A Civil War over Semicolons: Biographer Robert Caro and His Editor

Re:A Civil War over Semicolons: Biographer Robert Caro and H... by voisin on Sunday January 08, 2023 @01:12PM (#34301488)

> The book is an epic story closer to a Tolstoy novel than a mere biography. It’s about a city and a man’s impact on the city. It’s about all of the people whose lives he benefited and whose lives he ruined. Without that sense of scale, the ending doesn’t work. You don’t have time to build sympathy for Moses and to slowly lose that sympathy. And to finally finish with that conflicted love, hate, pity, and awe that I left the book with.

I don’t disagree with any of this.

> All the details matter.

This is where we disagree. I think 30-50% of the book could be cut and you’d still be able to accomplish everything in the first quote above.

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Re:A Civil War over Semicolons: Biographer Robert Caro and H... by hardwaregeek on Sunday January 08, 2023 @02:37PM (#34302305)

Okay I will concede that Caro loves his grand sweeping intro in which he explains that this chapter will outline how Moses evolved in the 30’s, then explain in very close detail how this change happens, then have a grand sweeping recap about how these changes happened and what it meant. It is a lot, but I kind of love this baroque, over the top style.

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