Review of "Sherman: The Ruthless Victor"

Sherman: The Ruthless Victor
by Agostino von Hasell and Ed Breslin

When I finished reading my last book through Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program, I decided I would choose another in their series of short biographies on American generals.  I enjoyed the first of them I'd read, so this seemed a pretty safe bet for a decent read.  And yet, there should perhaps have been warning bells going off in my head from the moment I read the subtitle.  Perjorative terms like "ruthless" aren't usually whipped out THAT early in the game!  Still, I knew to what the authors were referring--Sherman's infamous "burning of Atlanta" and "march to the sea," which were the 19th-century equivalent of the "firebombing of Dresden" during World War II.  Everyone pretty much agrees that Sherman's actions were short on military justification and long on overkill, so I just figured the authors were making clear up front that this book was not going to glorify Sherman for those events.  Well, it certainly doesn't glorify him!

Those belated alarm bells did start *bonging* quite stridently as soon as I turned to the first page of the Introduction.  One of the primary things upon which a good biography depends is creating some sort of rapport between the reader and the biographer's subject.  Since the writer is recounting historical events, some attempt at objectivity is expected, but books of this type usually have some shards of sympathy in dealing with the person under study.  Not this one.  The authors' primary goal seems to be to unite readers with them in loathing and disdaining William Tecumseh Sherman.

I have known of Sherman's exploits in the deep South during the Civil War for many years, so I was never very fond of the man.  By the time I finished this book, however, I had become so weary with hearing him denigrated that I found myself becoming one of his most vocal defenders!  Page after exhausting page of insults, insinuations and diatribes against him left me with far greater distaste for the authors than for the general.

Time and again, words like "white supremacist" are bandied about, with seemingly no recognition that Sherman simply held the views typical of his time and place, repugnant though they are to a modern reader.  The biographers imply more than once that Sherman was mentally unbalanced and descended from a long line of insanity.  He is accused of "gratuitous pyromania," being a man of "shallow" "emotional depth," "acute misanthropy," "elitist contempt for 'commoners'," and of "feeling ... sorry for himself" after a Union loss in battle and thinking solely of how the setback would affect his career.  He was supposedly "calculating," "[e]gotistical and narcissistic," "wallowing in self-pity" when suffering from depression and anxiety issues, "incapable of withstanding any criticism," "self-congratulatory," "petulant," and given to outbursts of "despotic absolutism".  If that list felt unnecessarily long, and you were thinking to yourself halfway through it, "Ok! We get the point!  Get on with it already," then I have done my job as a reviewer in giving you the exact experience of reading this book without you having to do so.  You can now make up your mind whether or not you think it's worth the time, effort and money to acquire it.

With all that having been said, you may be wondering why I didn't give this book the lowest possible rating.  The answer is simple.  During the section when the authors were discussing historical events of the Civil War, taking a break from belittling Sherman, I actually learned some interesting things.  If there had been a great deal more emphasis on the great conflict throughout the book, it would have been a fascinating read.  Also, I always feel that a book has had some merit in my life if it instills curiosity in me to read other books.  This one certainly made me want to read some other biographies of Sherman, to see how he fares under another's pen.

Review of "Fyodor Dostoevsky"

I do solemnly swear that Thomas Nelson Publishers gave me a free copy of this book, in exchange for which I am about to render the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as I see it in the following review, so help me God.  Now then...

Fyodor Dostoevsky

by Peter Leithart

Oh dear.  From the first, I really WANTED to like this book.  And it had a very promising start.  In the first two chapters, I was thinking it might well fall within the lower end of a 4-star rating.  By about 1/3 of the way through, it was still looking like it could be 3 to 3.5 stars.  When I finally reached the 2/3 mark, the prospect seemed quite grim.  I think it's a good thing the author called it quits when he did, or I might have started looking for a Dorothy Parker Award to hand to him out of my desk drawer.

I read a previous reviewer who said that he didn't like the fact that this book is a fictionalized biography.  I thought to myself, "I hate to break it to you, pal, but the non-fiction novel--whatever the Hell that means, exactly--seems here to stay, and I've even read a number of them that I really liked, so that's no great deterrent."  When I saw that an Evangelical publisher had released a book about ANY member of the Eastern Orthodox Church in which they admitted that the person was a genuine Christian, I knew that a little thing like occasional imaginary conversations wasn't going to keep me from reading and reviewing it.

However, no amount of making allowance for evolving literary styles can excuse plain old bad writing.  To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would complain of fictional content in this book, because there is really very little of it.  Being SO chock full of quotes on every page, Leithart's book reminds me much more of the kinds of term papers I was forced to produce when some professor ridiculously required that I use at least 20 discrete sources in a 10-page paper--a massive collection of quotes with a few connective words of the author's own here and there to try and create segues.

The same reviewer also complained of poor organization in this text, and on this score, he was spot on.  The book is not boring, just maddening, because coherence breaks down numerous times.  The book jumps back and forth in different time frames, which is a long-standing narrative technique and doesn't bother me at all, when it's well-executed.  But leaving out essential information, when layered on top of time jumps, just creates an indecipherable mess.  At times, Leithart only writes three or four sentences before his narrative time machine engages again, and repeats the process several times on the same page.  Movie montages don't work nearly as well in written form.

Ultimately, this book is too short to cover even a small percentage of an extraordinary life like that of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the short space that was allotted is not used well.  A reader will not emerge from the work with more than a very brief, cursory knowledge of Dostoevsky's life, a dim familiarity with some of his plot lines, and virtually no understanding of his real political thought.

November 2011

Well!  After finally wrestling the SuperToddler into bed at an indecent hour of the night, I can at last sit down at my computer and make this announcement.

Welcome, both returnees and newcomers, to the second monthly installment of the Read Your Own Library!  Challenge.  First things first.  I cannot believe that I forgot to announce in last month's post WHICH LEVEL OF MY OWN CHALLENGE I was signing on for!  So let me rectify that right now.  The whole reason I started this challenge is because I needed to go into total BIBLIO REHAB, as I probably already own more books than I'll read in my lifetime.  And though I have bought books since the challenge first began, I was a good girl, fulfilled my own requirements, and read not one but two of the books I already owned in October before buying any more.  So, allow me now to bestow upon myself the badge for my chosen level of book recovery.

Now then, on to a review of the book to which I originally committed myself at the beginning of the challenge last month, Stuart Little.  Oh, dear.  After a lifetime of absolutely adoring Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, I found his tale of the bizarre mouse born to a family of humans very disappointing.  My apologies here and now to all those who love Stuart as much as I love Charlotte, but I REALLY disliked this book.

I don't mean to say that I hated everything about it.  It had some charming vignettes, like Stuart becoming the captain of a toy sailboat.  But it had no narrative arc, told no unified story, never explained how a human couple produced a mouse as their son, and had the least satisfying ending that I have read in years.  Moreover, there was at least one scene that made me want to slap Stuart outright (it was during his first real date, for those who are curious to know to which scene I'm referring).  Sorry, but overall, I prefer Beverly Cleary's Ralph Mouse and his motorcycle to Stuart Little's ridiculously invisible toy car any day.

Moving boldly on to November, I realized when I finished Stuart Little in less than a week that I had gone a little too easy on myself for the first month of the challenge, so I'm setting my sights a little higher this month.  The target book is by Barbara Mertz, aka Elizabeth Peters, author of the Amelia Peabody mysteries.  Some of you may not be aware that Barbara Mertz is actually a fully-fledged Egyptologist, and has written two major works on the history of the ancient Egyptian people.  I read her classic Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs several years ago, which is all about the pharaohs and monuments, all the famous stuff.  I then tried to dive straight into Red Land, Black Land, which is her ode to the common people of ancient Egypt who never get as much air time, but coming right on the heels of each other, the two books led to Egyptology fatigue, and so Red Land, Black Land beat me at the time.  I think we all know what that means--when I finish the book for this challenge, it will be my first seed planted in my Victory Garden!  And THAT will feel really good, like a true accomplishment.

So, for those returning to the challenge, did you finish the goal you set yourself last month?  Give us a post telling us all about it.  I'll be sure to e-mail you the code for the lovely badge you've earned yourself!  And to our newbies, welcome!  Tell us how you got into your current state of backlog, and what you plan to read this month.  We're all anxious to cheer you on.