Skip to main content

Review: My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead



Review: My Life in Middlemarch
Rebecca Mead
Broadway Books
2014

I cannot remember reading a book that I have enjoyed more than this one.  Mead and her interaction with Middlemarch and George Eliot, its author, made me want the same thing from a book that I have read and loved.  Yes, maybe “love” is the proper word.  Is there one?

In what one reviewer called a “bibliomemoir” (304) Mead works her way through the books that comprise Middlemarch.  That book, the places and the people that served as inspiration for the author, and Mead’s own story as it connected with Eliot’s text is the gist of Mead’s work here.  She has explored the life of the author, those around her, the locales that touched even remotely on the text or author’s life, and even an unusual letter writing devotee, in a way that is more a diary of impressions and information than anything else, I think.  

Do you need to have read Middlemarch before reading this?  No.  Mead gives her readers enough information to place the time and characters well into Victorian England.  It might add more depth, but that’s a guess since I have not read it.   What I learned from Mead is to slow down and think more deeply about a text and not only the text itself, but also the life of the author.  Yes, that might mean a bit of research, but the rewards are worth the effort judging from what Mead has described here.  

Yes, find a copy of this book and read it.  Then see if you can do the same with any book you have read.  I’m on a quest to find that book of my own now.  

I received this book from the publishers in return for a review.









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Sex, Jesus, and the Conversations the Church Forgot by Mo Isom

Review: Sex, Jesus, and the Conversations the Church Forgot Mo Isom Baker Books 2018 I picked this one up after I’d seen a video promo by the author, http://moisom.com/sexandjesus#.   Sounded like she had something to say.   She does.   And even if you don’t think it applies to you it does in ways that aren’t necessarily related to sex, but just as a human being with desires.    Isom subscribed to many of the conversations that govern relationships in general, and those with men, for her generation, the millennials.   This book is not her life story, but it does describe some moments that were important to her journey then and now.   Her openness to share those times surprised me.   Her point without spoiling the book is that she had not understood what linked sexual intimacy to ordinary life, the why’s, if you will.   Was it not taught, discussed?   Or was she not interested in hearing might be a valid...

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense Dr. Larry Crabb Baker Books 2018 I chose this book because the title intrigued me.   When God’s Ways Make No Sense.    There have been plenty of times when that seemed truer than I’d like to admit.   Are we even allowed to say something like that?   Even if we think it.   So, an author willing to take on that topic had my attention. And mostly because I wanted his take on what to do about it? As it turns out Crabb pretty much gave away his case very early on in his book with a single scripture quote.   The basic idea is God is GOD and we are not.   His motives and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and He owes no explanation for them either.   Crabb admits near the end of his book that he is not a theologian which I knew going into this book, but his arguments are theology.   Or at least I think so.   I found his repeated circling the topic a bit frustrating. ...

Review: Anatomy of the Soul

Anatomy of the Soul Curt Thompson. M.D. Salt River, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2010 This is the most helpful,insightful book I’ve read in a long time. There’s advice, guidance, explanations and examples to illustrate discussion offered by the author. Best of all, for me anyway, it explains some of what I had suspected about how things work all along. Dr. Thompson links human anatomy and physiology to the spiritual part of our being throughout the text. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And God uses His creation of the physical body in amazing ways. The author does a great job showing God’s wisdom found in research and the discoveries that science has made recently in neuroscience. Whether science wants to or not, it is describing the wonders of creation. Read this book. The text will require thought, evaluation, and time to go through. The author’s writing style is quite readable and he covers the material well. While this isn’t a how to or self help boo...