Image by Kelly

Intellectual House o' Pancakes Webdiary

hosted by DiaryLand.com

2008-05-14 - 11:08 a.m.

"...I feel very lonely without a war. Do you feel that?..."
--Winston Churchill to his physician

I am reading a very interesting and entertaining book about Winston Churchill, but it is neither a straight biography nor a chronology of his life and times.

It reads as 40 stand-alone chapters each musing on a different aspect of Churchill's personality, career, and very being. It draws few conclusions, just offers a lot of opposing opinions and facts and theories, piled on top of each other like material evidence in a trial, and makes for a ripping good post-modern look at a man who has been both hero-worshiped and vilified.

And as a person who likes to look at all angles, sometimes to the point of paralysis, I appreciate that author Gretchen Rubin offers compelling proof supporting both sides of such questions as "Was he a great man? A good politician? A good military strategist? A decent father? An alcoholic? Was he clinically depressed?" and other such quandaries.

And if the non-linear format intrigues you, the author has written a similar book about our own rockstar leader, JFK.

thoughts? (10 comments so far)

previous - next

blog archive

contact