Michael Dean (3)

This is my second attempt to post a review. The first attempt (lost in the ether net) was far superior.

This book examines --as with a microscope-- the events and machinations leading up to the first actual battle of the War for Independence. However, it is a fictionalized account more concerned with the good story than with verifiable facts. In the author's own words, "“where the demands of drama clash with accounts in the historical record, I have followed the demands of drama.” show more
Dramatic, it is. Michael Dean seems to have the inside track on many of the real people wrapped up in the actual events. He spends a great deal of time on the thoughts, motivations and minutia of Samuel Adams, Dr Thomas Young, Governor of MassachusettsThomas Pownell, his Lt Governor Thomas Hutchinson, British official (brother & rival of Pownell) John Powell, John Hancock, and others. We read little or nothing on other well known historical figures such as Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, Paul Revere, even George Washington. I would love to have seen an historian's educated guess as to the inner workings of those minds as well. show less

The story of the Boston Tea Party has been told a thousand times over.
But maybe not in this lively way: Michael Dean grabs the main contrahents of the Boston uprising - on both sides of the Atlantic - and tells their decisive deeds in a fictional novel.

Well written piece. What struck me most - bear in mind, I'm a Libertarian through and through - was the depicted violence and the raging mob instrumentalized for the august vision of true freedom.

Reading this was an intense submersion in being Chagall (as researched and imagined by the author). I initially felt embarrassed as a voyeur but I was so enthralled with the experience I lost myself. The character descriptions and choice of content were impeccable. I received this as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer. Thank you.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and many of my fellow ERs did, which goes to show you that opinions are are varied as the topics that are written about. I found the convenience of weaving all these stories together, and least to my eye, didn't seem to be historically accurate, but it's entirely possible that I was wrong. I also was not the biggest fan of the ... political leaning Mr Dean took on, not the founding of liberty, but rather the means used to go about getting that freedom. It show more is a fine line to walk - glorifying freedom fighters, and I think Mr Dean could have used an editor from the opposite political spectrum to maybe provide some balance. It's a long read, so prepare to settle in with a Sam Adams, while you follow Sam Adams. show less