Rate: 4/5
Medium: Audiobook
Overview (No Spoilers):
Ron Chernow has taken on yet another legendary figure in Mark Twain. As I’ve been recommending his works for years to anyone looking for a nonfiction read, I couldn’t wait to find out what I would learn from Chernow’s take on Mark Twain.
I found the material fascinating and I learned so much about this time period from the life styles to politics, but Twain is fickle and prickly, making it hard to connect to the famous author. Twain often oscillates between warmth and generous praise, to judging and irascible on a whim. I found his rewriting of history to be alarming, never finding fault in his own decisions. Ultimately, at the 30 hour mark of this long audiobook, just when Chernow is laying the foundation to financial ruin and heart break for Twain, my library loan expired. Once my loan came available again, it took months before I could bring myself to pick up this read back up to finish it. I was craving cozy comfy reads, not the harshness of real life tragedy and death. Eventually, I finished Mark Twain, and read about the last years of a brilliant storyteller.
One fact that I find amazing is how much traveling Twain and his family did during his lifetime. In a time before planes they adventured around the world, seeing so many remarkable sights. While Twain made a living writing several books about his journeys, reading about them well over 100 years later still brings so much joy and entertainment through his letters and accounts.
Mark Twain’s business acumen was absolutely horrible. As Chernow sets up the stage for Twain’s slide into financial ruin it is so painful to read. I think that is why some of this book took effort to get through because there were fewer and fewer bright successes in Twain’s life as he grew older. Wishful thinking blinded Twain and his whole family from the hopelessness of the situation that they had become deeply mired in.
One aspect that Chernow navigated well by confronting directly was some of the controversy surrounding Twain. Under a modern lens, Twain’s reputation can be questionable, though Chernow does not shy away from discussing all sides of these issues, from Twain’s evolving views on Native Americans and controversial language in his novels, to his Angelfish.
Overall, in Mark Twain, Chernow brings to life yet another American legend, however the capricious subject author is hard to fully invest in due to his life becoming increasingly wrecked by scandal and heart break.
The Critiquing Chemist 
Many of his faults can be forgiven because of his humanity, his gift for seeing people of color as human beings instead of 3/4 citizens (as our Constitution initially counted those Americans in servitude). I first read his “Tom Sawyer” and his “Huckleberry Finn” at the impressionable age of ten. I give him credit for building a facet of my character, regardless of his horrible business skills.
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