The Life of Herod the Great
What we have of Herod is therefore far from a complete work. The final chapters in the Amistad edition are fragmentary, and the book ends abruptly ... It’s fair to publish an unfinished book, but it feels a little unfair to judge it ... The deluge of unfamiliar names and places can swamp the narrative.
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Important if flawed ... Reads like the unfinished, damaged novel that it is. Structurally and mechanically, it needs a lot of work, despite being informed by deep research. The dialogue is frequently stilted, and the characters never become fully realized actors ... It is far from Hurston at her best, but it is nonetheless engrossing because of her unbridled enthusiasm for her subject, even when her passion works against her
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An odd duck ... In transforming research into fiction, Hurston stumbles ... The result, while painstaking, is less than successful as a novel. Details come fast and thick, and a reader’s eye can’t help but spin at the parade of characters and confusing tangle of family lineages.
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