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uberbutter 's review for:
A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley by Neal Thompson
421 pages
★★★★
I have to admit that Robert “Believe it or Not!” Ripley was not a very likable guy. He was a boozer, racist, a womanizer, and a jerk but one must also needs to remember in part of that that he was a product of his time. So while I didn’t particularly like the man, I did like the book.
The author, Neal Thompson, does a great job in researching and writing about Ripley. He kept my attention from the beginning. Ripley lived a fascinating life and he definitely had one of those rags-to-riches stories that people love so much. Ripley was talented and well travels. He discovered many things in a time where many believed nothing else could be discovered. He was a man obsessed with finding the “weird” and he would travel the world to find it. I don’t have too many complaints on the writing of this biography. At no point did I find myself bored. My one complaint is that the author seems to have some kind of obsession with Ripley’s teeth! Seriously, Ripley was born with a severe jutting of the teeth and it seems like in almost every chapter the author is back on “overcoming appearance his teeth gave him”, you’d think Ripley made it so far only by his ability to “overcome” his teeth (while I understand it gave him a speech impediment, I think one or two mentions would have been plenty). I was actually excited when it was mentioned that he had major reconstructive surgery on his mouth because it meant I no longer had to read about them. This was a fun, random biography I picked up. Well done.
421 pages
★★★★
I have to admit that Robert “Believe it or Not!” Ripley was not a very likable guy. He was a boozer, racist, a womanizer, and a jerk but one must also needs to remember in part of that that he was a product of his time. So while I didn’t particularly like the man, I did like the book.
The author, Neal Thompson, does a great job in researching and writing about Ripley. He kept my attention from the beginning. Ripley lived a fascinating life and he definitely had one of those rags-to-riches stories that people love so much. Ripley was talented and well travels. He discovered many things in a time where many believed nothing else could be discovered. He was a man obsessed with finding the “weird” and he would travel the world to find it. I don’t have too many complaints on the writing of this biography. At no point did I find myself bored. My one complaint is that the author seems to have some kind of obsession with Ripley’s teeth! Seriously, Ripley was born with a severe jutting of the teeth and it seems like in almost every chapter the author is back on “overcoming appearance his teeth gave him”, you’d think Ripley made it so far only by his ability to “overcome” his teeth (while I understand it gave him a speech impediment, I think one or two mentions would have been plenty). I was actually excited when it was mentioned that he had major reconstructive surgery on his mouth because it meant I no longer had to read about them. This was a fun, random biography I picked up. Well done.