A review by leialocks
New York by Edward Rutherfurd

2.0

Don't you hate when a book becomes a chore to read? This book started off well enough and then slowly crept to its ending. Rutherford's New York is like a Cliff Notes version of the history of New York told through the eyes of the old money family, the Masters. The early pioneer stories and the revolutionary bit of the tale were great. The novel totally skips over early America and the War of 1812 to flash briefly on the Civil War. From there, it is quick jumps all around. So much that you lose the culture of the time periods and you don't care about the new generation of characters. The last generation, Gorham Master, is particularly tiresome with his mid-lie crisis. The history benchmarks are predictable and I found myself thinking of other books to tell the stories of New York. What to read the horror of the Triangle Factory Fire? Read Dreamland by Kevin Baker. Italian immigrant experience in America? Read Puzo's Fortunate Pilgrim. Curious about New York during 1812? Read Beverly Swerling's City of Glory. The author may had a better luck with a series. He invested so much in the earlier chapters that you were cheated out of development in the later stages. An average read overall.