Vinegar Girl

This is a retelling of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" written by Anne Tyler. In this version, Katherine is a 29-year old still living at home after a brief attempt at college; she was asked to leave because she told one of her professors he was lazy. Her mother is long deceased and Kate cares for her absent-minded scientist of a father and her 15-year old younger sister, Bunny. It's already a thankless task to ride herd on Bunny with almost no input from her father, who clearly takes her for granted. When he begs her to bring his forgotten lunch to his lab one day, he seems very keen that she get acquainted with his assistant Pyotr.  Turns out that Pyotr's green card is going to run out in 2 months and Kate's father wants Kate to marry him--just on paper of course--so he can keep the most valuable colleague he's ever had. Kate is incensed, of course, but eventually comes around to helping her father out. There's a break-in at the lab on the day of Kate & Pyotr's wedding, but the ceremony--such as it is-- belatedly proceeds and Kate figures out where the missing mice are. The epilogue ties it all up in a tidy little package at the end. I found it uninspiring although other reviewers had more positive reactions: NPR, The New York Times, and Kirkus.