Scan barcode
kiwi_fruit's review
5.0
“Alaska is the last West.”
Bloom has chosen three interesting characters (a legendary crook, a cowboy turned detective and a gold prospector gone native) to spin the hugely entertaining even if “embellished” portrait of Alaska’s wilderness at the end of the nineteen century.
A word of warning: the blurb goes overboard IMO and reveals too much of their stories, it could be a spoiler for the reader.
Charlie Siringo, the detective, was my favourite character, what a fascinating life!
George Washington Carmack, Yukon prospector
Soapy Smith, the conman
“Klondicitis,” as the New York Herald dubbed the phenomenon, gripped folks everywhere. A giddy mix of greed, a yearn for adventure, and wishful thinking, Klondicitis convinced people to abandon their old lives in a rash instant and confidently set off for the far north. “Klondike or bust!” pledged tens of thousands, the three words sealing an oath of allegiance to an intrepid fraternity. The lure of gold, people in all walks of life agreed, was too hypnotic to resist.
In Seattle, it was as if the city had been attacked by a devastating plague, so quickly did thousands of its citizens rush to escape. Streetcar service came to a halt as the operators walked away from their jobs. Policemen resigned. Barbers closed shops. Doctors left their patients. The Seattle Times lost nearly all its reporters. Even the mayor, W. D. Wood, boarded a steamer to Alaska, wiring his resignation from the ship rather than dallying to say his good-byes at city hall. “Seattle,” a New York Herald reporter observed, “has gone stark, staring mad on gold.”
It is labelled non-fiction, but admittedly, this book is not scholarly work nor aims to be proper biographies. The note at the end of the book reveals the author intent in writing it and the difficulties in choosing which version to pick when multiple versions of the same historical event exist.
Bloom clearly explains the reasons behind his choices in terms of historical sources. You can’t be more honest than that.
Clearly, anyone setting off to tell a true story about the lives and times of these three men would need to make his way through a deep and murky historical swamp. He’d face the genuine danger—“probability” is undoubtedly more accurate—that he’d soon be knee-deep in a morass of fanciful yarns, self-serving fabrications, and, too often, blatant lies. To write a factual account, he’d need to tread gingerly through some rough historical country. No source—not even a first-person account, or contemporaneous newspaper articles, or, for that matter, an article in a scholarly journal—could be accepted at face value.
I wanted to tell an engaging tale that contained both high drama and a perplexing mystery. And I wanted to write a true story, to boot.
I was determined to make this a factual account, but I also had no plans (or, I admit, the abilities or the expertise) to make this a scholarly historian’s tome; I am, after all, a journalist by training and inclination.
I enjoyed this book very much and I would highly recommend if you are looking for a fun and engaging adventure tale with solid historical foundation, i.e. history that reads like a novel. 4.5 stars
Bloom has chosen three interesting characters (a legendary crook, a cowboy turned detective and a gold prospector gone native) to spin the hugely entertaining even if “embellished” portrait of Alaska’s wilderness at the end of the nineteen century.
A word of warning: the blurb goes overboard IMO and reveals too much of their stories, it could be a spoiler for the reader.
Charlie Siringo, the detective, was my favourite character, what a fascinating life!
George Washington Carmack, Yukon prospector
Soapy Smith, the conman
“Klondicitis,” as the New York Herald dubbed the phenomenon, gripped folks everywhere. A giddy mix of greed, a yearn for adventure, and wishful thinking, Klondicitis convinced people to abandon their old lives in a rash instant and confidently set off for the far north. “Klondike or bust!” pledged tens of thousands, the three words sealing an oath of allegiance to an intrepid fraternity. The lure of gold, people in all walks of life agreed, was too hypnotic to resist.
In Seattle, it was as if the city had been attacked by a devastating plague, so quickly did thousands of its citizens rush to escape. Streetcar service came to a halt as the operators walked away from their jobs. Policemen resigned. Barbers closed shops. Doctors left their patients. The Seattle Times lost nearly all its reporters. Even the mayor, W. D. Wood, boarded a steamer to Alaska, wiring his resignation from the ship rather than dallying to say his good-byes at city hall. “Seattle,” a New York Herald reporter observed, “has gone stark, staring mad on gold.”
It is labelled non-fiction, but admittedly, this book is not scholarly work nor aims to be proper biographies. The note at the end of the book reveals the author intent in writing it and the difficulties in choosing which version to pick when multiple versions of the same historical event exist.
Bloom clearly explains the reasons behind his choices in terms of historical sources. You can’t be more honest than that.
Clearly, anyone setting off to tell a true story about the lives and times of these three men would need to make his way through a deep and murky historical swamp. He’d face the genuine danger—“probability” is undoubtedly more accurate—that he’d soon be knee-deep in a morass of fanciful yarns, self-serving fabrications, and, too often, blatant lies. To write a factual account, he’d need to tread gingerly through some rough historical country. No source—not even a first-person account, or contemporaneous newspaper articles, or, for that matter, an article in a scholarly journal—could be accepted at face value.
I wanted to tell an engaging tale that contained both high drama and a perplexing mystery. And I wanted to write a true story, to boot.
I was determined to make this a factual account, but I also had no plans (or, I admit, the abilities or the expertise) to make this a scholarly historian’s tome; I am, after all, a journalist by training and inclination.
I enjoyed this book very much and I would highly recommend if you are looking for a fun and engaging adventure tale with solid historical foundation, i.e. history that reads like a novel. 4.5 stars
nelsonminar's review
3.0
A solid fun tale of Yukon adventure. The structure is slightly odd; the author follows three different men of very different temperament on different paths. But in the intersection it paints a broader story of Western and Yukon life, and it works. The author has a very deft hand with telling a gripping tale; as he notes, a highwire act since he's also trying to tell a true historical story. Which I assume he mostly succeeds in doing, even if his addition of extra color detail is a bit eyebrow raising at times. Does he really know what a character ate for dinner on some specific night? Maybe so, if he's working off a diary, and it's not the kind of story that requires footnotes. But there's a lot of details like that and sometimes it made me slightly skeptical.
Anyway, good story. Now I want to read a second story of the same time and place but a more sober story of ordinary people, not the gunslingers and prospectors. Also I'd love to read a woman's perspective in that time and place. The "good time gals" in this story are just furniture, which I'm guessing is a limitation of the author's source material. I bet they have good stories too.
Anyway, good story. Now I want to read a second story of the same time and place but a more sober story of ordinary people, not the gunslingers and prospectors. Also I'd love to read a woman's perspective in that time and place. The "good time gals" in this story are just furniture, which I'm guessing is a limitation of the author's source material. I bet they have good stories too.
bmwpalmer's review
3.0
Interesting enough to keep me reading, but only just. The story is very surface-level, with lots of glossed-over periods of history and summarized, paraphrased conversations. I think this could have been a much longer, in-depth book, but for some reason the author chose to only tell one particular strain of a much wider story.
When I was 14, my family went to Alaska and we spent (what seemed to me) a lot of time in Skagway. We also visited Dyea. That really helped me visualize parts of the book, although I was surprised to learn that Soapy Smith was a really bad guy. In Skagway, I remember him being presented to the tourists as kind of a mildly evil, harmless, entertaining henchman.
I remember Dyea being especially affecting, so I was touched to read this reflection on that place by one of the book's main characters, George Carmack:
"On Christmas Eve, surrounded by his loneliness, he recalled an image from the previous summer and began to write: 'But a whispering comes from the tall old spruce/And my soul from the pain is free.' His mind had been yearning, and in its desperation it had found a new destination. He focused on a clear, idyllic picture of the hewn-log trading post in Dyea that looked out on a 'tall old spruce' and an inlet of shimmering blue water. The fine bright beauty of the setting had affected him when he'd first encountered it, and in a burse of sentimental emotion he found himself traveling back to it on Christmas Eve in his poem."
When I was 14, my family went to Alaska and we spent (what seemed to me) a lot of time in Skagway. We also visited Dyea. That really helped me visualize parts of the book, although I was surprised to learn that Soapy Smith was a really bad guy. In Skagway, I remember him being presented to the tourists as kind of a mildly evil, harmless, entertaining henchman.
I remember Dyea being especially affecting, so I was touched to read this reflection on that place by one of the book's main characters, George Carmack:
"On Christmas Eve, surrounded by his loneliness, he recalled an image from the previous summer and began to write: 'But a whispering comes from the tall old spruce/And my soul from the pain is free.' His mind had been yearning, and in its desperation it had found a new destination. He focused on a clear, idyllic picture of the hewn-log trading post in Dyea that looked out on a 'tall old spruce' and an inlet of shimmering blue water. The fine bright beauty of the setting had affected him when he'd first encountered it, and in a burse of sentimental emotion he found himself traveling back to it on Christmas Eve in his poem."
summermsmith's review
4.0
Dad recommended we read this. It was a Wild, Wild, West true story that started in Denver and wound up to the Alaskan gold rush.
Very interesting reading.
Very interesting reading.
autistic_dragon's review
4.0
Imagine if The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly took place in Alaska, and you'll have a good idea about how this book goes. Except that this is real. It reveals that, after the West was won, the last refuge for adventurers, whether they be prospectors, cowboys, or outlaws, became Alaska. But while Alaska could be harnessed, it could not be tamed, and nobody stayed their for longer than they could help it. It reads more like a novel than a history book, and while it does not sacrifice accuracy for glamor, the author isn't forthcoming until after the story is over which parts the sources disagree on. But that does not take away from an adventure that, out of all real-life stories, beats all challengers to be called The Last Western.
jeanm333's review
5.0
A history that reads like a suspense/thriller/detective novel! I was hooked from the beginning on this story of three men in the 1890s who ended up in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush. There is Charlie Siringo, cowboy turned Pinkerton detective; George Carmack, a loner who goes to Alaska to live with the Indians and seek gold; and Soapy Smith, a con artist with a soft side. I had to find out what happened to each one, and Blum does a great job of weaving their stories together, going back and forth until their meeting at the end.
It should be noted that Blum tried to find "the truth" about each one, which was a difficult task. He doesn't claim to be a historian, but he obviously has done his research. I would heartily recommend this book!
It should be noted that Blum tried to find "the truth" about each one, which was a difficult task. He doesn't claim to be a historian, but he obviously has done his research. I would heartily recommend this book!
michaelkerr's review
4.0
At the twilight of the wild west, gold fever drew the lawless faction to Alaska where the violence and anarchy continued. This novelistic book is a character study of several of the main players who intersect in the frozen wilds, though a great deal of the text deals with their lives before they go north. My only criticism is that - despite "Yukon" being in the subtitle - it is an exclusively American tale about Americans; I was expecting at least some of the text to deal with the Canadian context. Still, it's a great read.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
3.0
You'd think you were reading fiction. This story is that good.
And the truth is that Floor of Heaven is a little bit fiction. Even Blum, in his final Note on Sources, acknowledges this.
Just a bit fiction, though. This book contains just enough fictional elements to shape the three intermingling true stories into a great book. But the heart of the story is solidly nonfiction.
It is a great book. It's the story of the beginnings of Alaska, the story of three characters so quirky and real that you can't help but be fascinated with their lives. One is a cowboy detective named Charlie Siringo. One is a gold prospector named George Carmack. One is a con artist named Soapy Smith.
All three head to Alaska, all for different reasons, all with amazing stories.
Sly trickery. Clever detective work. And gold.
This book has it all.
And the truth is that Floor of Heaven is a little bit fiction. Even Blum, in his final Note on Sources, acknowledges this.
Just a bit fiction, though. This book contains just enough fictional elements to shape the three intermingling true stories into a great book. But the heart of the story is solidly nonfiction.
It is a great book. It's the story of the beginnings of Alaska, the story of three characters so quirky and real that you can't help but be fascinated with their lives. One is a cowboy detective named Charlie Siringo. One is a gold prospector named George Carmack. One is a con artist named Soapy Smith.
All three head to Alaska, all for different reasons, all with amazing stories.
Sly trickery. Clever detective work. And gold.
This book has it all.
satyridae's review
3.0
Outside my usual reading focus, and delightfully new to me. I loved reading all of the different stories herein, and despite my sorrow at the opening of the land, wow, what an adventure tale!
The casual, insidious racism that was part and parcel of the time stands out here in stark relief.
The casual, insidious racism that was part and parcel of the time stands out here in stark relief.