The Medici Book

This book: compelling, but weirdly homophobic.

I never thought I'd have to write this in a review about a book on the Medici's, but every time I got into the flow of this book I'd be startled by the author's 2 cents on homosexuality. So many of the characters' negative personality traits were explained "likely because he was a homosexual". How do you cite that?! I listened to it as an audiobook, and I'm hoping there were explanatory footnotes left out or something, but never have I encountered a historical book with so much unrecognised blatant bias. Occasionally, he we add hedging statements like "one might imagine...", but at all the wrong moments!

Another content warning: for an author who is so keen to put his values on these people's lives, he was remarkably fine with rape. He even explains that Cosimo's Caucasian slave was treated well.... and bore him a child. Yeah, so that's rape (under modern values). He talks at length about "troublesome" boys "defaming" women with no real condemnation, but as soon as Donatello makes his David, it's like "he was GAY and his David is GAY and it's weird that they were scandalised by how GAY it was". Dude. Sort your shit out. You obviously want to have sex with men, and don't know what to do with that energy. I recommend having sex with men, instead of leaving a trail of gay bread crumbs through your book on the Medicis.