A review by yshaheen
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

2.0

I read The Revolutionary for a book club and that is the only reason I was able to finish this monotonous read. I wanted to love it because I listened to a podcast with Schiff and knew how much work and years of research go into her novels. While it was interesting to learn about Samuel Adams, a profound historical figure that was central to the American Revolution yet one we hear so little about, this book just dragged. It was a utter slog to get through. Everyone I chatted with in book club is struggling to get through it. We all let out a collective sigh when each of us learned that we were not the only one finding this book to be a bore. It is not concise and difficult to follow. I had to often reread passages to figure out who Schiff was talking about. There would randomly be a "big" word that just seemed to be plucked from a thesaurus. The editing on this book was really lacking. I just had to set a daily goal of 10-15 pages per day just to get through this. That is unfortunate because I do think Samuel Adams' contribution to the revolution could be a fascinating book. Unfortunately this isn't it.