| WOW! What
a book!. This is a MUST READ for Twain lovers (and who isn't). Ron
Powers has done what so many Mark Twain biographers have failed to do over
the years and that's compile a comprehensive work about a man who had more
facets than Carter has liver pills. In recent years many biographers
seem to hook their portraits onto one part of Clemens (usually a negative
part) and build an entire book around it. Not so with Ron Powers!
He has tackled this mission with an obvious gusto and determination
and has been able to put together what I feel is a multi-faceted piece that
matches his subject. He does this by building the story chronologically
and tying the Great Man Himself into events that were unfolding around him
throughout each stage of his life. The result is a finely detailed
portrait of MT that is woven in to a contextual historical tapestry creating,
to date THE BEST MARK TWAIN biography and as a bonus a nice history
lesson of his life and times. It's all here-the anxious teen who couldn't wait to shake the hometown Hannibal dust from his boots, the evolving and well traveled newspaper man, the hard drinking wild humorist, the steamboat pilot who was forced to abandon the work he loved, the author trying to crank out another hit, the guy looking for another get rich quick scheme, the brother who just couldn't give Orion a break, the adoring and protective husband and father, the fumbling and failing lecturer and the lecturer who finally found his voice-it's all here and it's all PURE MARK TWAIN! It's amazing that the amateur inventor who sunk a fortune into the Paige Typesetter-only to endure bankruptcy and public humiliation was a master at re-inventing himself! Not once, but over and over again. Ron Powers has given Twain lovers a wonderful gift! Unwrap it, savor it and pass it on! |