A review by lindasdarby
New York by Edward Rutherfurd

3.0

I wanted to love this book. I love New York, I love history but I do not love New York the novel. There were several problems for me with this book: It follows the same family from 1600s to 2000s. Unfortunately most of the people in the family are not super likable. I find that a problem when I am reading a book that feels like a bunch of short stories strewn together. 2) You get somewhat invested in a character and the author dropped their story line - only to skip forward one or two generations. Very, very annoying. 3) While I quite enjoyed some of the history - I did graduate in American Studies so I have learned most of this already but of course forgot it - a lot of it was boring. I would have been better off reading a real history book. I liked learning about the strikes and what happened at Ellis Island and about the Revolutionary War but parts were really long and very boring. 4) Because the author focused on one family - a very wealthy family - you didn't learn about the many other wonderful cultures and peoples who populated the city from the beginning. Yes, at first you learn about the slave trade and the Dutch. It felt like the stories about the Irish, Italian and Jewish were gratuitous. they were the most likable people in the book but you got shortchanged on their story. All in all the book was okay. For 786 pages I really wanted more. I think New York deserves more. Kind of a bummer.