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adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
I am not generally a fan of the "true crime" genre in media. It's usually to sensationalized, to presumptive, and just a bit played out in the Netflix documentary or podcast form. But, in an interesting twist, this feeling often doesn't transfer over to the literary crime non-fiction. Some of that might just be self selection bias but it's to the point that, despite something like this or some of Grann's work getting lumped in the genre it feels very unfair to put it on to them.
This work, written from a whim of research by the author after noticing an otherwise nondescript park plaque in NYC, is mostly an interesting point in time look on late 19th century NYC owing to the heavy use of archival newspaper reporting. The story is straightforward, only really notable because it involves a direct descendent to a founding father. But where the author really excels is capturing the vibe of a time and place and the feeling of following a high society NYC scandal playing out in the heyday of the newspaper. It creates a peak into the tabloid life that sets up perfectly for my favorite parts of the work, the tidbits about Victorian life in America (especially the large cities like NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc). Things like the hotels & hostels ending up as residence for the wealthy or poor alike, the no questions asked baby drop off and purchasing service run by unscrupulous midwives, the extravagance of the Gilded Age's wealthiest families, the Western States that have been settled but are not quite yet fully finished being wild in their nature. It really brought to life the legal and courtroom experience of late 19th century America. The author also does well to keep the names/important characters to an appropriate limit and all of it just comes together for an enjoyable little read.
Only real complaint is the last 2-3 chapters probably could have been condensed into 1 but that is the sin of most non-fiction works. In fact, in some ways it feels like the long form "directors cut" of an interesting feature article in a history magazine. Usually I would mean that negatively but here I think there's enough juice on the bones that it mostly justifies that length.
This work, written from a whim of research by the author after noticing an otherwise nondescript park plaque in NYC, is mostly an interesting point in time look on late 19th century NYC owing to the heavy use of archival newspaper reporting. The story is straightforward, only really notable because it involves a direct descendent to a founding father. But where the author really excels is capturing the vibe of a time and place and the feeling of following a high society NYC scandal playing out in the heyday of the newspaper. It creates a peak into the tabloid life that sets up perfectly for my favorite parts of the work, the tidbits about Victorian life in America (especially the large cities like NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc). Things like the hotels & hostels ending up as residence for the wealthy or poor alike, the no questions asked baby drop off and purchasing service run by unscrupulous midwives, the extravagance of the Gilded Age's wealthiest families, the Western States that have been settled but are not quite yet fully finished being wild in their nature. It really brought to life the legal and courtroom experience of late 19th century America. The author also does well to keep the names/important characters to an appropriate limit and all of it just comes together for an enjoyable little read.
Only real complaint is the last 2-3 chapters probably could have been condensed into 1 but that is the sin of most non-fiction works. In fact, in some ways it feels like the long form "directors cut" of an interesting feature article in a history magazine. Usually I would mean that negatively but here I think there's enough juice on the bones that it mostly justifies that length.
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
It may be interesting, but I really find myself not caring about any of these people. It’s a lot of names of people that I don’t care about doing ridiculous things. Maybe one day I’ll come back to it, but I’m more likely to just read a Wikipedia article about this.
Interesting story regarding the descendants of Alexander Hamilton and their scandalous behavior. It does not matter who you are or what time period you live in, wayward family members are always there.
A story about slice of history that I previously knew nothing about. The book read like fiction even though it was nonfiction. I’m glad I read this book.
informative
sad
medium-paced
An interesting look at a scandal amid the scandalous Gilded Age, featuring the great-grandson of one of the premier Founding Couples, Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton and a scheming fortune hunter, all culminating in a story so full of twists and turns that it will make your head spin, all told under the shadow of the first of what we today call tabloid journalists.
informative
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail