savshu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
sophronisba's review
4.0
Completely engrossing, even if you don't know much about the James family. Henry and William are, of course the most famous; but in many ways I found their lives less interesting than those of Alice and Aunt Kate--two bright, frustrated women--or Bob and Wilkie, the boys whom the parents wrote off as untalented early in their lives. (I started reading the book because of Henry, but he mostly seems to flit from dinner party to dinner party.)
The prose is only serviceable. Fisher overinterprets at times, and at other times seems eager to stir up conflict between the siblings: for example, he describes Henry's "refusal" to attend William's wedding as hurtful when in fact William seems to have gotten married hastily when Henry was on another continent and had no opportunity to attend. (Sure, it's possible that William did this because he anticipated rejection--but William being William, it's just as likely he woke up one morning and decided to get married the next week.) Still, I found this book unputdownable.
The prose is only serviceable. Fisher overinterprets at times, and at other times seems eager to stir up conflict between the siblings: for example, he describes Henry's "refusal" to attend William's wedding as hurtful when in fact William seems to have gotten married hastily when Henry was on another continent and had no opportunity to attend. (Sure, it's possible that William did this because he anticipated rejection--but William being William, it's just as likely he woke up one morning and decided to get married the next week.) Still, I found this book unputdownable.
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