Reviews for Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography

The average rating for Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-09-07 00:00:00 Stephen Judy This was a slog. I "speed-read" several passages. Howard Mumford Jones on the back says, "The richest, most subtle, and best-sustained analysis of Mark Twain anywhere to be found..." He may be right, but that's the trouble - this is a sustained analysis . The relentless psychological analysis bogged down the fascinating narrative of a complex life. Some books are written by scholars for other scholars. Others are written by scholars for general readership. This is one of the former. This book could have been half its length and five times more entertaining, if Kaplan had spent more time on the story of a life, rather than psychological underpinnings. A little "why" goes a long way when you're interested in the "who" and "what."

Review # 2 was written on 2010-03-30 00:00:00 Nancy Compston I have to say, I was a bit dissapointed in this book for one reason which Justin Kaplan points out in the preface: the book does not cover Twain's childhood. I was anticipating reading about his life in MO as a young boy and comparing it to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but was let down. I think Kaplan's reasoning behind avoiding that first part of Twain's life makes sense - that Twain himself had already documented this early part of his life more aptly than anyone else could have. But in a book about Twain, his childhood was the topic that interested me most. There were some dry moments in this book. But there were also some heart wrenching moments as well. I nearly cried when Twain went back to Hannibal, MO at the end of his life and looked at the house where he grew up. And when his (favorite) daughter Susy passed so unexpectedly. There were many tragedies in a life that was so full of humour. I've heard that it is often that way for comedians. Go figure.