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A review by eviealv
Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe
3.0
3.5 stars.
I'm so torn on this book. Breaking the Maya Code presents itself as the real story of how linguists and epigraphers, over several centuries, eventually came to decipher Maya script. And when Coe actually gets around to telling this story, it's so fascinating! Coe is unquestionably an expert Mayanist and epigrapher; but not so great a storyteller.
My main complaint is that this book sorely needs a harsher editor. Coe gets sidetracked so often on delving into the biographies and drama and gossip of nearly every Mayanist he mentions. The problem is that many of the big names in Maya script decipherment were friends and colleagues of his, and he understandably wants to talk all about them as humans. But, frankly, most of it is just not interesting or relevant to the thesis of the book. So often I found myself just starting to get excited about him finally getting into the details of Mayan decipherment, only for some new figure to enter the scene, and I'd groan as Coe launches into another mini-biography of said figure. The middle section in particular felt like such a chore to get through, without the payoff of feeling like I even learned much pertaining to Mayan script.
That being said, I can't deny that I did - eventually - learn a lot from this book. Coe discusses some interesting history around the Mayans and the study of them, and his explanations on the cracking of ancient scripts (Mayan in particular, but he touches on others too while covering general decipherment concepts) were so fascinating to the big linguistics nerd that I am. Unfortunately, it just got overshadowed by the irrelevant self-indulgent personal stories scattered throughout.
TL;DR - While I will say that I did enjoy this book and I learned a lot from it, it desperately needed some editing to tighten up its focus onto the actual subject it purports to teach.
I'm so torn on this book. Breaking the Maya Code presents itself as the real story of how linguists and epigraphers, over several centuries, eventually came to decipher Maya script. And when Coe actually gets around to telling this story, it's so fascinating! Coe is unquestionably an expert Mayanist and epigrapher; but not so great a storyteller.
My main complaint is that this book sorely needs a harsher editor. Coe gets sidetracked so often on delving into the biographies and drama and gossip of nearly every Mayanist he mentions. The problem is that many of the big names in Maya script decipherment were friends and colleagues of his, and he understandably wants to talk all about them as humans. But, frankly, most of it is just not interesting or relevant to the thesis of the book. So often I found myself just starting to get excited about him finally getting into the details of Mayan decipherment, only for some new figure to enter the scene, and I'd groan as Coe launches into another mini-biography of said figure. The middle section in particular felt like such a chore to get through, without the payoff of feeling like I even learned much pertaining to Mayan script.
That being said, I can't deny that I did - eventually - learn a lot from this book. Coe discusses some interesting history around the Mayans and the study of them, and his explanations on the cracking of ancient scripts (Mayan in particular, but he touches on others too while covering general decipherment concepts) were so fascinating to the big linguistics nerd that I am. Unfortunately, it just got overshadowed by the irrelevant self-indulgent personal stories scattered throughout.
TL;DR - While I will say that I did enjoy this book and I learned a lot from it, it desperately needed some editing to tighten up its focus onto the actual subject it purports to teach.