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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I've tried twice now to read this all the way to the end. I love NYC history, and I love long books. All told, I've probably ready 600 pages of this twice. It just looses me though...so I'm marking it read and moving on...
This 35 hour audio book was epic in scope and tale. Rutherfurd takes the well known city of New York back to its early days and slowly brings the reader to present day. This well researched novel provides with countless details and facts about the city as it has developed as well as giving the reader personal stories and people to make it very human lovely. If you are a fan of historical fiction and/or epic novels, this is for you!
I am a true New Yorker at heart. I should probably admit that I have actually never been there, but it doesn’t matter to me, I am a New Yorker. I live and breathe that city; its politics, architecture, finances, its fashion... ohhhhh the fashion, but now after finishing this book it’s all about New York’s history.
This book is a saga, one long 860 page saga, and a page turner at that. Rutherfurd magically connects each part of history to the next through families, politics, love and war in a way that is truly baffling. Some stories are long and detailed, some are short and almost unfinished. Sometimes you read pages and pages about one day and other times major events in time got merely a paragraph. But this is how it draws you in and keeps you in right until the very last page.
Typically books have the basic elements; plot, theme, main characters, supporting characters, beginning, climax, end... you know, the usual. But this book had one main theme and hundreds of everything else! To keep a reader interested through 800 pages without a main character is talent, and it’s rare. Though what becomes obvious towards the end is that this book’s main character and its theme are one and the same; New York. Rutherfurd gives the city itself personality, emotion, actions, consequences; he creates a living, breathing entity from merely a place.
I, along with most of the world, will never forget that Tuesday in September, 2001. Last night, reading the final pages of this book, watching the events unfold through eyes of characters that I got to know and love, watching the city that I had just spent 500 years in, be attacked, was so powerful it’s hard to describe. And it wasn’t the politics of it that was enraging, as it was back in 2001; Rutherfurd left that out, and focused on a day as any other with families, friends, coworkers, banking appointments, and job interviews; all what I expect would be any typical day in the financial district of New York. It wasn’t a political, staged, “the government failed” attack; it was personal, so very personal. It was the first time I didn’t feel emotions for the USA as a whole, but connected with someone who was there, who survived, and with the city, New York, who not only survived but fought back.
I am a Canadian, and as such know how young our history is, how much of it began in Europe and the USA, and that other nations’ histories are our history. The Hudson River, the fur trading, the railroads, the slave trading and the Underground Railroad, the British Rule and Independence; we are all interconnected. This book should be read by every North American citizen. It makes learning easy, the history flows, and you connect with it. It shows us pieces of the puzzle of who we are and where we come from. Thank-you Edward Rutherfurd, you opened my eyes to so much more of New York than Vogue and Vanity Fair, Fox News and Rap music, Sex & the City and the Sopranos, what you did was show me how all those things came to be, and it was no simple story to tell.
In my eyes, New York is a masterpiece, both the city and the book!
This book is a saga, one long 860 page saga, and a page turner at that. Rutherfurd magically connects each part of history to the next through families, politics, love and war in a way that is truly baffling. Some stories are long and detailed, some are short and almost unfinished. Sometimes you read pages and pages about one day and other times major events in time got merely a paragraph. But this is how it draws you in and keeps you in right until the very last page.
Typically books have the basic elements; plot, theme, main characters, supporting characters, beginning, climax, end... you know, the usual. But this book had one main theme and hundreds of everything else! To keep a reader interested through 800 pages without a main character is talent, and it’s rare. Though what becomes obvious towards the end is that this book’s main character and its theme are one and the same; New York. Rutherfurd gives the city itself personality, emotion, actions, consequences; he creates a living, breathing entity from merely a place.
I, along with most of the world, will never forget that Tuesday in September, 2001. Last night, reading the final pages of this book, watching the events unfold through eyes of characters that I got to know and love, watching the city that I had just spent 500 years in, be attacked, was so powerful it’s hard to describe. And it wasn’t the politics of it that was enraging, as it was back in 2001; Rutherfurd left that out, and focused on a day as any other with families, friends, coworkers, banking appointments, and job interviews; all what I expect would be any typical day in the financial district of New York. It wasn’t a political, staged, “the government failed” attack; it was personal, so very personal. It was the first time I didn’t feel emotions for the USA as a whole, but connected with someone who was there, who survived, and with the city, New York, who not only survived but fought back.
I am a Canadian, and as such know how young our history is, how much of it began in Europe and the USA, and that other nations’ histories are our history. The Hudson River, the fur trading, the railroads, the slave trading and the Underground Railroad, the British Rule and Independence; we are all interconnected. This book should be read by every North American citizen. It makes learning easy, the history flows, and you connect with it. It shows us pieces of the puzzle of who we are and where we come from. Thank-you Edward Rutherfurd, you opened my eyes to so much more of New York than Vogue and Vanity Fair, Fox News and Rap music, Sex & the City and the Sopranos, what you did was show me how all those things came to be, and it was no simple story to tell.
In my eyes, New York is a masterpiece, both the city and the book!
Great! Loved this one. Brings the reader right through the different ages of New York, develops characters well, and makes good links from past to present. Really good!
4.5 stars
Though I don't always love Historical Fiction, Rutherfurd is a doyen in the way he builds his story and his generations of characters. Like a mason, joining bricks together in a pattern mastered for its strength, he starts with seemingly disparate stories and slowly constructs his full picture. With the crisscrossing and overlapping lives of his characters' stories that span hundreds of years, New York comes alive, revealing the origin of so many well-known landmarks and the rich but malleable history. Rutherfurd's scope is always so impressive, and I find myself returning to his brilliant constructions again and again.
Audiobook, as narrated by [a:Mark Bramhall|15011468|Mark Bramhall|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1498216235p2/15011468.jpg]:. Bramhall is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. His narration is so dependably good, steady, and engaging. I wouldn't hesitate to listen to anything he performs.
Though I don't always love Historical Fiction, Rutherfurd is a doyen in the way he builds his story and his generations of characters. Like a mason, joining bricks together in a pattern mastered for its strength, he starts with seemingly disparate stories and slowly constructs his full picture. With the crisscrossing and overlapping lives of his characters' stories that span hundreds of years, New York comes alive, revealing the origin of so many well-known landmarks and the rich but malleable history. Rutherfurd's scope is always so impressive, and I find myself returning to his brilliant constructions again and again.
Audiobook, as narrated by [a:Mark Bramhall|15011468|Mark Bramhall|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1498216235p2/15011468.jpg]:. Bramhall is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. His narration is so dependably good, steady, and engaging. I wouldn't hesitate to listen to anything he performs.
I thought this was a great read. However, there was a bit of a drag in the middle of the book. The beginning took off great - introducing the families and really moving the story along. Then about 1/2 way in, it just began to drag along. There was quite a bit of information on war manuvers and strategy that, for me, was unneccessary. I am not interested in who flanked Washington and how it was done, ect. Having said that, the last 1/3 of the book clipped along and the ending was very satisfying.
Pleasant summer "guilty pleasure" type of read (at least for me) although I guess this 850-page+ historical fiction novel might not appeal to all.
Rutherfurd has this genre down pat and this several century guide through the intertwining lives of some fictional New York-based families does a great job of mixing together stories of people readers care about along with real-life events, people, and places that help define the texture of New York City.
When you meet and then see the departure of characters in the novel on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it sometimes can be a little disconcerting (a general problem in my view of this type of novel), but there are way more rewards than disappointments in this book. It has quite a few things going for it that can be recommended (much like the city itself which serves as its setting) and I might have to add another of Rutherfurd's books to my to-be-read shelf.
Rutherfurd has this genre down pat and this several century guide through the intertwining lives of some fictional New York-based families does a great job of mixing together stories of people readers care about along with real-life events, people, and places that help define the texture of New York City.
When you meet and then see the departure of characters in the novel on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it sometimes can be a little disconcerting (a general problem in my view of this type of novel), but there are way more rewards than disappointments in this book. It has quite a few things going for it that can be recommended (much like the city itself which serves as its setting) and I might have to add another of Rutherfurd's books to my to-be-read shelf.
Interessant, men den forekom mig mere romanticeret og knap så kompleks som hans andre romaner.
This book took a long time to finish. I listened to it in the car and it's 30 CD's! This book covers the history of New York city (in historical fiction) from the early 1600's to just after the fall of the World Trade Center. It followed one family during that entire time period and I learned quite a few things that I hadn't known before. Some parts of it were very long - I think the first 10 CD's only went through the Revolutionary War. Overall, I liked it, but I don't know if I would have finished it if I had read the book instead of listening to it in the car.