Mark Twain gets the Chernow treatment and it the entire author's life to light. Not just as an author but as a Southerner, an early nationwide celebrity, a steamboat pilot, a half-hearted Confederate and a flawed champion of equality.

Very fascinating, but looooong!
Anyone who's slightly literate is familiar with Twain and his most popular works, and view him as a rumpled, funny, sarcastic, snarky author who's not afraid to voice his opinion, veiled or not, on controversial subjects such as slavery, racism, and religion, among others.
What I loved about this book was the not-s0-warm-and-fuzzy side of his life that Chernow exposes through what must've been some intense research. Twain, outwardly, adored women, but only when they took on the duties necessary to keep his life worry-free, and allowed him to continue to nurture his sense of youth, and unbridled irresponsibility. His unending string of failed business ventures, and the fact that he obliviously devoured Livy's family fortune was an aspect of his life I never knew about. And his obsession with young girls bordered on pedophilia. Big yuck factor.
My biggest caveat to the author and publisher is this: who takes on a 1200-page book in the days of podcasts, Twitter, and readers with the attention spans of gnats? I hope Chernow has felt satisfied by his work, and isn't expecting brisk sales.