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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
If you like a lot of history with your fiction, you’ll like this book. It’s very thoroughly researched, and it reads like a time-lapsed photograph of New York dating from the 16th century to the present. You can see the buildings grow, the town change, the various ethnic groups make their entrances, and the power centers shift.
In terms of its fictional appeal, it’s on the weak side. In order to cover so much territory, it moves from one generation to the next with great speed. It focused mainly on a rich white family, the Masters family, going from father to son. There are side-stories dealing with indigenous Americans, Dutch, Irish, Italians, and Jews, and an African-American family is tracked for a few generations. The latter was actually one of the more interesting story-lines but was dropped rather abruptly.
Some of the characters stand out, but many of them are a little blurry. Wealth – the gaining and losing of it – is a recurring theme, and the novel is full of very detailed descriptions of the way New York’s richest have lived through the centuries. One of the last stories has a rather moralistic ending, with the message that it isn’t healthy to be driven entirely by one’s ambition for money and prestige. But the message is thin in contrast to everything that’s come before.
In terms of its fictional appeal, it’s on the weak side. In order to cover so much territory, it moves from one generation to the next with great speed. It focused mainly on a rich white family, the Masters family, going from father to son. There are side-stories dealing with indigenous Americans, Dutch, Irish, Italians, and Jews, and an African-American family is tracked for a few generations. The latter was actually one of the more interesting story-lines but was dropped rather abruptly.
Some of the characters stand out, but many of them are a little blurry. Wealth – the gaining and losing of it – is a recurring theme, and the novel is full of very detailed descriptions of the way New York’s richest have lived through the centuries. One of the last stories has a rather moralistic ending, with the message that it isn’t healthy to be driven entirely by one’s ambition for money and prestige. But the message is thin in contrast to everything that’s come before.
3.5 stars. Fascinating history of new york but author only skimmed through it as there is a lot to cover. I prefer to be fully engaged in the historical fictional characters and just as I would become attached to a character, the timeframe would move on to the new generation and the author left a lot of unfinished business in the previous generation, which became really annoying. I felt as if I was stopping and starting a new book every few chapters
As Rutherford stories tend to be, this one was extraordinarily long - nearly a 38 hour audio. Very much like a James Michener with it's 'saga' style which follows several families, fictional and real from the late 1600's to the 21st century as it tells the story of Manhattan's growth. Makes you proud to be an American, and I imagine, even more proud to be a New Yorker.
Fictional stories intertwined with actual history is usually right up my alley. And this book started off great in that regard. The history of the greatest city on earth (IMHO) is pretty cool. However, the span of time this book crosses means having to introduce new characters in new eras. This bogged down for me at about the 1900s. After that I felt like I was reading a text book. Still interesting but not much fun. Your mileage may vary.
I really enjoyed this book. It's a long, four-centuries history of New York (starting with New Amsterdam). It was fascinating, from the characters and families traced throughout the years, to the little details like why Wall St. has that name. I learned so much about the city that, even though so much of it is gone, I would have greater appreciation for the city and its quirks and shifting identity should I ever get there.
A very long read at well over 800 pages, if you are reading the hardcover, expect to get a bit of a workout while reading. I recommend this one for eReaders, if you have one and have access to an electronic copy. Unfortunately my library didn't have an eCopy, and as great as this book is, I probably won't be re-reading it so purchasing the book was out of the question for my personal standards.
I'm looking forward to checking out Rutherford's _London: The Novel_ in the near-ish future, as I've heard it's at least as good.
A very long read at well over 800 pages, if you are reading the hardcover, expect to get a bit of a workout while reading. I recommend this one for eReaders, if you have one and have access to an electronic copy. Unfortunately my library didn't have an eCopy, and as great as this book is, I probably won't be re-reading it so purchasing the book was out of the question for my personal standards.
I'm looking forward to checking out Rutherford's _London: The Novel_ in the near-ish future, as I've heard it's at least as good.
A brilliantly unique idea for a novel. The city is as much a central character as any of the people within it.
For me, the overriding takeaway from this novel is how interesting the city’s history is. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think the skill with which it’s written, how Rutherfurd intertwines historical events and people with the fictional characters created to tell the tale is magnificent. But I’ve only given it four stars because:
1) the epilogue didn’t fit the style or tone of the book and was wholly unnecessary. As a result, the ending was off for me. (I wish Rutherfurd had simply finished before the epilogue - it would have been a poignant end.)
2) something I battled with while reading and still can’t make up my mind about is whether I liked the focus on New York’s old money and high society. They’re absolutely intrinsic to New York’s culture, but they’re only one small part. The protagonist family you follow from colonisation to modern day are a blue-blooded and entitled (‘old money’) Dutch-English family, the Masters, meaning at times you see more of high society NYC than perhaps the ‘real people’. But on the whole, Rutherfurd balances the needs of the groups battling for a mention well and offered enough insight into each demographic and how they helped shape New York - displaced Native Americans, black slaves, the Irish, Italians, Jews and Puerto Ricans to name a few.
I can imagine Rutherfurd had to make some hard editing decisions when writing this book or else it would have gone on forever. As it is, it’s 1020 pages and a real doorstop of a book. But it held my attention and at no point did I feel I was forcing myself to finish it - always a good sign!
For me, the overriding takeaway from this novel is how interesting the city’s history is. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think the skill with which it’s written, how Rutherfurd intertwines historical events and people with the fictional characters created to tell the tale is magnificent. But I’ve only given it four stars because:
1) the epilogue didn’t fit the style or tone of the book and was wholly unnecessary. As a result, the ending was off for me. (I wish Rutherfurd had simply finished before the epilogue - it would have been a poignant end.)
2) something I battled with while reading and still can’t make up my mind about is whether I liked the focus on New York’s old money and high society. They’re absolutely intrinsic to New York’s culture, but they’re only one small part. The protagonist family you follow from colonisation to modern day are a blue-blooded and entitled (‘old money’) Dutch-English family, the Masters, meaning at times you see more of high society NYC than perhaps the ‘real people’. But on the whole, Rutherfurd balances the needs of the groups battling for a mention well and offered enough insight into each demographic and how they helped shape New York - displaced Native Americans, black slaves, the Irish, Italians, Jews and Puerto Ricans to name a few.
I can imagine Rutherfurd had to make some hard editing decisions when writing this book or else it would have gone on forever. As it is, it’s 1020 pages and a real doorstop of a book. But it held my attention and at no point did I feel I was forcing myself to finish it - always a good sign!
Fascinating epic novel that tells the story of the city of New York (Nieuw Amsterdam) from the first Dutch settlers and their interactions with the indigenous people, and the arrival of English settlers and the English founding of the city. The story then follows the descendants in a single family over centuries, as they experience the events that shaped the United States and New York City. Well done, but at over 1000 pages you have to be dedicated.
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.