New York
Edward Rutherfurd
November 2009
880 pages
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For my good friends at the FTC: I bought this book.
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I have officially completed my own challenge. Wa-hoo!
Let me start by saying I really liked this book. It was a little long in parts (particularly when it came time for the wars), but I still thought it was fascinating. I especially liked learning the origins of many of the place names in and around New York.
However. In between the time that I finished this book and the time I sat down to write the review, life got a little chaotic. Consequently, I can’t remember squat about this book (and the same holds true for a few other books I need to write reviews for). Okay, so I do remember a little, but my brain is having a hard time spitting out a review. So I’m going to cheat and refer to another review for the synopsis. And the fact that it’s a long review is quite appropriate (you can click on the link to read the whole thing), considering the length of the book.
From The Washington Post review:
The novel’s founding father is Thomas Master, the estranged son of an English family of Puritan settlers from Boston. He has an illegitimate Native American daughter and runs his household with the help of African slaves. His slave Quash is well treated and encapsulates the less brutal side of slavery, but Quash’s son, Hudson, is rented out to a vicious sea captain. Hundreds of pages later we encounter one of his descendants tending bar in Five Points, the poverty-stricken neighborhood behind City Hall now known as the Bowery.
As the Master clan grows and thrives, passing entrepreneurial drive from generation to generation, the reader must pay attention because, with centuries to cover, Rutherfurd must skip whole decades. In 1901 the Masters step aside for a few chapters to make room for the Caruso family, fresh from Italy. Their lives bring into focus the struggles of the New York immigrant population, expanding daily in the early years of the 20th century. Five-year-old Salvatore Caruso grows up to become a bricklayer, working on the Empire State Building, earning a princely $15 a day.
Successive generations of Masters make good marriages, raise families and earn lots of money. They also lose it again in the 1907 and 1929 gyrations of the stock market. Rutherfurd captures the panic and the losses in powerful scenes that uncannily mirror today’s headlines.
Rutherfurd does not avoid conflict and violence among the less affluent city residents. There are the draft riots of 1863 with scenes of angry workers attacking an orphanage for black children (sadly not fiction); a Caruso daughter works as a seamstress locked in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory that burned down in 1911. As we move into the 21st century, the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, are anticipated and painfully inevitable.
The reviewer does call the book “comfortingly long,” which I’m not too sure about, but otherwise, it’s not a bad review. A bit gushing, but it does capture the book pretty accurately. Despite a few slow sections, it certainly doesn’t read like the “cat-crusher” one other reviewer made it out to be. I’ve never heard that term used to describe a chunkster…and I’m pretty ambivalent about cats, but I think that’s a pretty offensive term for a book.
Anyways, this is an interesting read if you are at all interested in New York, and you like historical fiction of the saga-ish variety, and you don’t mind your books on the long side.
Congratulations on finishing your challenge! We totally understand about the brain melt. I do think the book sounds like something I would enjoy.
I love Rutherfurd and read three of his British books. I have his Ireland books here and I can’t wait to read this. So far I’ve listened to the audios and loved being lost for hours in his writing. I think he has a Russian book too.
.-= Beth F´s last blog ..Featuring . . . The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha =-.
Kudos to you for finishing this one! I was reading it and actually really enjoying it, but I had to set it aside so I could read some smaller books. I haven’t gotten back to it but need to one of these days!
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..The Executor =-.
Congrats on finishing your challenge and on doing so with such a long book! Quite the accomplishment!
.-= Amused´s last blog ..Something I Used to Do =-.
Congrats on finishing your challenge. Totally understandable why you’ve completely forgotten everything with all you’ve had going on in the last week.
I do have this book. I hope to pick it up this summer. I do like my saga’ish books. lol.
.-= Darlene´s last blog ..Winner of Almost Home by Pam Jenoff =-.
Oh great review Jill; I have this one to read as well but it’s girth is deterring me at the moment. Sounds great though; thanks for the great review.
.-= diane´s last blog ..44 – House Rules; Jodi Picoult =-.
I’ve never read Rutherford before. The size of his books really intimidates me, though I like how he does thinks in epic format, following families over time.
.-= Aarti´s last blog ..Review: To Kill a Mockingbird =-.
Great review. I have never read Rutherford but you have me intrigued. I just don’t know if I’m ready for another REALLY long read. Maybe over the summer?
.-= gavin´s last blog ..The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle =-.
I understand the term cat crusher! So does my cat, who loves to sleep curled around my right shoulder. He’s learned not to do it when I’m reading though, because I sometimes fall asleep and drop the book right on the cat. Big book, cat crusher.
I really want to read this book, but I’m also not afraid to admit I’m intimidated by it. I’m glad to hear you liked it. I love New York and its history, so perhaps I’ll get around to it soon!
.-= nomadreader´s last blog ..young adult book review: Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony =-.
YAY for finishing your own challenge! I haven’t read this book but I have enjoyed others by Rutherford. I love the way he connects the different families through successive generations by carrying on specific physical features or personality traits. Glad you enjoyed this one!
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I wonder when I’m going to get around to reading this one…it’s been on my shelf for MONTHS. I want to read it because then I want to read his one on London!
.-= Kari´s last blog ..The elitism of book lists =-.
I enjoyed reading Sarum (about Salisbury, England) years ago which spanned about 1000 years of history and was also a very big book. New York sounds fascinating too.
.-= chasing bawa´s last blog ..Favourite Writers: Manga =-.
It’s always good to finish your own challenge!! Even though you didn’t love the book, I think that the book cover is pretty nice!
.-= Stephanie´s last blog ..Garden Spells =-.