From Myths with thanks also for the comments. Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:42 pm
New(ish) review of her book about Cleopatra. Reviewer could be talking about Brown on mcCann:-
1.0 out of 5 stars It is one step above a novel,and not a very large step at that., July 8, 2014
By Charles H. Levenson "chubbybuns" (new jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Murder of Cleopatra: History's Greatest Cold Case (Kindle Edition)
Where does the fiction end and the facts begin?In"The Murder of Cleopatra"by Pat Brown it doesn't.
Oh,sure,we have a cast of historical individuals,and we are dealing with mostly historical events,but in Ms.Brown's incapable hands it all turns to opinionated mush.
Most of the book turns on Ms.Brown's arrogant assumption that she rather than those who were alive at or around the time of Cleopatra's demise knows more of the how and the why.Whole chunks of text by Strabo,Suetonius,Cassius Dio,Plutarch and others are quoted after which Ms.brown,who behaves throughout the book as an annoying know-it-all declares that they are all wrong.Her "proof"that they are all wrong is flimsy at best.
Cleopatra couldn't have died in a tomb because her examination of some tombs suggest them to be unlike the admitted embellished pictorial representations that artists have provided.
An asp or a cobra could not have killed her because after Cleopatra and her hand-maidens were dead a snake would not,according to Ms.Brown,have been able to slither away and yet according to Ms.Brown no snake was found.
Sure,it is POSSIBLE that some of Ms.brown's opinions may be accurate,at least as accurate as anything from 2,000 years ago could be,but in her arrogance Ms.Brown declares in the first pages of her book,"Clopatra was murdered"This declaration came after,by her own admission,she went to a bookstore in Ohio and read a few books on Cleopatra that she found there.
So,after dismissing all of the period writers accounts Ms.Brown then constructs her narrative based on her "findings",except that when one reads her book one is struck repeatedly by the fact that her"findings"are mostly her opinions rather than solid facts.In my book this is constructing a fiction that fits all of the opinions held by the author and excludes any other evidence.
What kind of an"expert'makes a decision BEFORE examining all of the evidence?Reading a few books in Ohio on Cleopatra is hardly a scientific approach.Of course perhaps a television deal with the Discovery channel may have factored into her thinking although she claims otherwise.
Ms.Brown's"reconstruction'of the events leading up to her version of the death of Cleopatra make a nice tidy fiction.I'm just surprised that Ms.Brown did not put dialogue into the mouths of Cleopatra,Mark Anthony,Octavian and the others.Afterall,nearly everything contained in her"reconstruction"is her opinion,so why not throw in some dialogue..I mean if Clepatra was strangled she certainly could have said something like"don't kill me"
A lot is made of her"expert"status,as if this somehow transcends the fact that she is guessing in nearly the entire book.Hey,I can make guesses and so can you,but because Ms.Brown is an"expert"her guesses apparently carry more weight,even though they are just guesses.
If you want a novel disguised as a history then this is the book for you.I would like my money and my time back,because in the case of"The Murder of Cleopatra"both were wasted.
What was it that Brown said recently about her book on Cleopatra? When she was dismissing the Summers and Swan book on the grounds that they hadn't interviewed her?
" Because Scotland Yard has that stamp of approval of being an organization one should trust and with Summers being an award winning writer (much like Pulitzer Prize winning author Stacy Schiff whose book on Cleopatra is far believed over mine in spite of my far superior research and providing of evidence"
Profiler, profile thyself.
New(ish) review of her book about Cleopatra. Reviewer could be talking about Brown on mcCann:-
1.0 out of 5 stars It is one step above a novel,and not a very large step at that., July 8, 2014
By Charles H. Levenson "chubbybuns" (new jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Murder of Cleopatra: History's Greatest Cold Case (Kindle Edition)
Where does the fiction end and the facts begin?In"The Murder of Cleopatra"by Pat Brown it doesn't.
Oh,sure,we have a cast of historical individuals,and we are dealing with mostly historical events,but in Ms.Brown's incapable hands it all turns to opinionated mush.
Most of the book turns on Ms.Brown's arrogant assumption that she rather than those who were alive at or around the time of Cleopatra's demise knows more of the how and the why.Whole chunks of text by Strabo,Suetonius,Cassius Dio,Plutarch and others are quoted after which Ms.brown,who behaves throughout the book as an annoying know-it-all declares that they are all wrong.Her "proof"that they are all wrong is flimsy at best.
Cleopatra couldn't have died in a tomb because her examination of some tombs suggest them to be unlike the admitted embellished pictorial representations that artists have provided.
An asp or a cobra could not have killed her because after Cleopatra and her hand-maidens were dead a snake would not,according to Ms.Brown,have been able to slither away and yet according to Ms.Brown no snake was found.
Sure,it is POSSIBLE that some of Ms.brown's opinions may be accurate,at least as accurate as anything from 2,000 years ago could be,but in her arrogance Ms.Brown declares in the first pages of her book,"Clopatra was murdered"This declaration came after,by her own admission,she went to a bookstore in Ohio and read a few books on Cleopatra that she found there.
So,after dismissing all of the period writers accounts Ms.Brown then constructs her narrative based on her "findings",except that when one reads her book one is struck repeatedly by the fact that her"findings"are mostly her opinions rather than solid facts.In my book this is constructing a fiction that fits all of the opinions held by the author and excludes any other evidence.
What kind of an"expert'makes a decision BEFORE examining all of the evidence?Reading a few books in Ohio on Cleopatra is hardly a scientific approach.Of course perhaps a television deal with the Discovery channel may have factored into her thinking although she claims otherwise.
Ms.Brown's"reconstruction'of the events leading up to her version of the death of Cleopatra make a nice tidy fiction.I'm just surprised that Ms.Brown did not put dialogue into the mouths of Cleopatra,Mark Anthony,Octavian and the others.Afterall,nearly everything contained in her"reconstruction"is her opinion,so why not throw in some dialogue..I mean if Clepatra was strangled she certainly could have said something like"don't kill me"
A lot is made of her"expert"status,as if this somehow transcends the fact that she is guessing in nearly the entire book.Hey,I can make guesses and so can you,but because Ms.Brown is an"expert"her guesses apparently carry more weight,even though they are just guesses.
If you want a novel disguised as a history then this is the book for you.I would like my money and my time back,because in the case of"The Murder of Cleopatra"both were wasted.
What was it that Brown said recently about her book on Cleopatra? When she was dismissing the Summers and Swan book on the grounds that they hadn't interviewed her?
" Because Scotland Yard has that stamp of approval of being an organization one should trust and with Summers being an award winning writer (much like Pulitzer Prize winning author Stacy Schiff whose book on Cleopatra is far believed over mine in spite of my far superior research and providing of evidence"
Profiler, profile thyself.
