Reviews

Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Sally Wern Comport, Jean Fritz

emiged's review

2.0

Ms Fritz explains in the forward that she considers this book historical fiction rather than a biography because Thomas Savage left no first person accounts of his life and there are few other sources that mention him, so she had to "fill in" some details and such. But then the book reads like she's trying to write a biography. Either commit to the fictionalization and all that entails (creating dialogue, choosing between conflicting information, inventing details to flesh the story out, etc.) or commit to a factual biography, as scarce, conflicting, and desultory as the facts may be. Ms. Fritz seemed to try to do both, and in so doing, didn't accomplish either.

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.