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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
informative
reflective
sad
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is a truly wonderful book and met every expectation that I had for Ron Chernow's writing. I learned who Samuel Clements (aka Mark Twain) was as a writer and as a person - a brilliant, talented but deeply troubled and tragic figure - warts and all. I came away not really liking Mark Twain but with an appreciation of his complexity and his experiences which ultimately informed his writing. I strongly recommend this book to anyone - even those who don't have a deep familiarity with his books. But be prepared to be annoyed at Twain, especially with his endless business exploits and machinations.
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
slow-paced
Holy moly is this audiobook/book long (seriously, 30+hours when sped up slightly). Chernow wins all the awards for being long winded and thorough.
As usual, Chernow winds his character study of his subject through the lifespan, pulling in their environment that shaped them as well as the people who influenced Twain as well as who he influenced. I would say I did not know much about Mark Twain prior to reading this book and after, I’m not sure I like the man. I have a much clearer version of the public figure that perhaps cartoonishly existed beforehand in my general knowledge of the man.
Clemens was an irascible character who lived life larger than just about anybody else. He met and was friends with many luminaries of his day, had business dealings with titans of wall street and gained and lost multiple fortunes over the course of his life.
His weird obsession with virginal females despite being known as the quintessential capturer of American boyhood a la Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in an era that lives more in the imagination nowadays than being real, the way he abdicated his responsibilities at times as a father was maddening.
Who was Samuel Langhorne Clemens? I’ve listened to an inexhaustible review of his life and I’m still not sure who he really was other than a one of a kind man that was born under Haley’s Comet and went out when it returned.
I think this book is one that’s going to sit in my mind for a while—Chernow did a fantastic job and I recommend all his biographies.
No spice.
As usual, Chernow winds his character study of his subject through the lifespan, pulling in their environment that shaped them as well as the people who influenced Twain as well as who he influenced. I would say I did not know much about Mark Twain prior to reading this book and after, I’m not sure I like the man. I have a much clearer version of the public figure that perhaps cartoonishly existed beforehand in my general knowledge of the man.
Clemens was an irascible character who lived life larger than just about anybody else. He met and was friends with many luminaries of his day, had business dealings with titans of wall street and gained and lost multiple fortunes over the course of his life.
His weird obsession with virginal females despite being known as the quintessential capturer of American boyhood a la Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in an era that lives more in the imagination nowadays than being real, the way he abdicated his responsibilities at times as a father was maddening.
Who was Samuel Langhorne Clemens? I’ve listened to an inexhaustible review of his life and I’m still not sure who he really was other than a one of a kind man that was born under Haley’s Comet and went out when it returned.
I think this book is one that’s going to sit in my mind for a while—Chernow did a fantastic job and I recommend all his biographies.
No spice.