10.28.2009
The Ides of March
by Thornton Wilder, 246pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: A+
You've probably never heard of Thornton Wilder before... unless you've see/read the play 'Our Town'. Yep, he won a Pultizer for that. Wilder is the only person ever to win Pulitzers for both a play and a novel. Yeah, I didn't know that until I read an article about him in Newsweek. And as I was perusing his eclectic list of novels (all different styles and genres) I found this one that sounded right up my alley.
As you might have guessed from the title, this novel is about the assassination of Caesar. Wilder takes a very interesting way to relay the events building up that climax. He gives exerpts from correspondence between Caesar, his family, associates, collegues and enemies. Some of it is really, most of it is made up. Very very interesting. And I liked how he managed to make their voices sound so authentically Roman - which I base off my hours of translation for Latin class. Ancient Romans definitely had a distinct manner of speech and Wilder reproduces it well.
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: historical, media: book
