Customer Reviews

The Red Dancer: The Life and Times of Mata Hari

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This book was very exciting at first, as Skinner chose to reveal the character and life of Mata Hari through the eyes of others in her life, each chapter from the account of a different person... however he lost track from that orginal idea and once I finished the book- I didn't feel like I had learned anything about who Mata Hari was. It nearly had nothing at all to do with her. It contains some lovely character sketches but there is no story. And he gives Mata Hari absolutely no personality, even in the chapters from her own point of view. There are some interesting histories thrown in on Picasso, absinthe, and other era points of interests but they are so out-of-the-blue... I felt like at the end all this random information would somehow tie together but it never did. I wish he had had an editor who pushed him a little harder because he is a talented writer and the concept had so much potential.

I started reading this book a few days ago because I wanted to learn more about the life of Mata Hari, but the author talks about other topics instead of the main subject.

I don't really recommend this book unless you wanna know more about other topics that are NOT related to Mata Hari.