Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGoing against the grain.. This isn't 5*!! It's lengthy, mundane, incomplete, with a few good qualities that carry it to the end.
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2015
I could not wait to write a review of this book. I had bought this book for a friend, she gave it back to me since she had already read it, and she said she thought the book was pretty dry. That's being nice. Here is my impression after having just completed it.
The DIWC took me about 2 months to read. I understand many people think this one of the greatest books ever written and that it is a page turner. This is stunning. If this book is really so grand, why was it always very difficult for me to pick up the book and continue reading it. There were times I picked up the book, read two pages, then threw it down in disgust. Ironically, when I started it, I too felt it would read like a real page turner. That ended fast.
When I finished the book, I just set it aside with great relief. I just didn't care anymore and I was over it. And I was eager to write my review so I had motivation to finish. I have a policy to always finish the books I start. The story is about the Chicago World's Fair of 1891. At the same time one of the greatest mass murderers in America was secretly killing people in Chicago. The book has these two parallel stories going in alternating chapters. The stories are not related and don't intersect anywhere, except Holmes and some victims do attend the fair.
Although I understand what the author is trying to do here: portray the lightness and darkness of America at the time, an important time in history. But it doesn't come together well. Some reviewers online say they read only the most interesting chapters and skipped the rest. This is the textbook approach to reading. Is this what the author intended?
I am giving this book 2 stars. The DIWC is useful for history classes and English classes. Other than that, it's not the best choice for reading for enjoyment. There is enough interesting material in the book to keep me reading. This saved it for me. The author researched a lot to create the book. He deserves a lot of credit. This is for 2 stars, and not one.
Nonetheless I was just stunned. How could so much interesting material be presented and organized in such a boring way? The book is good for English class because the book is replete with literary devices and rich vocabulary. There is lots of foreshadowing, metaphors, and similes. But in this case, all this does not make the book better, it makes it more annoying because it's all very much in your face, and not subtle.
I became so tired of some of the authors over the top, embellished descriptions. Read on I couldn't resist sharing.
Here are some of the most memorable examples:
"Cairns of frozen manure punctuated the landscape." Gee, why not just say: "Piles of horse manure covered the ground."
"The light entering the room was preternaturally intense, carrying with it the surplus radiance of the lake and its frozen shore." What's wrong with saying, "Bright winter sunlight reflected off the lake and frozen shore and illuminated the room."
Here's another, "Bertha Palmer, whose diamonds radiated an almost palpable heat." Instead, just say Bertha wore "glittering diamonds."
And another: "Voices drifted across the water, laced now and then with the laughter that rang like crystal touched in a toast." How could such a simple thought be so overwritten?
"It was hot in Indianapolis. Leaves hung in the stillness like the hands of the newly dead." That was uncalled for.
When I read lines like those above, I don't ooh and aah over how good the writing is, I groan and roll my eyes. He is trying so hard to impress us. There are lines like this on most pages and it is annoying.
The DWIC is weighted down with so many mundane details that don't add very much to the whole. We get to read about what's on the menu at dinner, how many ducks vs swans should be in a pond, and whether they should plant roses, chrysanthemums, or petunias in the garden, and what each flower represents. And it goes on and on and on.
But at the same time, many details feel missing. We are constantly reading about the delays and cost overruns facing the fair's construction. Then within a few pages, we read that the fair is now half way completed. This is also a book of lists: food on the dinner menu, lists of Holmes' wives and victims and children, lists of plants, lists of architects, lists of Chicago city officials, lists of animals and plants, lists of visitors to the fair, and on and on.
These are my big gripes about this book. Toward the end it focuses more on Holmes. Here the book improves but only somewhat. I actually felt that reading about the architects and their ideas, thoughts, and approaches was also kind of interesting. I didn't mind that so much. It also reminded my somewhat of the Fountainhead (FH) by Ayn Rand. That book also deals with great architects and their visions just as does the DIWC. But Rand did so in a more effective way, put aside for a minute how one may feel about her politics. A few parts are so similar it almost made me think he borrowed from the FH by Ayn Rand. I find architecture interesting, so those parts did not bore me. Other reviewers were bored by this however. I get it. That's a problem, a lot here is boring, it's just boring in different ways for different folks.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was educational but highly incomplete. For example, so much happens regarding Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison and wiring the fair for electricity. But the book only just touches on this. A fascinating topic that glossed over.
Sorry this is so lengthy. This is such a celebrated writer and the DIWC is so well regarded. I had so much to say about this. I could keep going.