Shakespeare, with his timeless gift for capturing the full spectrum of human feeling and emotion, became the turning point in Bob Smith's life. Shakespeare spoke to Bob as no one else ever had—honoring both sides of a young man caught between love and resentment toward his family: a mother perpetually battling depression, a father who was simply not there, an adored sister, Carolyn, severely handicapped, and grandparents who showed him real affection but couldn't always meet a child's needs.
Now in his sixties, Smith recalls his childhood and youth through a profound practice he has developed: leading groups of elderly people—many living in care facilities, many isolated—through Shakespeare's plays. Reading Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet together, they find their own lived sorrows and joys reflected back at them from the stage.
What struck me most about this book—so deeply human, so honest—was the tone. Smith writes without pity, without bitterness. He describes experiences that clearly marked him, yet he met them with understanding. More than that: he learned to use them to help others. Few people manage that.
by Cristina Tersigni, 2004
Sometimes Mom and Dad would go out, and Carolyn and I would stay with the hag and the fat man who terrified me. One night we were in our sweltering room with the door shut so they wouldn't hear Carolyn cry, and the window closed so the neighbors wouldn't. Carolyn looked at me. I was leaning over her crib, making faces. Suddenly she stopped crying and looked at me—really looked—for a long time. I was shocked. Scared, even. She never looked at anyone. Never. But now she was looking at me, and she wasn't crying. Then something happened that was more beautiful than anything: my sister smiled at me. She stopped crying, and there in that suffocating little room, sealed off from the world that wasn't supposed to hear, with the Florida sunset burning through the cracks in the old shutters—no taxi drivers staring pityingly at my mother, no fat men mocking me, no cruel people at all, just me and my little sister. I took her hand and we made a promise, forever: no matter what happened, no matter how much time passed, no matter how big I grew, we would never, ever be separated.From: "The Boy Who Loved Shakespeare"
