When I heard that there was a new biography coming out about Charles Spurgeon's wife, Susannah, I was quite interested, eager for it to come out. I've read a short biography of Susannah before, but this one, Susie: The life and legacy of Susannah Spurgeon by Ray Rhodes Jr. Is a larger and I thought it would be neat to know more about her.
The cover is beautiful looking, is hardcover (which to me is quite a plus), and it feels like very good quality. I read it out loud with my sister, thinking that we would enjoy it together…not so. It dragged, and the timeline just seemed all over the place. I was very disappointed with this biography. I am very sorry to have to sound harsh, but this is probably the worst written biography I've ever read. I don't think I've ever read one written like this before. It just seemed like a book that recycles some facts over, and over, and over and over again. Past events are repeatedly (not just once or twice) referred to, as though you forgot that they happened. And it just seemed to make it worse that IMMEDIATELY after some of the quotations of Charles and Susie, the author would summarize what they said (which usually was very clear) and also requote sections in the summary itself. Often I like some repetition in biographies, but this is absurd.
We got about three quarters of the way through the book and just called it quits as it was so agonizing to plod through and it looked as though the rest would be the same way. It is not better than the old book, and doesn't really seem to add anything new, it just seemed to use repetition to make the account longer. The smaller biography by Charles Ray is much, much better.
I feel bad, I really wanted to like this biography, but simply couldn't.
Thanks to Moody Publishers for sending me a free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable).
My Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars
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This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and Christianbook.com
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