Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mark Twain: A Life
Book Review: I'm running out of superlatives
Summary: 5 Stars
Mark Twain: A Life
The most consummate biography of Mark Twain ever-- as the back cover reads, "[Twain became] the king of the eastern establishment and a global celebrity as American became an international power. Along the way, Mark Twain keenly observed the characters and voices that filled the growing country, and left us our first authentically American literature. Ron Powers' magnificent biography offers the definitive life of the founding father of our culture."
Ron Powers does a superb job of bringing Twain to life in front of our eyes. Highly, highly recommended.
Book Review: It could have been a 5
Summary: 3 Stars
An excellent biography marred by gratuitous left wing political commentary. I don't know why Mr. Powers decided to sprinkle those little gems throughout the text, given that they add absolutely nothing, but I wish he'd respected his subject--and his readers--enough not to intrude. If I'd wanted Powers' political views, I'd have sought out a book about him. If you can ignore the author's trespassing, it is a worthwhile read.Book Review: Mark Twain Complete
Summary: 5 Stars
Ron Powers' biography of Mark Twain is simply one of the best on this versitle man. Powers captures the essence of the man with great detail without getting bogged down with minutia. He keeps you interested and wanting to turn the page, while painting what I belive to be the true picture of Clemen's life. It will be interesting to compare Powers view of Twian to Twain's own view of himself with the recent release of the first Volume of Twain's autobiography. From my first scan of Twain's autobiography I find Powers' book a great deal easier to grasp who Clemens and Twain really were. I would reccomend to any reader to first read Powers' book to get to know the development of Clemens into Twain before trying to digest the recent release of the autobiography.Book Review: Not a good biography
Summary: 2 Stars
While reading this copy of Power's biography, I kept checking back to the customer reviews that I read before purchase. Most reviews were "glowing" for many reasons. Frankly I purchased because the reviews were most favorable from a large number of other Twain biographies. I am sorry that I did.
The detail is fine but there is strong failure to tell the life story associated with the detail. Very limited cover of Sammy's youth & developments. Mr. Power is also a fanatical wordsmith. There are a huge amount of words (mostly adjectives)that you will never encounter again in your lifetime.
Book Review: Painfully Slow and Wordy
Summary: 2 Stars
I was disappointed by this biography of one of the most interesting and popular figures in American history and letters. Unlike so many of the other reviewers I found this biography to be excruciatingly long and boring. It takes quite an effort by a writer to make as fascinating a person as Mark Twain dull, but the author succeeds. The writer kept throwing in his personal asides in an effort to be clever, but instead was merely annoying. The writing style is awkward and stilted and it takes a real effort to push through to the end. The author seems to be trying to direct attention to himself as much as the subject. This style makes the 722 pages seem twice as long.