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2013 Review by Jan - 1 Star
After finishing this book I unfortunately got to say I am quite disapointed. Why's that you ask? Well, where to start...??
The first two objections against the book are admittedly of pure formal nature:
First of all the language is a bit strained what makes the whole thing quite hard to read (this being even more so as I am no native-speaker). But being an unedited reprint of 1892 this had to be expected.
Secondly the book cites a ton of letters and other quotes but there is not a list of references of any kind. This, of course, is quite an academic approach but for purpose of the reprint at least a small bibliography would have been a nice touch.
But what was most unnerving was the absolutely unreflected way in which the book is written. I am no canadian citizen and am therefore not at all party affiliated, neither liberal nor conservative. This being said, I have to assess that the two authors used the biography as a platform to denounce any idea or person that was not "in line" with the thoughts of Alexander Mackenzie. Surely it is not easy to keep at least a bit of distance when you write the biography of someone you knew. But the biased approach used by the authors would not have been - so I think - the way chosen by Alexander Mackenzie.
2021 Review by Daniel Kukwa - 2 Star
My God in Heaven...what the hell was that? This certainly isn't a biography of Canada's first Liberal Prime Minister, aside from some early family life in Scotland, and a bit of end-of-life-pottering. This reads like one long, Hansard-style narrative that (1) seems to want to relate ever last legislative piece of business conducted in the colonies and early Canada; (2) seems to want to do nothing but state WHAT happens...in nauseating detail; (3) fails to provide any insight into the mind, life, and character of of Alexander Mackenzie, aside from some fawning praise. This is one long endless list of minutiae...nothing more, nothing less. There's virtually an entire chapter of goodbye letters...LETTERS...verbatim! On top of it, this is clearly a Liberal-pushing mythology creation...and as a life long Liberal, even I am astonished by the partisan audacity. Mix in all the pretention of Victorian language, and the end result is a brick design to warp your brain into a Gordian Knot of pain. There is some useful research information here, and there is a nice sideline into revelations about George Brown (even more so than Mackenzie!) -- those items lift this biblical volume of ambien to a 2 star rating. Otherwise, I continue to wait in vain for an authentic, revealing biography of a mysterious man.