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I disagree. All the details matter. The book is an epic story closer to a Tolstoy novel than a mere biography. It’s about a city and a man’s impact on the city.
by hardwaregeek 4y ago
I disagree. All the details matter. The book is an epic story closer to a Tolstoy novel than a mere biography. It’s about a city and a man’s impact on the city. It’s about all of the people whose lives he benefited and whose lives he ruined. Without that sense of scale, the ending doesn’t work. You don’t have time to build sympathy for Moses and to slowly lose that sympathy. And to finally finish with that conflicted love, hate, pity, and awe that I left the book with.
- voisin 4y ago> The book is an epic story closer to a Tolstoy novel than a mere biography. It’s about a city and a man’s impact on the city. It’s about all of the people whose lives he benefited and whose lives he ruined. Without that sense of scale, the ending doesn’t work. You don’t have time to build sympathy for Moses and to slowly lose that sympathy. And to finally finish with that conflicted love, hate, pity, and awe that I left the book with. I don’t disagree with any of this. > All the details matter. This is where we disagree. I think 30-50% of the book could be cut and you’d still be able to accomplish everything in the first quote above.
- hardwaregeek 4y agoOkay I will concede that Caro loves his grand sweeping intro in which he explains that this chapter will outline how Moses evolved in the 30’s, then explain in very close detail how this change happens, then have a grand sweeping recap about how these changes happened and what it meant. It is a lot, but I kind of love this baroque, over the top style.
- pessimizer 4y agoWhat's the necessity of making biographies read like fiction?
- hardwaregeek 4y agoThey’re really really fun to read? Real life can be dramatic too.