#776 "Memoirs of Hadrian" by Marguerite Yourcenar

Send us Fan Mail The critical blurb on the cover of book #776 on our curated list states that The Memoirs of Hadrian is "singularly beautiful", which is a really interesting opinion since the cast of Just In Case We Die found it "boring", "tedious", and "uneventful." Ostensibly, a 300+ page passing-of-the-torch epistle between emperors in ancient Rome, it reads like a textbook by a professor who doesn't care if the reader passes this class or not. The author, a renowned Belgian-French novelist, has some interesting things in her personal biography, but seems to have no grasp whatsoever on how to write one for someone else. Suffice it to say that Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca are not the audience for this book. Neither can they fathom why this book was chosen by Le Temps as the sixth best book written in French in the 20th and 21st centuries.