Helpful Score: 2
This was a beautifully written book that stayed with me even when it was closed and my mind was supposed to be elsewhere. It is good historical fiction, intertwining fact with fiction. The problem for me was that just about anything fictional about a person like Abraham Lincoln seems... I don't know, on par with the story of George Washington and the cherry tree (which is actually mentioned in the pages of this book). I believe that if this were about someone else, if this book were to be called JOE, for instance, I'd have had no qualms because it was VERY good. It was only my personal taste that got in the way.
Helpful Score: 1
Just in case you didn't read the entire title, this is a novel. Which means the author takes literary license, a lot of literary license. I've read dozens of books about Lincoln, who is easiest my all-time favorite historical personage. So I can be very critical about how authors treat him.
At the end of the book the author admits he wrote "...an imaginative re-creation of life as a young Abe Lincoln might have lived it..." However, for the incidents in the book and some of people Lincoln interacts with, the author maintains he did a lot of research to stick close to what happened back then.
I did find the story interesting, but some scenes were a bit over done. And I was confused at the end when he lets the reader know---more than once--one event was going to happen before another, but then has the second scheduled event occurring first. And personally, I refuse to believe Lincoln lost his virginity in a fancy New Orleans bordello. But, hey! Remember the literary license?
At the end of the book the author admits he wrote "...an imaginative re-creation of life as a young Abe Lincoln might have lived it..." However, for the incidents in the book and some of people Lincoln interacts with, the author maintains he did a lot of research to stick close to what happened back then.
I did find the story interesting, but some scenes were a bit over done. And I was confused at the end when he lets the reader know---more than once--one event was going to happen before another, but then has the second scheduled event occurring first. And personally, I refuse to believe Lincoln lost his virginity in a fancy New Orleans bordello. But, hey! Remember the literary license?
