Seemingly nothing has been overlooked or left out. Normally, this would be a signal weakness in a biography — shape and form do matter — but Chernow writes with such ease and clarity that even long sections on, say, Twain’s business ventures prove horribly fascinating ... For all its length and detail, Chernow’s book is deeply absorbing throughout and likely to succeed the excellent earlier lives by Justin Kaplan and Ron Powers as the standard biography.
Chernow here documents Twain’s failings, as well as his triumphs, in exhaustive fashion ... More than simply a book about America’s seminal writer, this is a long and winding story about the quintessential American — clothes and buttons, mind and heart, warts and all.
A mighty tome ... For all its heft, this latest treatment adds little that’s substantively new ... Chernow, ever scrupulous, does not ignore the complexities, but his caution becomes its own kind of evasion. Apologies accumulate like packing peanuts.
This is not a book for the casual reader, and Chernow never quite gets to the core of the contradictions in Twain’s conflicted soul. But he tells the whole story, in all its glory and sorrow ... Mark Twain is a masterful exploration of the magnificent highs and unutterable lows of an American literary genius.
In his biography of the famed satirist, Ron Chernow tracks, with patience and care, Twain’s journey over nearly eight tumultuous decades. Mr. Chernow’s tale is enlivened by blazing quotes from Twain’s prodigious interviews, diaries and letters.
Enormous, bland, and remote ... Misses the man...almost entirely. He demonstrates little feeling for the deeper and least domesticated regions of Twain’s art, or for the literary context of his era. His book is an endurance test ... Hardy will be the souls who tour this air-conditioned edifice all the way through and glimpse the exit sign.
Meticulous research wrapped in fluent storytelling, an inviting voice, warm and wise. [Chernow] tends to fall hard for his protagonists, but fortunately the tricksy Twain slips the snares of hagiography.
It’s hard to imagine a biography proving more useful to Twain lovers and bashers alike. In examining the art and life of a man both adored and reviled, Chernow has presented the case without romanticizing or (it must be said) bowdlerizing ... It took a Mississippi River’s worth of pages for Chernow to bring us this thorough look at a life filled with many triumphs but also numerous body blows — most of them self-inflicted — without causing us to forget how much fun Twain can be to read ... Chernow brings him to life with empathy but not indulgence. It’s the book Twain deserves and also the book deserved by both his fans and his detractors. Twain would surely wrestle over which group deserves it most.
Chernow’s writing remains uniformly crisp, but his comprehensiveness accounts for the book’s length ... An apt reflection of his outsize subject ... Perhaps no one can fully resolve the mystery of the man who lived as both Samuel Clemens and Mark Twain. Chernow’s mammoth tale might be as close as we come to an answer.
The story of Twain’s rise is well told ... A work that is likely to prove definitive. It is virtually a month-by-month account of Twain’s seventy-four years, with all the advantages and disadvantages that entails. I wished the book captured more of Twain’s humor, but by and large it was not a funny life, nor a funny time in America.
Avoids the trap of idolizing Twain and gives and honest assessment of the author’s life, including his flaws and contradictions ... Chernow’s willingness to give readers the unvarnished truth about Twain makes the biography stand out, as does his ability to simultaneously explore the historical and literary context of Twain’s writing. Even Twain’s lesser-known works are addressed ... Twain comes alive.
The biography contains no new interpretations of Twain’s novels, nor much to explain the splendid originality of his travel writing. Instead, Chernow devotes a hefty portion of his 1,039 pages (excluding notes) to Twain’s personal tribulations ... I cringed plenty but laughed out loud only once ... Chernow follows the pattern of most biographers in giving this work less attention than the more chipper earlier books—which is a pity, because the later work also reflects the Twain best illuminated by Chernow’s biography and its emphasis on Twain’s most forlorn years.
Twain sometimes recedes into the background. His life is far too capacious to be crammed into a slender volume. That would be like attempting to bury a giant in a matchbox. Yet the proportions here are strange and counterproductive. The biography is simply overlong, and dwells at almost surreal length on the sunset of its subject’s final two decades ... Despite its formidable accumulation of facts, Ron Chernow’s maximalist portrait finally sinks under its own weight.
Familiar tone makes for very smooth reading and can cover a multitude of sins. It’s a shame so many such sins are committed in these pages, which are filled with repeated lazy writing ... Chernow is not a particularly adept reader of Twain’s work ... Admittedly effective stuff, though terribly easy. The same might be said for all of Mark Twain, but only when the book is at its best. The rest is a slog of mediocre prose and overcrowded chapters. If Chernow writes his next biography at 250 pages under a pseudonym, I’ll buy him a sandwich.
Modern ... Thorough ... Despite its size, Mark Twain reads like a novel. It does not serve as a testament but rather as a story where, even if readers know the ending, they look forward to the next chapter. Twain lived an extraordinary life of adventure around the world, and the reader shares it at his side.
Chernow makes out of all this an admirably animated, readable account of one of the modern world’s first celebrities. Somewhere deep inside it, almost hidden, glows the energy and humour of Twain’s very American prose.
Deeply researched and beautifully written ... Chernow has brought us as close to Twain as we are likely to get, and this nuanced portrait of an often conflicted man is a triumph.
Chernow once again demonstrates his impeccably deep research, highlighting Twain’s better qualities without ignoring the issues he grappled with in his life—centrally, the racism of his era and the troubling ways in which he sometimes related to women.
Remarkable ... The impeccable research blends seamlessly into a narrative that examines Twain in all his guises: devoted family man, writer, publisher, entrepreneur, and inventor. Like his subject, Chernow has a keen ear for the perfect quote, insult, and witty rejoinder. This monumental achievement will stand as the definitive life of Mark Twain.
