The Grass Crown
by Colleen McCullough
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Book Summary Information
Author: Colleen McCulloughEdition: Hardcover
Published: 1991
ISBN: 0091825660
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of The Grass Crown
Book Review: Still More Addicitve the Crack Cocaine
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel is a continuation of the "Rome" series of books, of which this novel is the second. The first was "the First Man in Rome". Again, and with feeling, this is the best series I have ever read in my entire life! The words compulsive and fascinating are simply too flat and characterless to do justice to this series. If I was ever stranded on a desert island with only one thing to read for the rest of my life it would be this series of novels, they are that good.
This novel continues where the first left off and covers the decline of Gaius Marius, both in power and in faculty, and the meteoric rise of Sulla to the heights of power, and the titanic struggles that these erstwhile comrades ignited in the Roman world as their relationship slowly shifted from allies to enemies as each began to seek his own self-aggrandizement at the expense of the other. This is a fabulous book, and I found Sulla every bit as interesting as I did Marius, particularly since he was a more complex person with his difficult and impoverished youth, his cunning such a youth created, his difficulty with interpersonal relationships, his homosexuality, and the way he had to absolutely sublimate all of this in his quest for power.....and yet at the end, despite his more unconventional beginnings than Marius and his personal traits and habits (despised by most Roman senators), he is the far more conservative of the pair. Marius is born of rural and conservative roots but becomes a demogogue and populist, while the homosexual party-animal Sulla evolves into a rabid conservative along the lines of a Pat Buchanan. It's a lot of fun!
One of my very real epiphanies in reading this was how similar the politics of Rome were to our politics today. I think anyone reading this will be similarly struck and it is not hard to envision dropping the Roman senate down in Washington and not seeing any real change in our daily lives. The headlines would all be the same, the debates as sharp, the slandering and pandering, the demonizations, and the partisanship and bickering would go on without the slightest flicker of disruption!
I first read these books about seven years ago, and then read them all over again last year when the last installment came out. After I finished reading them the second time I nearly started over again at the beginning for a third go round, but decided instead to go and read other works relating to Rome and some works of the ancients themselves, including Caesar and Cicero.
These novels cover the period of Rome from about 110 BC to roughly 40 BC, a period of great change and upheaval for the republic that eventually led to the empire (sounds a bit like the star wars series, doesn't it? I think George cribbed a lot of notes from Roman history). This is a grand book, with characters that seem more alive and more real, than many flesh and blood people we deal with in our daily lives. The character development McCullough achieves is nothing short of mind-bending and indeed may make you a pickier reader in the future. I would whole-heartedly recommend this book, and the entire series, to any reader. It is difficult to pick a favorite out of the series, and I don't think I could, but I really, really enjoyed this first novel as much as any of them.
One cautionary note, since some of my friends are ancient history buffs, is that while the known "facts" in McCullough's series are extremely accurate and she did an incredible amount of research for these books (will someone give her an honorary doctorate please?), people's personalities and their daily lives between the big, recorded facts of history are not as well established. I love McCullough's impression and interpretation and I think few could gainsay her much in her works. Her Caesar and Sulla though may get more favorable treatment from her than other commentators and novelists might elect to award. That, however is one of the greatest things about these books: after the compulsive reading is over comes the compulsive conversations, the debating with friends about this or that, and the further exploration of one of the most facinating periods in history.
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