CLEOPATRA

A Life
by Stacy Schiff
 
This is the second book by Schiff that I was incredibly excited to read and ended up slogging through, counting pages until the end.  Both books (the other is The Witches about the Salem witch trials) deal with topics that are among the most interesting in history, and yet these books are DULL.  I find Schiff’s writing style convoluted and dense with so many parenthetical ideas that  it often takes a whole chapter to get one event across. 
 
So why is she so popular, even winning the Pulitzer for Cleopatra?  She seems to be a master researcher and puzzler.  The fact that she compiled vast quantities of information about the mysterious Egyptian queen, much of it published here for the first time, is a tremendous feat.  If only she could work on her storytelling! (Lily)