The library discussion group chose this book for me. At the beginning of the book, I did think about how I could get out of reading it while still leading the discussion. For example, starting off with this question: "Say I did not finish reading this book, what would you say to convince me to either finish it or put it on the DFR (don't finish reading) shelf?"
Friends, family, and readers of this blog know that my bookshelf is not heavily loaded with historical non-fiction. Still, I did finish the book, and ratings from three to five stars on Goodreads are valid.
Let's tackle first why I was tempted to leave the book unfinished. Churchill simply is not a likable fellow. Even his contemporaries thought so. Maybe you have to have his type of mindset to become the leader of a nation but his arrogance is overwhelming more times than it is not. Then, his culture's mindset of empire is foreign and horrifying to my own worldview. One reader critic rants (his word) that the book is an unquestioned acceptance of Churchill's picture of the story. To have included at least a few "Churchill later claimed" phrases might not have hurt the telling of the story.
Yet, it is the telling of the story by an author gifted at doing so which makes the book worth finishing. Millard has gained a reputation for taking historical narrative and turning it into writing worthy of the best fiction. So many of the Goodreads reviews perfectly explain reading this story: "enormously interesting, but also terribly dismaying" "[everyone] behaves badly" "stupid war characterized by hubris". Another reader wrote that if one does not know anything about the Boer Way (I'm raising my hand), Millard does a great job of providing background information, seamlessly, I will add.
It's easy to put the book down and easy to pick it back up and continue reading. If you love historical non-fiction, or history, it also will be easy to appreciate this book and this author. One reader asks Millard to please write up all of history -- so much better than reading a textbook! That might be a little difficult since Millard, thus far, has taken five years per book to do all the research.
In the end, I found the book fascinating...or perhaps I need to say that I find history fascinating even with all of its horrors. Gandhi and his team of stretcher-bearers are mentioned. I vote for Gandhi's non-violent story to be next on Millard's list of history books to write.
I'm short on time and way behind on blogging my book reviews so I'm skipping my usual last two sections today.
Friends, family, and readers of this blog know that my bookshelf is not heavily loaded with historical non-fiction. Still, I did finish the book, and ratings from three to five stars on Goodreads are valid.
Let's tackle first why I was tempted to leave the book unfinished. Churchill simply is not a likable fellow. Even his contemporaries thought so. Maybe you have to have his type of mindset to become the leader of a nation but his arrogance is overwhelming more times than it is not. Then, his culture's mindset of empire is foreign and horrifying to my own worldview. One reader critic rants (his word) that the book is an unquestioned acceptance of Churchill's picture of the story. To have included at least a few "Churchill later claimed" phrases might not have hurt the telling of the story.
Yet, it is the telling of the story by an author gifted at doing so which makes the book worth finishing. Millard has gained a reputation for taking historical narrative and turning it into writing worthy of the best fiction. So many of the Goodreads reviews perfectly explain reading this story: "enormously interesting, but also terribly dismaying" "[everyone] behaves badly" "stupid war characterized by hubris". Another reader wrote that if one does not know anything about the Boer Way (I'm raising my hand), Millard does a great job of providing background information, seamlessly, I will add.
It's easy to put the book down and easy to pick it back up and continue reading. If you love historical non-fiction, or history, it also will be easy to appreciate this book and this author. One reader asks Millard to please write up all of history -- so much better than reading a textbook! That might be a little difficult since Millard, thus far, has taken five years per book to do all the research.
In the end, I found the book fascinating...or perhaps I need to say that I find history fascinating even with all of its horrors. Gandhi and his team of stretcher-bearers are mentioned. I vote for Gandhi's non-violent story to be next on Millard's list of history books to write.
I'm short on time and way behind on blogging my book reviews so I'm skipping my usual last two sections today.
2 comments:
Keep on writing, ցreat job!
Thank you for the encouragement.
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