The Devil in the White City juxtaposes two fascinating stories that happened at the same time and place (Chicago, 1893). The "White City" is the World Columbian Exposition, an event that looms large in American history, especially architectural history; the titular devil is H.H. Holmes, a con man and murderer who may have taken advantage of the exposition to lure victims.
I was interested in both stories, but I was frequently annoyed by Larson's prose. Especially in the earlier chapters, he crammed random facts into the subordinate clauses of long sentences, effectively killing the flow of the narrative. His characters remain flat, with murky motives. He seemed to be at war with himself: as a historian, he wanted to stick to the documented facts, while as a narrative writer he wanted to describe the internal consciousness of his characters. In my opinion, he didn't get the balance right.
No comments:
Post a Comment