Devilish clever and a thrilling history to behold.
Summary:
A nonfiction novel about the 1893 World’s Fair, aka the fair that changed America. The story follows two brilliant men: one, the leading architect for the fair that would change America; the other, one of the most prolific serial killers of all time who designed the “Murder Castle” to lure his victims for years.
Verdict: 8/10
History is transformed from a dull, black-and-white picture to a daring, crimson thriller. And it's all 100% factual!
Erik Larson has a gift of creating suspense and emotion for events that you already know are about to transpire. Everyone knows Chicago will be chosen to host the fair, and yet, I waited with the crowd, holding my breath to see the results.
The rush of excitement and progress whisks the reader away into a magical past that we often forget existed.
The description of the time and all of the visions of the fair are exquisite. The grotesque is captured so disturbingly well. Burnham’s glimmering prospects, engineering, and fair are juxtaposed against H.H. Holmes’ genius scheming and depravity.
This story is something I expect to find in Edgar Alan Poe (who Larson references) more than history. A masterful balance of beautiful and terrifying, good and evil, astounding progress and revolting horror.
Burnham’s storyline is dramatic and at times humorous with little encounters during the fair. One would never imagine to see Helen Keller and Houdini in the same spot, or Buffalo Bill and Susan B Anthony interact, and yet that’s the surprising part of history. Everything described are things that we see as common place, but the description makes it seem new and exciting like it was in those days. No wonder the inventions blew people’s minds, hearing about them from this point of view is blowing my mind, and I’ve grown up with electric bulbs and Ferris wheels!
What’s more astounding is Holmes narrative, the “human demon” who murdered dozens of women, becoming one of the world’s first known serial killers and inspiration the definition of psychopath. The reader gets a first-hand look into the mind of madness as Larson takes all his accounts from Holmes confession and biography as well as research of his own into police reports, letters, etc. The ingenious mechanisms he employed in the construction of his hotel. The elaborate lies that easily covered the disappearances. And the charm that he oozed to avoid suspicion for decades that of course. All of these, the reader sees through but everyone else in the story glosses over, furthering the depiction of Holmes as the cunning psychopath he was.
At one point, I literally screamed because I couldn't believe how horrifying Holmes' actions were and how obvious they seemed! It was right under everyone's noses and yet he weasels his way around investigation for so long. It's CRAZY and IMPRESSIVE and MADNESS all at the same time!
The two narratives switch off nearly every chapter at the beginning and are further spaced out towards the end. It starts to drag in the middle. Once the fair opens, we stop hearing about Holmes when it used to be balanced accounts before. It made the opening seem a little anticlimactic. And I’m sorry, I can only be interested in Olmstead’s grounds concerns so long. Honestly, I was disappointed by Part III, from the opening to the closing of the fair. It had some interesting facts and a beautiful picture but I was ready to get back to the drive and suspense I had felt at the beginning, especially with Holmes.
But I felt that again in Part IV as it focuses in on catching Holmes. Following the detectives as they track down missing children is more interesting than hearing about the fair’s balls and their elaborate menus. Still, both were enjoyable in their own ways.
Besides the main plots, there's also treasures hidden everywhere. There were so many tidbits that I hadn’t expected to learn: the origins of the skyscraper, the pledge of allegiance, the belly dancing stereotype and the cobra song, the Wizard of Oz, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walt, Disney, and even Columbus Day.
I felt that the epilogue was a bit scattered, although it’s hard to bring history to an end as it keeps going. I think Larson did the best he could to put a good closing together.
There was a lot of history to cover. It was often difficult to remember character names. But you have to go through it to set the proper scene and characters. Larson was thorough in a way that didn’t seem like a textbook the way some many nonfiction writing is (see my earlier review on The Zookeeper’s Wife).
Though slow at times, I loved this book as a whole. Well-crafted, it's amazing how Larson can construct facts and testimonies into a comprehensive novel, and a devilishly clever one at that. Read the foreword notes!
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