Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Cornwell, Patricia - Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1997)

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Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1997)

SOURCE: “Ruth, A Portrait.” Kirkus Reviews 65, no. 13 (1 July 1997): 999.

[In the following review, the critic offers a mixed assessment of Ruth, A Portrait.]

A syrupy but engaging biography of the famous preacher's irrepressible wife.

[Ruth, A Portrait] is bestselling novelist Cornwell's (Unnatural Exposure, p. 759, etc.) second attempt at a biography of her mentor, 77-year-old Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy. The first try, published in 1982, caused the very private Ruth to distance herself from Cornwell for eight years. It's hard to imagine what Ruth could find objectionable about this version: She comes across as a near saint, enduring a dangerous mission childhood in China, terrible migraine headaches as an adult (of which she “never complained”), and marriage to a mostly absent husband. Graham himself doesn't come off so well in this...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Charles Champlin (review date 11 February 1990)
   2. Joan Hamerman Robbins (review date 7 July 1991)
   3. Charles Champlin (review date 20 September 1992)
   4. Eva Schegulla (review date summer 1993)
   5. Bettina Berch (review date fall 1993)
   6. Charles Champlin (review date 4 September 1994)
   7. Dinitia Smith (review date 11 September 1994)
   8. Maureen Corrigan (review date 20 August 1995)
   9. Jonathan Coe (review date 1 October 1995)
   10. Mary Scott (review date 13 October 1995)
   11. Mary Cantwell (essay date 14 July 1996)
   12. David Sexton (review date 1 March 1997)
   13. Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1997)
   14. Paul Skenazy (review date 20 July 1997)
   15. Peter Messent (essay date fall–winter 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright