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ellipsiscool's review against another edition
3.0
I just did not like the tone of this book. I picked it up and started reading it rather randomly as I often do, but this one made me upset. I suppose I should have inferred as much when I embarked on a "history of life and death."
threegoodrats's review
3.0
I really want to give this only two stars based on my enjoyment (or lack thereof) but it *was* well researched and I’ve got to give her credit for that, I guess. My understanding is that the book proposes to be a history of ideas about life and death (in the US) which is a pretty wide net. The book is not even 200 pages, which was a relief when I started reading it because it is so dense, and honestly I’m surprised that I made it through. First of all, it feels more like she had researched a number of very random things and tried to shoehorn it into some sort of a framework to fit it all in one book and hit upon the thesis of “ideas about life and death.” That should cover about everything! Indeed, near the end she mentions that many of the chapters began as essays for the New Yorker. That pretty much confirms that the writings came first and the thematic framework second.
Because it jumped all over the place from subject to subject, there were a LOT of people mentioned and I struggled to keep track of who was who. A chapter would start with mention of a person or two, jump into a digression about someone they knew or were influenced by, then after THAT whole story would come back to the other person you already forgot about. Also, she just threw in these random references/jokes that just flew past me. For instance, in a chapter about chryonics (cryogenics) she describes someone as “lumpy and balding and soft-spoken but, other than that, not a bit like Peter Lorre.” Who the hell is Peter Lorre? I had to look him up: he was a character actor who died back in 1964 and who, I’m pretty sure, had not been previously mentioned in this book.
Anyway, there was some interesting stuff here but also there was JUST SO MUCH STUFF, really too much for a book this short and the theme, as I mentioned, felt cobbled together. It’s a shame because I think if she had taken a longer, broader look at just a few of these subjects I might actually remember more of it.
Because it jumped all over the place from subject to subject, there were a LOT of people mentioned and I struggled to keep track of who was who. A chapter would start with mention of a person or two, jump into a digression about someone they knew or were influenced by, then after THAT whole story would come back to the other person you already forgot about. Also, she just threw in these random references/jokes that just flew past me. For instance, in a chapter about chryonics (cryogenics) she describes someone as “lumpy and balding and soft-spoken but, other than that, not a bit like Peter Lorre.” Who the hell is Peter Lorre? I had to look him up: he was a character actor who died back in 1964 and who, I’m pretty sure, had not been previously mentioned in this book.
Anyway, there was some interesting stuff here but also there was JUST SO MUCH STUFF, really too much for a book this short and the theme, as I mentioned, felt cobbled together. It’s a shame because I think if she had taken a longer, broader look at just a few of these subjects I might actually remember more of it.
shirp's review against another edition
2.0
"A History" - Very specific, American history with a political slant. Loosely tied narratives that are sometimes forced in a very convuluted way. I did learn things, but the overall structure and depth of information, as well as the author's conclusions, leave something to be desired. These chapters were probably better as they originally appeared as stand-alone essays in the New Yorker.
pshepp's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
alexisrt's review against another edition
4.0
Just a note that a lot of this book was previously published in the New Yorker, so will not be new to longtime readers. It's more of a collection of pieces than a cohesive whole, but the essays themselves are interesting.
painalangoisse's review against another edition
3.0
This book feels incomplete as an argument. The chapters are divided mostly chronologically both in terms of life span and history. However, this led to my feeling that Lepore was telling a story rather than presenting an argument. That would be fine were it her mission, but the book concludes that “history is the art of making an argument by telling a story about the dead.” It was generally an interesting story. But it does not represent a cogent argument, and ultimately, that is what I wanted from it. Also, I found Lepore’s focus on individuals a bit tedious. Ultimately, their purpose appears to have been to tie the story into a neat package. But that comes at the cost of truly understanding a progression of ideas in a society, which was what the book promised. I had particular difficulty with the chapters “The Children’s Room” and “All About Erections,” which described conceptions of childhood and adolescence entirely through books and their authors’ disagreements. Each of the sections felt like an introduction, a case study that should have been used to illustrate a greater point that just never appeared. I know what’s included in “The Care and Keeping of You,” but I would have liked to see more analysis of how that content reflects cultural change. Overall, that was my biggest problem with the book: it felt like there was too much evidence and too little analysis of it or conclusions drawn from it. Lepore seemed to relish being able to proclaim that something was a great reflection of cultural change. But there was little further explanation of why. It was a very anticlimactic read. The prose itself was engaging and I did learn some interesting facts.
jham0330's review against another edition
2.0
The subject of this book intrigued me and it received several good views. However I must not have realized how the book was shaped, as a collection of essays. While each chapter of the book catalogs life from conception to death, it feels like the author merely found a topic that interested her that had a character or theme in the correct life genre, then added the phrase "Mansion of Happiness" to make it fit. It's just like reading a book of essays, some you will enjoy and some will be awful. This book was very hit or miss with me.
sde's review
5.0
I can't believe this is the first book by Jill Lepore I have read. I never would have picked it up on my own, but it was part of a quarterly book box I subscribe to. It is all about the history of everyday domestic things like marriage and childrearing told in an extremely engaging manner with fascinating tidbits throughout.
If I highlighted my favorite parts of the book, I would pretty much be providing a paraphrase of the entire book, but perhaps that chapter that will stay with me the longest is the one on breastfeeding. We all know how it has come in and out of style, but the story behind campaigns to make it so were interesting. It also shows how a relatively minor issue was used to distract people from what mothers and babies really need:
"Non-bathroom lactation rooms are so shockingly paltry a substitute for maternity leave, you might think that the Second Gilded Age's craze for pumps -- especially the government's pressing them on poor women while giving tax breaks to big businesses - - would have been met with skepticism by more people than Tea Partiers. Not so."
If I highlighted my favorite parts of the book, I would pretty much be providing a paraphrase of the entire book, but perhaps that chapter that will stay with me the longest is the one on breastfeeding. We all know how it has come in and out of style, but the story behind campaigns to make it so were interesting. It also shows how a relatively minor issue was used to distract people from what mothers and babies really need:
"Non-bathroom lactation rooms are so shockingly paltry a substitute for maternity leave, you might think that the Second Gilded Age's craze for pumps -- especially the government's pressing them on poor women while giving tax breaks to big businesses - - would have been met with skepticism by more people than Tea Partiers. Not so."
swoody788's review
4.0
I promised my brother I'd finish this by his birthday, and I made it with two days to spare. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I absolutely loved the introduction, but it turned out a little differently than I thought it would. I understand now that most of the chapters were individual essays written for the New Yorker, but as I read through them I felt like there was something missing to tie them all together, aside from the obvious progression of tales from birth to death. I loved the premise of the book, and Lepore's sense of humor, and I appreciated her perspective on some hot-button political and social issues. I feel like I now have a much broader understanding of a few stances I had not considered valid at all before, and I can see the reasoning behind them. Overall, this book made me think about so many of the things in this day and age that we accept as "the way it has always been", when in fact a lot of these ideas/norms are fairly recent and the product of political motives. There is a lot of discussion of sexuality that I think may offend some, but I feel like for the most part it was tastefully done.
jasonthefirst's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting read, if hard to describe. The chapters aren't explicitly connected, but each one is fascinating and there's enough of a through-line to propel you through. There isn't a beginning/middle/end here, but I learned so much while reading that didn't seem like a big deal.