Michael Clarkson

The story line of The Age of Daredevils pulled me in, I've always admired those in the past brave enough to try the impossible. This book was well researched and is about the Hill family and their escapades and knowledge of the falls. It spans from the early 1900's to the 1950's covering their daredevil challenges with the falls.
It made me want to visit the falls, having been there at age 6, I have no memory now so visiting would make this book more meaningful. Although the topic is fascinating, I found the writing style to be dry and the book read more like a travel guide. I wanted more story and less facts, it was just difficult to read. That's why I gave it this rating.… (meer)

An interesting, at times sad, story of the Hill family of Niagara, Ontario, Canada. Beginning with Red Hill, Senior, the Hill family involvement in life on and around the river included studying the waters, exploring the off-the-path treasures of Niagara falls, fishing bodies out of the water, running liquor across the USA/Canada border, riding barrels through rapids and whirlpools, assisting those who dared ride over the falls, and, eventually, riding over the falls themselves. As the history of the family, and those they associated with, unfolds, you find yourself amazed, rooting for them, and wondering why they did what they did.… (meer)

This book is very well written--so much so, that at times I found myself falling in love with a pianist who was known for his neuroses. It's obvious that the book was well researched, and that Clarkson took a sensitive approach to a very private side of a very quiet person.

The book's major shortcoming is the angle from which it is written, or perhaps even the subject matter, itself. It presents Gould as a serial monogamist, and we have the misfortune to watch him fall in love and build up tentative relationships only to destroy them with his foibles and fastidiousness. He does this over and over and over again with a laundry list of women of varying degrees of fame, and as a result the book becomes tedious. There is not enough focus on Gould's other goals and achievements to keep it from also being, in my view, rather depressing.… (meer)