Nancy A. (Chocoholic) reviewed on 6/24/2012 + 291 more book reviews

This book was on my wishlist for some time because I was genuinely interested in the Black Plague period of history. This book made me seriously question my interests, not because of gruesome details but because the book is so dry. The author spends almost 100 pages describing the geography of Europe and Asia in excruciatingly painful detail, but I persevered. He personified the plague virus as some sort of nomad wandering around Europe, infecting whenever and wherever it liked. Occasionally he sprinkled little vignettes about a person's experience with the plague here and there, but nearly smothers the readers' interest by layering heavy doses of statistics and percentages and other boring facts on top. In one memorable chapter he points out the ill treatment of the Jews when angry Europeans blamed them for the plague, but not before he systematically points out every single crime against the Jewish people since 66 AD, and goes on for 20 pages before finally getting back to his point. This book really reads like a dry textbook and has no discernible plot to it (yes, even nonfiction books can have a plot). Finally the author throws in big, medical words that will send you running for a dictionary. I hope there are better books about the plague out there, because this isn't one of them.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details