Kayote B. (kayote) reviewed on 1/20/2009 + 254 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

The book got off to a very poor start. The ancient folks, Egyptian and Greek mainly, were not funny, were lame, and when it was written came through in the comments about women.

It did get better. Once he reached the Romans & later the humor actually appeared. If I'd had another book along I would have quit reading after the first few folks, and that would have been too harsh a judgment of the book. Still not spectacular, but enjoyable.

The footnotes continued to be irritating. I understand why he did it, it helped in poking fun at the style of scholarly writing he mimicking...it still got annoying to have to keep looking down. Too many short footnotes--I would rather more of the long ones--those were entertaining and not as disruptive to reading.

So, some of it was entertaining. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I knew a bit more about the people in question so I could more easily pick out what was real (but presented amusingly) and what was just being made up. I'm certain some of the latter was running around!

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details