Shakespeare Reference in Back When We Were Grownups

Anne Tyler’s novel Back When We Were Grownups contains a Shakespeare reference. The main character, Rebecca, provides her family with little rhymes on special occasions. After one such occasion, Rebecca is feeling unnecessary and means to call herself a superfluous woman. But what she ends up calling herself is a superficial woman. Tyler then writes, “so Zeb, misunderstanding, said, ‘They can’t expect a Shakespearean sonnet, for heaven’s sake’” (p. 270).

Back When We Were Grownups was published in 2001. The copy I read was from the fourth printing, June 2001.