false 3 2 false false Mon Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 28 12:28:12 -0800 2007 Mon Jun 09 06:39:43 -0700 2008
I read The Devil in the White City in less than a week, and for a book of almost 400 pages, that's saying something. The story was very compelling, and I found the descriptions of late 19th-century Chicago fascinating. I feel the need to look up more about the Chicago World's Fair, as well as visit the city itself. The two main characters (I hesitate to use that term since they were real people) held up their own story lines very well, and it was, as they say, a real page-turner.

However, I can't recommend this book wholeheartedly because of one major shortcoming. The author, Erik Larson, hailed as "a historian with the soul of a novelist," (according to one of the blurb reviews on the cover) has a heavy-handed style appropriate for suspense movies and supposedly-thrilling historical documentaries. Almost every segment - as in, many times during each chapter - ends with a sentence to the effect of, "This man/event/action would later be viewed as significant/important/life-altering." I find this type of "look out below!" foreshadowing to be borderline insulting, and half of the foreboding predictions barely lived up to the hype. I could not stop myself from rolling my eyes every time some melodramatic line touted of importance later on, and it detracted from the overall credibility of the book. The content was engaging enough without minor chords in the background, telling me that I should wake up and be interested.

That said, the information in this book is really amazing, and the sinister nature of the one of the main characters spooked me on multiple occasions. I don't know that I would read it again, but I can completely understand why several folks recommended this book to me in the first place.]]>