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A review by adamjcalhoun
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer by Sarah Bakewell
4.0
I don't know, somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars?
This book is not about "How to Live". The How to Live framing is a loose structure to cover a range of material. It, eh, kind of works, kind of doesn't. It probably makes the book different from other Montaigne biographies but doesn't really provide many answers or even much exploration.
What the book DOES do well is explore Montaigne's life and his various (beloved) contradictions. You get a good sense of who the man is, what he wrote about, and what his life was like.
At times I was pretty bored with the book. It seems to retread territory frequently and, honestly, the framing was a bit of a drag.
This book is not about "How to Live". The How to Live framing is a loose structure to cover a range of material. It, eh, kind of works, kind of doesn't. It probably makes the book different from other Montaigne biographies but doesn't really provide many answers or even much exploration.
What the book DOES do well is explore Montaigne's life and his various (beloved) contradictions. You get a good sense of who the man is, what he wrote about, and what his life was like.
At times I was pretty bored with the book. It seems to retread territory frequently and, honestly, the framing was a bit of a drag.