I'm all over the place on this book, so I'm not sure where my comments will go. There were times when I was enthralled by the information in this book. Obviously, the author had done extensive research on Churchill and the first year he was PM of England. At the beginning, Larson stated that he would only attribute quotes by people if they had actually written it. I wondered how he could possible do this, but he had numerous personal diaries that Churchill's family and staff created. He used these throughout the book.
In fact, I was reminded of when I was in high school and had to write term papers. I would research my topic (one year... Emily Dickinson, another year ....AA Milne) and I would find quotes by the writers themselves or quotes that others had written about them and their work. I would put these quotes on 3x5 cards, and I would sort them by topic. Then I would write an opening sentence to a paragraph and follow it up with numerous quotes proving my point. I loved using quotes because then I didn't have to write as much text myself. I could just use other people's words! Erik Larson used this technique constantly! I'm not saying this is a negative, but I think he overdid it a bit.
The book is very detailed. Considering the fact that the book is over 600 pages long and it covers just one year's time, you can understand this. Some of the details are fascinating (how the people of London responded to the bombings of their city, how Churchill's eccentric personality dominated everyone around him, how the war seemed to give everyone a sense of sexual freedom) but there were also a lot of unnecessary details (what was for dinner or a detailed description of Churchill's robes). Perhaps a little editing might have helped, but I'm sure there are historians who will relish these details.
My favorite part of the book was the Epilogue where the author writes about what happened to each of the major players in the book after this infamous year. It tied up a lot of loose ends and satisfied the need to know "the rest of the story". If you have a love for historical details, I'd recommend this book. - June
