'The Black Count' by Tom Reiss

The Black Count, Tom Reiss (3.0)

This book has been on several ‘Best Non-Fiction of 2012’ lists, and for good reason.  It is the quite surprising tale of Alex Dumas, the father of Alexandre Dumas, the writer of ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’.  He was a ½ black and ½ white man who became a General during the French revolution.  I found some remarkable points in the book:  how a man with a slave mother and fugitive French nobleman father could go from a Caribbean island to Paris and see less racism than his ¼ black son did 30 years later.  Also how little was known about this man and how much digging and research Mr. Reiss had to do to find his story, surprising given his amazing actions during the post revolution skirmishes in Italy and Egypt.  I liked how the author drew many comparisons of Alex Dumas’s life with those of his son’s most famous characters.  My only complaint is that I believe much of the amazing points were told in the prologues (there are two – one set in 1806 and one n 2007) that some of the consequent detailed story was a bit boring.  Since his story is not well known, more of the surprises could have been delayed to build more suspense.