The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

Rating:
Summary: Superficial
Review: "The Atheist"? The title implies that there is (or was) only one.

For a college professor, this isn't badly written, but the book is incomplete, and little new is revealed. LeBeau relies heavily on published articles and other books. Save for a peek at the Nassour collection, his sources could have been found almost exclusively online.

According to Peggy Hopkins Joyce, "There is not a woman living who is physically or mentally capable of telling the true story of her life." LeBeau admits that O'Hair's various autobiographies were often contradictory. So why does he depend on them so much? Throughout this book, he cites O'Hair's version of events as his only source, not bothering to investigate whether her claims had any veracity.

The book at least exposes some of the typically vicious Christians who plague this country. While there's no excuse for vandalism, perhaps an argument can be made that O'Hair brought the hate mail on herself, but if Robert S. Alley's book Without a Prayer is any indication, anyone who challenges religious encroachment experiences similar harassment.

LeBeau's recognition that O'Hair filed lawsuits mostly for publicity is one more item to file under This Is Not News. He could have used it as another piece of evidence that she was little more than a fifth-rate media celebrity and professional mendicant, but he just let it drop. He did note that, by establishing precedent, her losses strengthened the religious opposition.

Far too many errors mar this book. At least two dozen mistakes falsified facts, and some questionable assertions were made, as were several more typos. LeBeau is a history professor -- would this many errors prevent a student of his from receiving a passing grade? I wonder about the accuracy of the history he teaches.

This book does little more than perpetuate O'Hair's version of O'Hair's legend.

Rating:
Summary: There are two sides to every story
Review: and then there is the truth. Bryan Le Beau gets to the truth beautifully in this informative and interesting book.

Trying to understand Madalyn Murray O'Hair was always difficult. Her message was sometimes lost in the chaos of her showmanship. Le Beau presents quotes and arguments in a cohesive form that help the reader understand her point of view in a way that eliminates all the emotional button pushing that O'Hair needed to do in order to get the attention of the press. Without O'Hair's personality interfering with her message it becomes infinitely easier to understand what the message actually was and how the prevailing mores of the time affected the various media, and even personal, events in O'Hair's life.

I found the examination of O'Hair's controlling personality and it's effects on her life and her cause particularly interesting and it was presented in an unbiased way - something that is rare when reading and trying to understand about O'Hare and her views. The historical overviews of Madalyn Murray O'Hair's lifetime were nicely written and ultimately necessary to fully understand what it was that was propelling O'Hair through her life.

After reading "An Atheist Epic" by Madalyn Murray O'Hair and "My Life Without God" by William J. Murray it was difficult for me to really understand where the truth lies. I was pleased to find it in "The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair".

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but...
Review: This biography is informative and I found the Introduction and first two chapters to be particularly well done. However, the author's writing fairly quickly becomes tedious. His style is flat, unengaging and repetitive. Once he has covered the initial case that brought notoriety to Murray O'Hair, the rest is just slogging through a sad and difficult life. For example, the time when Murray O'Hair was debating the evangelist Bob Harrington in the 70s should have made for fascinating reading, but the narrative here is disappointingly superficial.
The tragic end to Madalyn Murray O'Hair's life is reported. There are lots of details, but that's it. It is tedious and Le Beau's sometimes excellent insights are overshadowed by uninspired prose.