Twain's End

By: Lynn Cullen

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

From the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of the “page-turning tale” (Library Journal, starred review) Mrs. Poe comes a fictionalized imagining of the personal life of America’s most iconic writer: Mark Twain.

In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. One month later, he fired both. He proceeded to write a ferocious 429-page rant about the pair, calling Isabel “a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction.” Twain and his daughter, Clara Clemens, then slandered Isabel in the newspapers, erasing her nearly seven years of devoted service to their family. How did Lyon go from being the beloved secretary who ran Twain’s life to a woman he was determined to destroy?

In Twain’s End, Lynn Cullen “cleverly spins a mysterious, dark tale” (Booklist) about the tangled relationships between Twain, Lyon, and Ashcroft, as well as the little-known love triangle between Helen Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, and Anne’s husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twain’s Connecticut home in 1909. Add to the party a furious Clara Clemens, smarting from her own failed love affair, and carefully kept veneers shatter.

Based on Isabel Lyon’s extant diary, Twain’s writings, letters, photographs, and events in Twain’s boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, Twain’s End triumphs as “a tender evocation of a vain, complicated man’s twilight years and a last chance at love” (People).

Nasty Guy

If what Lynn Cullen wrote about Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) in her historical fiction is anywhere close to the real person, he was an awful narcissistic creature and it is not clear to me why a woman 30 years his junior would fall in love with him. I enjoyed the historic details of the people, places and clothes of the early 1900s.

Peeking in the window

The featured woman is Samuel Clemens' secretary, Isabel V. Lyon. I enjoyed the opportunity to peek in the window on the people who visited Clemens at his various homes, especially Helen Keller. The love triangles were lovingly fleshed out. The descriptions of the places, people, interiors of homes, gowns, and activities were well done.

The narration was pleasing to hear. The different voices were distinct enough to follow along effortlessly.