Augustus

I picked this book up thinking it would be a somewhat ambitious read; possibly I would get lost in the “epistolary” format and a lot of the historical context would be lost on me. In fact, it was the opposite; the book is a rich, loving character study with (I think) universal appeal. One of the points the book makes is that a man is the product of his environment; he is always in struggle with it to determine how much his environment will define him and, vice versa, how much he will define his environment. The formal writing style and historical details in the book deepen our understanding of the environment so that we can better appreciate the place of this man in history.

The book is tightly constructed, with a well-defined schema. I don't wish to give too much away, but I loved how we only hear from Augustus in a single long letter at the very end of the novel. Throughout the rest of the book, he is defined by the words of others. We hear from his friends, his enemies, his lovers, and his children, and they often paint contradictory pictures. But when we finally hear from Augustus himself, in his own words, we feel that we know him deeply, that all these depictions have already come together to paint a remarkably accurate portrait of the man. I think this is one of the book's greatest triumphs.

There was an interesting meta-theme running through this book about how difficult it is to capture someone's life in words. This is, after all, a work of fiction, and much of it is imagined based on what little surviving historical evidence we have. And how can you really know a man through these documents? Augustus meditates on this in the final pages of the book.

To be honest, I do wish I had known a little bit more about Roman history and the life of Caesar Augustus according to scholars, as I think it would have enhanced my enjoyment, but I never felt like I was hindered by it.