There is little or no trace of hagiography in this biography of Augustine. According to her Wikipedia entry, West was more or less a Manichaean for most of her life - which may partly explain why she feels that the tone of Augustine's anti-Manichean rhetoric was uncalled-for. But for the most part, this is quite a balanced view of the man.

I wondered whether a biography was necessary or beneficial when a man had written as much detail about his own life as Augustine in his Confessions. Yes, it is. West fills in the background of Roman Africa and gives us a vivid picture of the way people lived and thought. She also has a lot to say about her subject’s later life, because the Confessions is basically a conversion story and life does go on.