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danilanglie 's review for:
New York: The Novel
by Edward Rutherfurd
These books are far from perfect, but they're perfect for me. They're long, they're full of history, they are full of rich detail. Sure, the prose are kind of generic and strange, and the characters are all pretty one-note. But that's not the point, and that's not why I like Rutherfurd's writing.
What I like is the way that his settings are his characters, and his characters are symbols for something much bigger than themselves. One could point out that this book focuses on the English (and Dutch) experiences of New York more than it does other types of people, and this is certainly a mark against it. But at the same time, I like how the story folded in more and more people at representative times in the city's history. We start with the Dutch, and the Native Americans. We fold in the English soon after. We fold in slaves of African descent, who later become freed black people living in a hostile city. Later, Irish and German immigrants. Then Italian. Then Jewish. And in the later stages, Latino (Puerto Rican specifically) and Asian American characters get added in. At earlier stages of the book, a Master and an Irish girl would never have been married, but by the second half of the twentieth century, Gorham and Maggie's relationship is totally normal. It shows how the passage of time erases heritage and culture sometimes, but also the prejudices and pain that go along with a very weighted history.
I actually got a little it emotional about the belt from Pale Feather - I wanted it to survive to the end. There was actually something just a little bit unsettling (and maybe not in a way the author intended) in having the one named character to lose her life in the 9/11 attacks be a Jewish woman, and have her death be described in such a way that it's clear she's incinerated in the flames. Turned to ash. It hit home for me in a way that was a little bit distracting from the story I think Rutherfurd was maybe trying to tell.
But this still gets five stars from me, because it provided literal months of entertainment. I'm excited to read more of Rutherfurd's books. I really enjoyed this one!
What I like is the way that his settings are his characters, and his characters are symbols for something much bigger than themselves. One could point out that this book focuses on the English (and Dutch) experiences of New York more than it does other types of people, and this is certainly a mark against it. But at the same time, I like how the story folded in more and more people at representative times in the city's history. We start with the Dutch, and the Native Americans. We fold in the English soon after. We fold in slaves of African descent, who later become freed black people living in a hostile city. Later, Irish and German immigrants. Then Italian. Then Jewish. And in the later stages, Latino (Puerto Rican specifically) and Asian American characters get added in. At earlier stages of the book, a Master and an Irish girl would never have been married, but by the second half of the twentieth century, Gorham and Maggie's relationship is totally normal. It shows how the passage of time erases heritage and culture sometimes, but also the prejudices and pain that go along with a very weighted history.
I actually got a little it emotional about the belt from Pale Feather - I wanted it to survive to the end. There was actually something just a little bit unsettling (and maybe not in a way the author intended) in having the one named character to lose her life in the 9/11 attacks be a Jewish woman, and have her death be described in such a way that it's clear she's incinerated in the flames. Turned to ash. It hit home for me in a way that was a little bit distracting from the story I think Rutherfurd was maybe trying to tell.
But this still gets five stars from me, because it provided literal months of entertainment. I'm excited to read more of Rutherfurd's books. I really enjoyed this one!