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Reading a slow burn of the incompetent generals (Scott being the first) leading the Union army is agonizing, knowing it’s not going to get better until McClellan is gone for good. Makes me appreciate Grant and Sherman much more for their abilities. How many lives were lost due to the pride and arrogance of men like McClellan? Too many to count.

I knew in the first few pages that I was in the hands of a master storyteller. DKG begins with a well-rounded view of all the candidates for the Republican nomination in 1860.

The main event has happened and I had to skim through it because is was directed at reader trauma that didn’t add to the story or the emotional experience … other than being repeatedly annoyed with the over the top drama. I get that losing a child is a terrible experience, yet it didn’t work for me.

The separate storylines are starting to converge which makes for a better reading experience. What’s unique about the book is that Hamnet’s father is never mentioned by name. By far, the most interesting character is Agnes, the mother of Hamnet. She’s an intuitive healer and animal lover and doesn’t give a hoot about what society expects yet cares for her family better than anyone else.

The alternating timelines don’t work well because the early story of Agnes is much more interesting than the later story of her children becoming sick from the plague. Each change to the period of the plague stops me from reading as I steel myself for the awful consequences. But the story of how Agnes married the unnamed Wm Shakespeare is much more engaging.

This book is supposed to be about Pericles and Aspasia. The first part is all Aspasia which can be summed up this way—She’s beautiful, brilliant and strong-willed. None of her decisions or choices seem reasonable and the author, Taylor Caldwell, is showing her John Birch right-wing bias in the discussions on “philosophy”. The unnecessary and gratuitous references to child sexual abuse are also abrasive.

Caldwell over-writes, spending too many pages telling us how beautiful, smart and assertive Aspasia is. Not a good sign …

Illuminating!

Because the story is so broad the author tells it through multiple characters. While it helps to round out the story it also makes it less enjoyable because the reader doesn’t spend enough time with Hannibal.