Mark Twain had an incredible memory for dialogue and dialects. He would say an unfamiliar dialect until he got it right and then write it down phonetically. He would then have the appropriate characters use that dialect as the author’s voice for making points that brought to light the reality of situations to which most people were blind. As Powers indicates, this changed American literature forever. It gave the potential author points of view by which to look at human life that the “normal” perspective could not understand and opened up worlds that were unknown or not considered important before Twain. Combined with a brilliant ability to write dialogue, Twain showed truths about human life that changed everything in American literature.
But this ability of a true genius was embedded in a deeply flawed and ambiguous person, a person who only partially overcame some deep prejudices, often showed uncaring irrational cruelty to friends and family, and frequently acted in self-centered and narcissistic ways. Powers does an excellent job of showing both the genius and the flaws. Powers’ own writing is clear with smooth transitions and well-organized chapters and paragraphs. Though a long book, it is easy to follow with chapter titles followed by the months or years covered in the chapter. Multiple double-spaced breaks in each chapter allow the reader to stop at a break point and come back with no problem. Powers adds periodically a touch of humor in the story analogous to what Twain would have done. It is usually a sentence or a phrase, sometimes just a word. For example, he has Twain “absquatulate” to the West before his ragtag group of Confederate volunteers at the beginning of the war could be attacked by, of all people, a fairly ragtag team of Union soldiers led by a new leader, Ulysses S. Grant. “Absquatulate” is exactly the kind of 25 cent word, a bit strange sounding, that Twain would insert into his work at times. I found such bits of irony or mimicry of Twain appropriate and a helpful addition to the flow of the narrative.
Powers lays out the best and worst of this American original. This is a terrific biography that keeps the reader’s attention from Sam Clemons’ birth to Mark Twain’s death.
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