Erik Larson has a massive gift for writing history (some day we'll also talk about Issac's Storm). In this particular work, he creates parallel stories that ought not to work together, but they do.
On the one hand, we have Daniel H. Burnham, an architect who has the monumental task of creating the grounds for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The sheer magnitude of the task is amazing-- we see the struggle to create and build a small city while managing the politics and personalities that accompany this massive undertaking.
At the same time, H. H. Holmes has set up shop in Chicago-- only in his case, that means a hotel with secret rooms that allow him to pursue his own passion, which is freakish and horrifying murder on a stunningly large scale. The fair provides him with the perfect backdrop to find fresh victims and continue his spree.
So riveting and exciting that you will frequently forget that this is non-fiction. Larson could have made a fine book out of either of these stories, but even though their connection is tenuous at best, each tale gains something by being told concurrently with the other. A great read.
One caveat-- this book will make you want to actually see the grand creations of the White City, but it has none to offer. Dover, however, has a fine book of collected photos that will let you see what Larson is talking about.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A Fine Romance
Back when I ploughed through most of what was on the self-help shelf, Judith Sills was my fave. She always manages to combine a foundation of real research with her own sharp insights, expressed in language that is accessible and clear for the average human. On top of that, she is great at laying out the terrain of an issue without adding any prescriptive notions about what you should or shouldn't do.
A Fine Romance follows that pattern, laying out the map of the territory between the beginning of courtship and married life.
Some of this map will strike you as odd initially. One of the major themes of the book is "Don't take it personally." That may seem counter-intuitive, but Sills main point is that a courtship/romance goes through a certain trajectory that is in most ways independent of the person being courted.
Mistaking these natural bumps and stages often leads people to make conclusions about their True Love Soulmate Perfect Match Etc that are not necessarily either true or relevant.
Sills does not suck the romance out of Romance, but she does make a case for responsible personal choice. In her model, romance is largely something you do, not something that happens to you. This does not make what happens (or doesn't) anyone's "fault," but it does give them the power and responsibility for charting their own course through the waters of love. An empowering and helpful book.
A Fine Romance follows that pattern, laying out the map of the territory between the beginning of courtship and married life.
Some of this map will strike you as odd initially. One of the major themes of the book is "Don't take it personally." That may seem counter-intuitive, but Sills main point is that a courtship/romance goes through a certain trajectory that is in most ways independent of the person being courted.
Mistaking these natural bumps and stages often leads people to make conclusions about their True Love Soulmate Perfect Match Etc that are not necessarily either true or relevant.
Sills does not suck the romance out of Romance, but she does make a case for responsible personal choice. In her model, romance is largely something you do, not something that happens to you. This does not make what happens (or doesn't) anyone's "fault," but it does give them the power and responsibility for charting their own course through the waters of love. An empowering and helpful book.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Vanished
Joe Finder has continued to grow as an author, starting out as an espionage writer and then staking his claim to the world of corporate thrillers.
The trick with his corporate thrillers was to inject a sense of real danger into that world, a trick which Finder sometimes had to strain a bit to pull off. What's he's done with Nick Heller is ingenious, using the world of a private spy-for-hire to bridge corporate intrigue, geopolitical adventure, and violent adventure.
Heller's closest literary ancestor is Jack Reacher, but Heller has the advantage of a support system and ties to the legitimate, and sub-legitimate, world. He is a trained and experienced badass with a troubled family history and some complicated emotional ties to his brother's wife and her son.
Heller's adventures are launched with this highly personal puzzler-- the disappearance of Nick's rather estranged brother Roger followed by attacks on Roger's wife and step-son. In the process of dealing with this, we get to see the world of high-tech espionage, grey-area corporate finance, and political misbehavior. And Finder has anchored it all to the real world and real events with keen knowledge of world events and careful attention to detail (yeah, what ever did happen to that several billions of dollars that the US "lost" in the Persian Gulf).
With this work, Finder has really hit his stride, and it is the perfect time in his writing career to launch a series character. Tough, decent, troubled and dangerous, Nick Heller is a perfect choice to anchor a series, and Finder has surrounded him with characters that add color and interest to his professional and personal life, as well creating great possibilities for future novels.
This will be a successful series for years to come. Get in on the ground floor with Vanished.
The trick with his corporate thrillers was to inject a sense of real danger into that world, a trick which Finder sometimes had to strain a bit to pull off. What's he's done with Nick Heller is ingenious, using the world of a private spy-for-hire to bridge corporate intrigue, geopolitical adventure, and violent adventure.
Heller's closest literary ancestor is Jack Reacher, but Heller has the advantage of a support system and ties to the legitimate, and sub-legitimate, world. He is a trained and experienced badass with a troubled family history and some complicated emotional ties to his brother's wife and her son.
Heller's adventures are launched with this highly personal puzzler-- the disappearance of Nick's rather estranged brother Roger followed by attacks on Roger's wife and step-son. In the process of dealing with this, we get to see the world of high-tech espionage, grey-area corporate finance, and political misbehavior. And Finder has anchored it all to the real world and real events with keen knowledge of world events and careful attention to detail (yeah, what ever did happen to that several billions of dollars that the US "lost" in the Persian Gulf).
With this work, Finder has really hit his stride, and it is the perfect time in his writing career to launch a series character. Tough, decent, troubled and dangerous, Nick Heller is a perfect choice to anchor a series, and Finder has surrounded him with characters that add color and interest to his professional and personal life, as well creating great possibilities for future novels.
This will be a successful series for years to come. Get in on the ground floor with Vanished.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Manhunt
James L. Swanson's book about the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth is a fine example of "how" being as important as "what."
The "what" of this book is a collection of familiar and well-worn Booth-related material with a good helping of material about the folks who surrounded him on his dark and confused path. The material is through, well-researched and complete. There's really little or no information here that's not readily available in many other sources.
It's the "how" that makes the book work. Swanson packages the information as narrative, so that the assassination and subsequent pursuit unfold like a novel. The sense of what events were occurring at the same time, the speed with which events unfold, the reactions and actions of the various players-- all of these give the events an immediacy and reality that adds extra impact.
It is a technique that has limits. In particular, there remains little to illuminate the mind of Booth, and so Swanson is reduced to speculation, some of it thinly stretched, about the motivation behind some of Booth's choices. Other participants left ample documentation to create a picture of their thoughts and motivations, but the central player in this mess remains a bit obscure.
Swanson has been thorough in assembling his cast, from better-known figures such as Dr. Mudd, to Boston Corbett, the self-castrated soldier who likely shot Booth.
This is a vivid and well-told tale of an electrifying episode in American history. If you already know the facts and details, it will help bring all of them into a sharper, more real, relief. If you only know the broad outlines, this will create a fuller and more compelling picture of those twelve dark days.
The "what" of this book is a collection of familiar and well-worn Booth-related material with a good helping of material about the folks who surrounded him on his dark and confused path. The material is through, well-researched and complete. There's really little or no information here that's not readily available in many other sources.
It's the "how" that makes the book work. Swanson packages the information as narrative, so that the assassination and subsequent pursuit unfold like a novel. The sense of what events were occurring at the same time, the speed with which events unfold, the reactions and actions of the various players-- all of these give the events an immediacy and reality that adds extra impact.
It is a technique that has limits. In particular, there remains little to illuminate the mind of Booth, and so Swanson is reduced to speculation, some of it thinly stretched, about the motivation behind some of Booth's choices. Other participants left ample documentation to create a picture of their thoughts and motivations, but the central player in this mess remains a bit obscure.
Swanson has been thorough in assembling his cast, from better-known figures such as Dr. Mudd, to Boston Corbett, the self-castrated soldier who likely shot Booth.
This is a vivid and well-told tale of an electrifying episode in American history. If you already know the facts and details, it will help bring all of them into a sharper, more real, relief. If you only know the broad outlines, this will create a fuller and more compelling picture of those twelve dark days.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Anathem
Neal Stephenson writes novels about ideas as well as anyone ever has.
Here we get characters who are essentially science monks on a world much like ours, but not ours (which is part of the eventual point), wrestling with politics, quantum cosmology, religion, and story-telling.
The plot is a fairly simple structure, as old as early Heinlein-- young man nestled in a set society suddenly has everything turned upside down, forcing him to embark on adventures and to grow up.
The society itself is fascinating enough that the reader is sad when it is wrenched apart. And the adventures become increasingly striking and challenging, from slogging over the North Pole to penetrating deep space without a spaceship.
It wouldn't be Stephenson if the action weren't punctuated with deep and instructive conversations. But in Anathem he welds the pieces together with more subtlety and finesse than in, say, the Baroque Cycle (which I also loved but--damn, it's a challenge). The thinking in this book is pretty heavy duty and ultimately integral to the action, not merely a thematic complement.
The otherworldly setting also allows Stephenson to indulge one of his other stylistic strengths, which is to take familiar language and give it a slight twist that makes it seem fresh, that perks up the brain a bit.
This is a big book, but fast-moving and exciting, thoughtful and thought-provoking all at the same time. A great read, smart as hell, and bizarrely fun.
Here we get characters who are essentially science monks on a world much like ours, but not ours (which is part of the eventual point), wrestling with politics, quantum cosmology, religion, and story-telling.
The plot is a fairly simple structure, as old as early Heinlein-- young man nestled in a set society suddenly has everything turned upside down, forcing him to embark on adventures and to grow up.
The society itself is fascinating enough that the reader is sad when it is wrenched apart. And the adventures become increasingly striking and challenging, from slogging over the North Pole to penetrating deep space without a spaceship.
It wouldn't be Stephenson if the action weren't punctuated with deep and instructive conversations. But in Anathem he welds the pieces together with more subtlety and finesse than in, say, the Baroque Cycle (which I also loved but--damn, it's a challenge). The thinking in this book is pretty heavy duty and ultimately integral to the action, not merely a thematic complement.
The otherworldly setting also allows Stephenson to indulge one of his other stylistic strengths, which is to take familiar language and give it a slight twist that makes it seem fresh, that perks up the brain a bit.
This is a big book, but fast-moving and exciting, thoughtful and thought-provoking all at the same time. A great read, smart as hell, and bizarrely fun.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Farm
Journalist Richard Rhodes spent a year with a corn farming family in Missouri. What comes out of that experience is an account of farm life both technical and personal.
The book is now about twenty years old, but still holds up pretty well. Rhodes avoids the pitfall of overwrought romaticising of farming and the clueless citified gee whizzery that can occur when an urban writer tackles rural material. At the same time, the book is often evocative and emotional, so that it doesn't read like a dry textbook account of what farming life is like. And Rhodes manages to be reasonably balanced, his pseudonized subjects treated as real human beings, neither perfect not terrible.
You may have to hunt for this one, but it's worth a look.
The book is now about twenty years old, but still holds up pretty well. Rhodes avoids the pitfall of overwrought romaticising of farming and the clueless citified gee whizzery that can occur when an urban writer tackles rural material. At the same time, the book is often evocative and emotional, so that it doesn't read like a dry textbook account of what farming life is like. And Rhodes manages to be reasonably balanced, his pseudonized subjects treated as real human beings, neither perfect not terrible.
You may have to hunt for this one, but it's worth a look.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Taking on the Trust
Steve Weinberg's goal is to tie together the stories of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller; the pioneer journalist and pioneer industrialist usually make appearances in each others' stories, but Weinberg's stated intention is to devote the book to "their epic collision course."
Weinberg's area of expertise is journalism, and so the focus here is ultimately on Tarbell. The last paragraph of the introduction clarifies his intention "But believing in Truth as a means to change the world, Tarbell invented journalistic techniques to accomplish her goals. The saga of how she reached that point and of how John D. Rockefeller and the Standard oil Company ended up in her path is about to begin."
So Tarbell takes the lion's share of the attention here. That's not a bad thing; Tarbell has never been extensively or deeply covered, and Ron Chernow's Titan doesn't leave much to be said about Rockefeller (Weinberg quotes from it frequently).
By weaving there stories together, particularly in the early days before they each achieved the success that would make them famous, we get an interesting picture of two people caught up in the same larger tides of their day. And Weinberg sets an excellent pace. This would be an easy structure to flub. Too much time in either individual's life and we lose sight of the larger picture; too little, and the work becomes too superficial to be useful. There are some times, later in the book, where this becomes mainly Tarbell's story, but for the most part, Weinberg has controlled his material well.
Informative and a useful study of the very collision that he sets out to chronicle. The hardcover version has gone out of print, but the paperback should be along shortly. Definitely worth a read.
Weinberg's area of expertise is journalism, and so the focus here is ultimately on Tarbell. The last paragraph of the introduction clarifies his intention "But believing in Truth as a means to change the world, Tarbell invented journalistic techniques to accomplish her goals. The saga of how she reached that point and of how John D. Rockefeller and the Standard oil Company ended up in her path is about to begin."
So Tarbell takes the lion's share of the attention here. That's not a bad thing; Tarbell has never been extensively or deeply covered, and Ron Chernow's Titan doesn't leave much to be said about Rockefeller (Weinberg quotes from it frequently).
By weaving there stories together, particularly in the early days before they each achieved the success that would make them famous, we get an interesting picture of two people caught up in the same larger tides of their day. And Weinberg sets an excellent pace. This would be an easy structure to flub. Too much time in either individual's life and we lose sight of the larger picture; too little, and the work becomes too superficial to be useful. There are some times, later in the book, where this becomes mainly Tarbell's story, but for the most part, Weinberg has controlled his material well.
Informative and a useful study of the very collision that he sets out to chronicle. The hardcover version has gone out of print, but the paperback should be along shortly. Definitely worth a read.
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