Superb read.  Our book club loved this book, and I have given it as gifts. 

 

            Erik Larson has brought together great historical events into a page-turning, stunning success.  The book opens on the ocean liner Olympic on the day of the sinking of the Titanic (its sister ship) on April 14, 1912.  On both the Olympic and Titanic, there were men who brought forth one of America’s success stories – the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.  Not being an avid historian, I wondered what was so great about the Chicago World’s Fair.

 

            Well, there-in-lies the wonderful research and writing ability of the author, who establishs plenty of enjoyable tension in this historical novel. The Chicago World’s Fair generated so many things that we still use today. Larson also does a great job of describing Chicago in 1890 with blood-lined streets from the slaughtering of cows and pigs to murder, and all sorts of disease.  People were routinely killed by accidents including, horses bolting and dragging carriages into crowds, street cars falling off of drawbridges, or being struck by trains and by fires (which occurred all the time).

 

            So, how did the hog-slaughtering capital of America emerge as the city to host the World’s Fair with so many other more cultured cities vying for it?  The people of Chicago passionately proved that they would deliver a monumental fair.  Americans were embarrassed by their showing in the Paris world’s fair of 1889, and the loss of American “dominance in the realm of iron and steal,” with the unveiling of the Eiffel Tower.  It was imperative that America trump the French in the next world’s fair.

 

            Be careful what you wish for would probably be what the architects, planners, and builders thought as they navigated the harsh world of creating a monumental fair.  Here is where the tension really starts to build, will Chicago deliver. 

 

            At the same time as Chicago prepares for the World’s Fair, a predator throws his web around the city.  One of the first chronicled serial killers in America was also in Chicago –  H. H. Holmes.  I don’t want to give away any more details, but the suspense of trying to finish a herculean project and the terror of a serial killer means less sleep for the reader.

Rating – 9.