The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
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Jason Kurtz, nickel, David Wolkin, Alisson, Amy Miller Burgess, Heather, and moon_lemming.
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Book Details
Written by Erik Larson.
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($14.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men--the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America’s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.User Reviews (2) Login or create an account to write a review.
Amy Miller Burgess thinks this book is Good.
This is a really interesting book. There is so much about the recent past in America that we are not taught in school. This book is just full of fascinating information, about the effect the Chicago World Fair had on America and the world, from introducing cracker jacks to being the place where the song that we all think of that snake charmers play to get the cobras dnacing out of the basket ...you know, the one that goes "There's a place in France where the naked adies dance.." and at the same time all these wonderful things are happening at the huge World's Fair, a serial killer is picking off women, one by one. It is all true, it is all fascinating, and it is all worth reading.
Lin Snow thinks this book is Nothing Special.
Meh...
I think "Nothing Special" definitely describes this book. While I was completely gung-ho about it from the start (I like history, murder and true-stories), this one lost my interest very quickly.
I believe that the story itself is definitely interesting. I just don't think that Larson is a very good author. At all. The bits about the architecture were FAR too long and amazingly uninteresting. This is supposed to be neat stuff, and he made it very dry with descriptions of the aging architects' gout and toothahces... yawn
The story about the serial killer is already interesting stuff. But it seemed as though Larson would forget what he was writing about quite frequently. He'd be in the middle of an interesting tale, and instead of building intrigue in the reader, he'd jump to a mind-numbing description of carolers or a snowdrift...! Also he made it very obvious that he was working from only a few reference texts as he described the killer's looks at least 10 times "through the eyes" of different characters. It was very repetitive and sucked the fun out of the interesting stuff!
I also found that he was completely unable to mix the two stories together. Apart from them taking place at the same time, Larson did not connect the two events enough to make the book flow. The result is halting and detached. It's like reading chapters from two different books. I can see that there should be a connection here... but where is it, Larson?!
This book might be more interesting if you live in Chicago, but it is definitely not well-written, or amazing. The story is great, only because it is true!
-NOTHING SPECIAL-