Friday, April 28, 2017

Robert Harris, Pompeii *** 1/2

In advance of our summer trip to Italy, I read this fictional thriller that takes place around the Bay of Naples over four days in late August A.D. 79. The new aquarius deduces that there is a rupture in the mighty Aqua Augusta aqueduct, somewhere between Pompeii and Nola. He hurries out to repair it, but gets embroiled in power struggles between the city fathers of Pompeii. He solves the mystery of his predecessor's disappearance and fixes the water flow, but you know what happens next.

The disrupted water flow provides the plot with a clear narrative motor. The story is well designed to introduce details about the impressive Roman aqueduct system and the harbingers of the Vesuvius eruption naturally, without undue exposition. Plenty of historical color, too, such as a feast that features Roman delicacies like "mice rolled in honey and poppy seeds." When the climax comes, Harris does a great job of showing what the eruption looked, felt, and sounded like from various perspectives.

Knowing how the story ends made the middle section a bit less compelling: why wonder about the motivations of a character when you know that character is doomed?

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