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 Eleanor of Aquitaine Sep 11, 2009
"Power of A Woman by Robert Fripp turned out to be a disappointment. I was looking for a book that would provide, in clear and concise language, the history of Eleanor's origins; her life as a young French Queen and her marriage to Henry, King of England. There is too much historical information that is presented in a way that separates the woman from the experience. Perhaps it is Fripp's language, which seemed an effort to speak in the manner that Eleanor would have used were she alive today. I found this aspect laborious and this created a difficulty in maintaining interest. It is only at the end of the book that I began to feel a sense weariness from a turbulent and difficult life.
 Fripp's finest work since "Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Part IV" Jun 07, 2009
The earnest, quirky and bespectacled tunesmith from Dorset, long known affectionately as the "Mr. Spock of Rock", has now turned wordsmith, and the resulting work exhibits the high level of intellect and painstaking attention to detail that we have come to expect from the King Crimson genius. (But please don't ask him to sign your copy of the book.)
"Power of A Woman" is a spellbinding read and a fascinating complement to the edgy rock of the recent and similarly-named "Power to Believe" album. From the very first page, I couldn't put this book down. The chapters flew by faster than Pat Mastelotto's electronic drum fills on the blistering composition "EleKtriK".
The thoroughly engaging foreword, penned by Adrian Belew from the comfort of his home studio in Mt. Juliet, TN, puts the whole fascinating story in context for those uninitiated in this genre of historical writing. And when you finish this fine work, don't forget to take advantage of the coupon in the back to get a 40 percent discount on your own set of Tony Levin's "Funk Fingers". However, while this exhaustively researched tome is a real page-turner, please don't attempt to use Levin's trademark digit enhancers to turn the book's pages, as they are for funk only.
 Historical Novel or History Disertation? May 26, 2009
As a lover of historical fiction, I was looking forward to reading this book. I was disappointed. The book reads more like a history disertation written under the 'guise' of a 'memoir' than it does a piece of finely crafted fiction. Eleanor comes across as flat and one dimensional, instead of the fullsome and complex woman that she was. The barebones of the story are here - and accurate - you can check the endnotes. This is a good beginning for what should have been a much better developed work of writing. For the vehicle that the author chose to use for writing about his subject, it would have been helpful to have an appendix that included a family tree - with at least the dates of Eleanor's marriages, and the birth and death dates of all her children.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Not really that good Mar 18, 2009
My rating is extra low for two reasons: one, I expected the writing to be worthy of 5 stars and so was sorely disappointed, and two, those 5 star ratings need to be balanced into reality.
Eleanor of Aquitaine had the fascinating life depicted in this book, but she was also famous for her intelligence, which is in no way mirrored here. I'm sure the author is a nice guy, and he did do his homework on Eleanor and the period she lived in, but he's not the right person to be trying to capture the thoughts of such a person as Eleanor of Aquitaine. Dame Dorothy Dunnett or Dame Rebecca West would have done Eleanor proud, I'm sure. And there are probably others out there who could match her intelligence with the facility of expression of the above two authors.
Besides mistakenly presuming he could write from Eleanor of Aquitaine's point of view (a point of view informed by a thoughtful intelligence), he writes full history in the style of mass-market books, and thus should disappoint both the true history buffs (like me), and the mass-market book readers (who don't want so much information).
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
A Woman For All Seasons Jul 18, 2008
How captivated I was with "Power of a Woman"!
I found the ruthless nature of the twelfth century shocking, wrought
with not only loveless, but murderous marriages! I understood that
alliances (marriages) were the crucial scaffolding on which the survival
of a clan depended, but I did not realize that royal issue became
betrothed as infants, and that the female of the match went to live with
future in-laws in order to be more completely absorbed into the social
intricacies of that clan. Simply, the toddler was held hostage in the
face of present and future intrigues. Shocking indeed.
What particularly fascinated me in this telling saga of noble, military
and religious life during the Middle Ages was the description of how
Eleanor developed her own spin on Chivalrous Love. What a creative way
of compromising three conflicting demands: an individual's yearning for
love and intimate recognition, the passionate and artful culture of
courtship and restraint, and the absolute necessity of loveless,
politically-sanctioned marriage.
I enjoyed the book immensely, and am astonished that the author was able
to write from inside such a particular, feminine persona as Eleanor of
Aquitaine. I was immediately hijacked by the voice of Eleanor, and
became a willing victim of her extraordinary prowess. What a dame!
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