The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

I wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by someone whose reading tastes I respect, and is well-regarded by, seemingly, almost all of the reviewers on Amazon. Alas, after 333 pages, I quit.

First the positives: Irving Stone does an excellent job capturing the essence of Renaissance Italy, and in particular, of the role of the Church. Florence and Rome both come alive, and it is easy to picture a young Michelangelo wandering the streets and alleys, on his way to the baths or to meet with a patron.

That said, The Agony and the Ecstasy delved too deeply, I felt into too much, from Michelangelo's dissections, to the mechanics of stone cutting, to the machinations of the various cardinals against one another. Essentially, it got bogged down by names and places and dates. There were but a handful of characters I could consistently recognize and I frequently found myself flipping back through a dozen or more pages in an attempt to place a character who reappeared.

Michelangelo was surely one of the great artists in history. That might be about as much as I need to know.