A review by gothiccauntie
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, by Erik Larson
2.0
I rather like Erik Larson's writing, but this particular book was painful to read.
Not because of the difficult subject matter that is the intimate details of the world wars, but because he insisted on a day-by-day account that results in nodding off like Churchill's aids must have when he was in the bath.
The point, I think, was to remind us that these figures western history has turned larger than life were indeed people who made some great decisions and some terrible ones, and worked as teams instead of gods. But man, I did not care about what Prof ate for dinner at every visit, or Churchill's daughters intimate opinions of each character, or Colville's pitiful love. These didn't take up sentences or paragraphs, which would have been fine, but pages and resurfaced whenever you thought you were finally done with them.
If you enjoy those down-to-the minute reconstructions, this may very well be the book for you! It's well researched and leaves literally no stone unturned. It wasn't for me.
Not because of the difficult subject matter that is the intimate details of the world wars, but because he insisted on a day-by-day account that results in nodding off like Churchill's aids must have when he was in the bath.
The point, I think, was to remind us that these figures western history has turned larger than life were indeed people who made some great decisions and some terrible ones, and worked as teams instead of gods. But man, I did not care about what Prof ate for dinner at every visit, or Churchill's daughters intimate opinions of each character, or Colville's pitiful love. These didn't take up sentences or paragraphs, which would have been fine, but pages and resurfaced whenever you thought you were finally done with them.
If you enjoy those down-to-the minute reconstructions, this may very well be the book for you! It's well researched and leaves literally no stone unturned. It wasn't for me.