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jpeavler 's review for:
New York: The Novel
by Edward Rutherfurd
One of my favorite authors growing up was James Michener. I was that kid who, when given a choice between a 300 page novel and a 1200 page novel, I always grabbed the 1200 page book, because bigger was better. When James Michener died in 1997, another up and coming author named Edward Rutherfurd filled the void of the grandiose historic novel that spanned generations. What James Michener's and Edward Rutherfurd's novels have in common is that they write books around a central setting. Michener wrote books titled Alaska, Hawaii, Poland, Texas, Caribbean, etc. Rutherfurd has written novels titled Sarum (area in England known as Salisbury), The New Forest (also in England), London, Russka, etc.
In this case, Rutherfurd's setting is New York City. Its ambitious and it starts off promising. The first few chapters are about the settlement of New Amsterdam, the control of the Dutch and Stuyvesant's rule, and how England came to be in possession of the the city, renaming it New York. The history is told from the point of view of the Master family, English merchants who make money any way they can. We watch the following generation of the Master family as they deal with all the major events that engulf the city, from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and the Civil War. We watch them as the city grows around them, and they slowly move uptown with the growth. The original members of the family live near Bowling Green and by the end, the modern generation are living along Central Park in the Upper West Side, the family making stops in places like Gramercy Park, 5th Ave, and Park Avenue along the way.
The first half of the book was good, well written and well paced. I enjoyed the split in the family, one member a Tory and the other a Patriot during the Revolutionary War. It was a great devise used by the author to show both sides of the conflict. His descriptions of the Draft Riots of 1863, and the turmoil before and after those events was the pinnacle of the story for me. The last half felt hurried, as if the author was trying to jam as much of New York as he could into the story. But like the city he was writing about, Rutherfurd's story felt large, clunky and he seemed a bit overwhelmed. Another caveat that annoyed me: the story should have been called Manhattan, not New York. There are some scenes that take place in Brooklyn (trips to Coney Island come to mind) but the outer boroughs are largely forgotten. There's an Irish family thrown in haphazardly during the Civil War chapters that don't really do much to move the story along, other than give the Irish perspective of those years. There's an Italian family tossed in, mainly to touch on the Ellis Island experience and the building of the Empire State Building.
Once their stories have been told, they are largely forgotten about. I personally would have loved to read more about the adventures of one of the Irish characters in the story, but his job in the narrative was a way for the author to touch on Tammany Hall, and then he and his heirs vanished. Many strings seemed to have been left dangling, lost in the miasma of New York City.
I applaude the author for tackling a subject as large as New York City. I understand why some characters and their heirs had to vanish. If he had followed every thread, the book would have been overwhelming. Instead of writing a book that seemed rushed and full of characters there only to show the author's knowledge of New York City history, why not focus more on a certain chunks of time and flesh it out. Rutherfurd wrote a series of books about Ireland. New York, in its grandeur, could easily have been a series of fleshed out books. Trying to jam as much as he did in one novel, albiet a very long novel, did not seem to do the story justice. As I said earlier, the last half of the novel was just to clunky and tried to do too much in a short amount of time.
The first half receives 5 stars, and the second half receives 1 star, making for an average of 3.
In this case, Rutherfurd's setting is New York City. Its ambitious and it starts off promising. The first few chapters are about the settlement of New Amsterdam, the control of the Dutch and Stuyvesant's rule, and how England came to be in possession of the the city, renaming it New York. The history is told from the point of view of the Master family, English merchants who make money any way they can. We watch the following generation of the Master family as they deal with all the major events that engulf the city, from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and the Civil War. We watch them as the city grows around them, and they slowly move uptown with the growth. The original members of the family live near Bowling Green and by the end, the modern generation are living along Central Park in the Upper West Side, the family making stops in places like Gramercy Park, 5th Ave, and Park Avenue along the way.
The first half of the book was good, well written and well paced. I enjoyed the split in the family, one member a Tory and the other a Patriot during the Revolutionary War. It was a great devise used by the author to show both sides of the conflict. His descriptions of the Draft Riots of 1863, and the turmoil before and after those events was the pinnacle of the story for me. The last half felt hurried, as if the author was trying to jam as much of New York as he could into the story. But like the city he was writing about, Rutherfurd's story felt large, clunky and he seemed a bit overwhelmed. Another caveat that annoyed me: the story should have been called Manhattan, not New York. There are some scenes that take place in Brooklyn (trips to Coney Island come to mind) but the outer boroughs are largely forgotten. There's an Irish family thrown in haphazardly during the Civil War chapters that don't really do much to move the story along, other than give the Irish perspective of those years. There's an Italian family tossed in, mainly to touch on the Ellis Island experience and the building of the Empire State Building.
Once their stories have been told, they are largely forgotten about. I personally would have loved to read more about the adventures of one of the Irish characters in the story, but his job in the narrative was a way for the author to touch on Tammany Hall, and then he and his heirs vanished. Many strings seemed to have been left dangling, lost in the miasma of New York City.
I applaude the author for tackling a subject as large as New York City. I understand why some characters and their heirs had to vanish. If he had followed every thread, the book would have been overwhelming. Instead of writing a book that seemed rushed and full of characters there only to show the author's knowledge of New York City history, why not focus more on a certain chunks of time and flesh it out. Rutherfurd wrote a series of books about Ireland. New York, in its grandeur, could easily have been a series of fleshed out books. Trying to jam as much as he did in one novel, albiet a very long novel, did not seem to do the story justice. As I said earlier, the last half of the novel was just to clunky and tried to do too much in a short amount of time.
The first half receives 5 stars, and the second half receives 1 star, making for an average of 3.