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Sweeping and comprehensive

Revisado: 08-07-20

This is a 48-lecture course well and thoroughly taught by a very serious professor. What that means is, it helps to have a keen interest in the subject matter and a tolerance for an academic approach that almost never veers into humor to any degree. Since I am fascinated by European history, I was game for continuing after the first few minutes when I realized that this was a course one has to commit to. And I'm glad I did.

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A Die-hard Dorsey Armstrong Fan

Revisado: 12-03-19

This was probably my least favorite of her courses, but part of that is because I was super-familiar with a lot of the material. (I am a Lutheran pastor pickled in medieval history!) This is not to say I didn't learn new things because I did! And I always love her Dorsey Armstrong's playful approach and erudition.

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Well-written Public Airing of Private Lives

Revisado: 12-03-19

Mia Farrow is such an appealing person as an actor and as a reader. Her story is interesting enough, but the preponderance of the book deals with the custody battle with and abuse allegations against Woody Allen, much of which is well-known now. (Writen in 1997, this would have been breaking and heart-breaking news at the time.) The switch in narration part-way through is very, very jarring--no explanation is given and we wonder if Mia Farrow just broke off in the middle of the project or if she will come back on. (She does.) But the narrative shift is a strike against the cohesiveness of the story.

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Sublime Story

Revisado: 11-11-19

Shirley Jackson, who spent most of her adult life living in North Bennington, only an hour from where I live, is the consummate creepy writer. And this rendering of the story is just great. Bernadette Dunne inhabits Nell's character like a second skin. This is not to be missed. (And the Robert Wise film of the book, "The Haunting," is required viewing. Scary as can be. I saw the film for the second time with the director in the same small screening room and I was still scared. The story that Jackson created will haunt not only Hill House, but you!

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Ian McEwan and Lindsay Duncan are a Good Combo!

Revisado: 11-11-19

I've been reading and rocking Ian McEwan since 1980. This, like his long-ago "The Child in Time" is so poignant...and almost sentimental. But he keeps it pretty spare and Lindsay Duncan's narration is wonderul. There is a gently snarky passage when Fiona is taxi-ing in south London and she gives a kind scathing interior monologue with true north London chauvinism!

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Dorsey Armstrong Rocks!

Revisado: 09-30-19

And not only that, she's got a golden year to deal with! I'm a Lutheran pastor so church history and medieval history is part of my stock in trade, sort of. In the other courses of hers, as with this one, she is personable, thorough and brings the time and the cultures she is dealing with into vivid focus. And who knew I would enjoy four lectures on the Mongols so very much? And I am psyched to see what she will tackle next. (She crushed it with her plague course!)

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Honestly, This Review is Generous

Revisado: 09-11-19

It's just not believable. And the characters are unsavory. And the violence is unrealistic. And it's good thing this is not a real town because THIS is a town without pity. Stay on the highway and skip it.

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Based on a True Story and Well Worth Knowing

Revisado: 09-11-19

The fact that this was based on an actual woman wasn't clear to me until I did a little internet probing. And that makes the story even more resonant than it would have been otherwise--and it still would have been compelling, as well as well-written.

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Kind of a Page Turner

Revisado: 09-11-19

But pretty predictable. Like some books that probe sexual violence, this one was somewhat polarizing. The men are not the good guys--we figure this out pretty early in the novel. But life in relation to one another never ends up being fixed. So in the end, this was well-enough written, but formulaic.

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Jill LePore is a Treasure

Revisado: 06-12-19

I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't expecting the braiding together of history and justice missed out on and a sweeping yet detailed story of our country. It is moving without being particularly uplifting. And it is informative without every being pedantic. And her reading voice is perfect, sometimes sly, sometimes harsh, sometimes playful and just occasionally suitably professorial. This was a fantastic read that from time to time brought tears.

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