Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
In last week’s diary by Emmet for Write On! she talked about what happens when authors try to force characters to do things that don’t fit them. You can imagine how that would go with some of our literary characters. Imagine Shakespeare saying to Macbeth, “Now, you will sit down and eat your peas whether you think you see Banquo’s ghost or not.” Ummm…no. That is just not Macbeth’s style.
But what about biographies? Does the author look at all the materials available and create a fair narrative or does he or she choose to push and pull the subject into the author’s presupposed views like the step-sister with Cinderella’s glass slipper? If that happens, can the reader tell? Does it make you angry?
There are so many biographies for famous people it is hard to tell which one to choose to read. Who do you trust? Who makes the story interesting and teaches us about the times as well as about the person being studied?
And I as the reader…am I stuck with having read one major biography and unwilling to try another tome about the same subject though there may be new and interesting books out there?
If the materials clash, which one is the truth? I refuse to read anything more about Mary Todd or Anne Boleyn. I am finished. I am tired of them. I am tired of the speculation about their sins and oddities. They were interesting the first time I read about them and the newest dirt can be swept under the rug for all I care.
Still, it has been fifty years since I read Carl Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln. It would seem right to do a different one. I have put off Teddy Roosevelt for too long. I have one or two on my B&N wish list. Which one should I finally buy?
I have read a couple of ugly biographies and I thirst for decent ones. For example, I want a new one for Molly Ivins. It is not that I don’t understand that famous people have peculiarities and real warts, but that also I want the spirit of the person to come through.
Are some biographies so definitive that no more on that person are needed? I think that David McCullough’s John Adams might be one example. He nailed it. It was interesting. It covered Abigail Adams as well.
I don’t think I will be reading the Lyndon Johnson bio by Caro no matter how good the recent book is because I read so much about him in Taylor Branch’s three books about America in the King Years that I am saturated for now.
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68
I have Destiny of the Republic: Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard on my challenge list so I will be reading that story this year. It is larger than just the story of Garfield.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation's corrupt political establishment. But four months after Garfield's inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the attack, but become the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power—over his administration, over the nation's future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic brings alive a forgotten chapter of U.S. history.
I read a bit about Garfield in
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart which stirred my interest in him.
Is it better to just read source material on our own? Do we have time to do that or any way of finding the materials? In the case of Molly Ivins, I am going to let her voice from her own books and articles guide my thoughts.
But to go far back into the past, I need good, reliable guides and that is what a good biographer does. I am very grateful to those authors who have done so much research and have produced an interesting story for me to learn from about the subject and about his place in the times in which he lived.
Besides Teddy Roosevelt, I am also feeling an urge to read about Ulysses Grant. Is there a really good biography of James Longstreet his friend? Sometime way back, I missed out on reading about Sir Francis Drake. What is a good one about him? There are several about Crazy Horse so which one is the best?
One of the most interesting biographies I have ever read is A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, the bio of William Dampier by Diana and Michael Preston.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Another one I really enjoyed was A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts about James Holman.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
One of the most poignant biographies was Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder.
What are the best biographies you have read?
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! Herding Characters
by Emmet
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Limelite has announced a new series:
Brecht has agreed to serve as Editor for a new series, Books Go Bang!, that will debut on Friday February 22nd, at 6pm EST.
Looking forward to it!
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early