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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
This book took me a majority of the summer to read. Part of it was me making time to read, and the other was the fact that parts of the book were so incredibly dense that I had to take breaks.
This book is an excellent historical fiction account of the history of New York City from the colonial period until 2009. The book mostly follows the lineage of the Dutch Master family for multiple generations while also adding in characters from other families in different generations. It was fun to see a different surname pop up that you had seen previously in the book and how they related, either closely or loosely, to the Master family story.
The reason for the four stars is because there were many sections of this book that were incredibly dense and hard to get through, mostly relating to war and big business. There was a lot of overexplanation of financial and war matters that did not personally interest me very much, but this was made up for by the good storytelling of the interpersonal family relationships.
I am proud of myself for sticking it out to finish an 860 page book. It may be a while before I read another one that’s so long, but I did enjoy it overall.
This book is an excellent historical fiction account of the history of New York City from the colonial period until 2009. The book mostly follows the lineage of the Dutch Master family for multiple generations while also adding in characters from other families in different generations. It was fun to see a different surname pop up that you had seen previously in the book and how they related, either closely or loosely, to the Master family story.
The reason for the four stars is because there were many sections of this book that were incredibly dense and hard to get through, mostly relating to war and big business. There was a lot of overexplanation of financial and war matters that did not personally interest me very much, but this was made up for by the good storytelling of the interpersonal family relationships.
I am proud of myself for sticking it out to finish an 860 page book. It may be a while before I read another one that’s so long, but I did enjoy it overall.
Enjoyable read, extended soap opera type format. One thing I did get out of this book is a different viewpoint of the American Revolutionary War.
Gored entertaining read
Good diversion, I found the part about the founding of New Amsterdam the best. The part in modern times was less interesting to be, but still engaging.
Good diversion, I found the part about the founding of New Amsterdam the best. The part in modern times was less interesting to be, but still engaging.
Entertaining as always. Not sure why the story starts with the Dutch, given people had lived in 'New York' for thousands of years before then, but this is my only criticism...
These books are so great. I love trying to piece together how the different families are interconnected. Great LONG reads!
very long. but fascinating story of NY as told through a variety of families mainly the Masters. It is more in depth in the beginning as far as building the characters and that is to its detriment later on. some families like the african american family just get lost and while that may be true to history it also feels like a gap in the book. The Italian family also feels like at some point they just disappear. But overall an enjoyable read.
This book was, well, there. It was like a Forest Gump for rich white people in NYC, who either showed up at or had a hand in every stereotypical NYC experience and people. The beginning was promising but it bogged down during the extensive part about the Civil War. Non-white people barely existed, except in references in how proud the white people were to know them, or have their kids be friends with them, or to feel minor remorse when they were killed, or to express fear when encountering them as drug dealers in the park. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the building of the Empire State Building, the raising of the dome of the Crysler Building, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Verrazano, the stock market crash, the depression (which was glossed over in terms of how the rich characters did okay), WTC attacks, cliches about if you can make it there, the Big Apple, all the greatest hits. The one character of substance is reduced to a remembrance at the end. The true NY for those who don't want to know the true NY.
Another 800-page, multi-family, multi-generational sweeping historical epic, this one from the founding of the Dutch city on Manhattan to the aftermath of 9/11.
it was good but a bit long and the historical events were utterly predictable after a while...
A tour of the history of New York City, as told through the eyes of a few families. I would have liked more focus on the immigrant plight post 1900 and less on the ultra blue blooded Dutch, but that's just me speaking as the child of immigrants (Am I still allowed to say that even if my grandmother holds a masters and my other set of grandparents own a share of a sailboat?) and a lover of Brooklyn. When I reached the end, I paused and said "And then what happened?" before realizing that the book ended in August of 2009, and that I, in January of 2011, was already living the "and then."