4 posts tagged “2008”
The larger part of the book is about the creation of the fair, the great personal stake that the country and particularly Chicago had invested in the fair's success, how it seemed an impossible enterprise cursed with setback after setback, and of Burnham and his team of the nation's most reputable architects and engineers, many of whom made great personal sacrifices for the fair's success. Larson does a great job of telling the tale of the fair and how magical and wondrous the fair was to its visitors, depicting a vision of what a great and beautiful city could be.
Juxtaposed against the wonders of the fair is the story of Dr. H.H. Holmes, who under cover of the fair led several victims - mostly young women - to grisly deaths. I found this section to be less satisfying and that it did not fit well with the story of the fair - as if Larson were torn between writing about the fair and writing about Holmes. In addition, there were a few - albeit minor - details which seemed more imagined for dramatic effect than researched, such as how white and crisp Holmes' suit was during a hot and humid summer day through the blackened, smog-filled streets of Chicago or what thoughts raced through the minds of certain of his victims in their final moments. I love nonfiction books which can breathe life and color into historical figures and events, but I get annoyed when authors take license but don't quite admit it. The overall events are true, but I disliked the dramatic ornamentation because the real events - such as how he laid the groundwork for his work and what he did with his victims - are lurid enough on their own. As it was, I didn't think Holmes played an integral part of the fair or that he was particularly influenced by it although he did take advantage of it to suit his particular ends.
Overall, it was a fun and entertaining read and very informative. Although I did learn about the fair in history class, lecture never quite conveyed what a singular and striking event it was and how it played in the national consciousness. Larson conveys well how impossible a task the fair was to conceive and build, how glittering and marvelous it was while it lasted, and of the many great things that came to be because of it.
There are a lot of characters in the book and several plot lines and it spans several ages, drifting between New York and the mystical Lake of the Coheeries, but the main story is about Peter Lake, an orphan with unknown family and country who grows up to be an expert mechanic and burglar, a very smart milk cart horse who runs away to seek adventure, and a beautiful piano playing, stargazing heiress. The book is part fantasy and magical realism, part science fiction, part cartoon, and part love song to the city of New York, which is a character itself, a living, breathing creature holding all the inhabitants within as part of a greater design.
It's a big ambitious, overflowing tale, which eddies about in the middle and loses focus, but I got caught up in the story - more than I wanted to be - and rushed through to the end so even now, I'm not quite sure I've absorbed it properly. The story is perhaps (a little reminiscent of Tolkien) too enamored with great men of genius and beautiful, pure, witty women and it does have passages with purple prose, but the language is for the most part lovely and the scenes colorful enough that I'm inclined to forgive it. The story and purpose does get murky so I don't think that it's of any use to describe the plot but there are scenes that lift the story up and odd moments, not entirely related to the story, where the book urges the reader to see the world with fresh eyes and understand more, and I haven't had a book make me feel that urge quite so piercingly in awhile.
Water for Elephants is not a book that would have recommended itself to me by it's premise - young man suffers a tragic loss and joins the circus - but the depiction of life in the circus behind the scenes made it an enjoyable read.
I loved the animals. I liked the details and stories about the circus workers and their life behind the scenes of the show - many of them based on true stories the author had come across in her research. I liked the Prohibition era setting. And I loved how behind the scenes, the circus was not really romantic or magical - although there are bits of that - but actually rather dirty, creepy, and sinister.
There were a few things I did not like. The story got off to a slow start but I found the very last pages satisfying. The plot was predictable but saved by the colorful details of life in the circus. I found switching back and forth between past and present distracted from the story, but I did like the writer's treatment of the very senior Jacob in the nursing home: although locked away in a sterile nursing home, a little old man who can barely walk with a big, colorful, dramatic story. Jacob was a good character, but many of the key characters were types such as August and Uncle Al and Marlena. The writer touches upon how memory can be slippery but ultimately does nothing with it. There was more to play with in terms of being trapped on the train, trapped in the circus, trapped in the nursing home, and not having anything outside of those worlds except for a great deal of fear and the likelihood of loneliness, starvation, death. The romance was not very interesting, just expected, and I was much more interested in the hierarchy within the circus, the social groups and their interactions, and the way the circus dealt with the citizens of the small towns they entertained or at times offended. Despite the flaws, there was enough still in there for a satisfying read.
First finished book of the year. Next up: Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin.
