Far better than I expected
4 stars
The author falls strongly on the hero-worshipping side of Lawrence followers, but still wrote a captivating book about a fascinating person.
I didn't know much about T.E. Lawrence before reading Hero. I've seen Lawrence of Arabia many times but still haven't opened my copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I began the book expecting it to be like biographies of Siegfried Sassoon and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Lawrence's contemporaries who had fascinating youths during the time of World War I, then spent the rest of their lives trying to relive those few years.
Lawrence constantly changed and grew. Each stage of his life was like encountering a new man, and held my attention to the end.