare may not have have written any or all (depending on the theory) of the works attributed to him in a book called Interred with their bones. I LOVE the book, read it a few years ago and still think about it. Ironically, the sequel was God awful and I couldn’t even finish it. Many people, usually called “Oxfordians” believe the actual author was the Earl of Oxford. Either way, Chasing Shakespeares compounds upon this notion that Shakespeare may not be the glover’s son from Stratford who was an essential nobody, wrote the greatest things ever produced in the English language, and then died.

Chasing Shakespeares follows Joe, his friend Mary Cat who leaves graduate school to pursue the convent, and Joe’s new friend Posy, a very wealthy Harvard student, who are all obsessed with Shakespeare.  Joe was given free reign over the (fictional) Kellogg collection, which is a collection of Shakespearian things collected over a lifetime by a Shakespeare horder. In it, he finds a letter he thinks is authentic, leading credence to the theory that Shakespeare was actually Edward de Vere, a little known noble connected to the Earl of Oxford. Posy and Joe go to London to pursue leads and get the letter authenticated.
The ending was surprising; it was startlingly vague. I read the afterward in which the author stated she wanted the book to be less about finding out who Shakespeare was and more about pursuing the imagination of researchers. Joe and Posy are grad students, who imagine a different way of thinking and pursue their thoughts relentlessly.  It worked for the book. My single legit complaint was that the author is female (Sarah Smith), and does not write men well. At all. Until it was specifically addressed, I thought Joe was female.
Otherwise, I’m always up for a good literary book about literary things.