Erik Larson
2003
Grade: B-
Even the second time through, this is an absolutely engaging read. As with the best modern history books, this work contains a narrative that reads like a novel yet is fastidious in its historical accuracy. Despite the macabre draw of the sinister figure of the serial killer, I found the efforts of Daniel Burnham, the city of Chicago, and the artists and people of the late 19th century to create what must have been a truly magnificent sight to behold the more engrossing of the twin narratives. The work does such a great job of conveying the scope of this incredible project. This being the second time through this work I felt again the same pull that caused me to seek out works on Frank Lloyd Wright and Fredrich Law Olmstead. Larson’s book creates such an appreciation for these dying art forms that I in each case couldn’t help but seek out some complimentary text.
Furthermore, there is a sense of civic pride, now utterly extinct, that truly helps to place one in the time period being described. Though it can be hard to fathom in the modern age of information, the confusion and the clutter is so excellently portrayed that it's difficult to believe that more people didn’t simply disappear.
This brings us to the book's seedier half; the story of the serial killer Herman Mudgett, the alias H.H. Holmes. Mirroring the story of this individual horror is incredibly powerful as it contrasts so violently with the societal efforts of the city of Chicago to bring the World’s Fair to life. Also, with two notable exceptions which he explains in the afterward, Larson does not stoop to gory description or sensationalism in the depictions of Mudgett’s murderous behavior.
What Larson does choose to do, and I think to much greater effect, is simply allow the reader’s mind to agonize over each new interaction Mudgett has. He is shown as charming, convincing, and manipulative, and the reader is forced, knowing the ultimate fate of these interactions, to writhe in frustration and anguished helplessness. Even though the exploits of a serial murderer were the less interesting of the two lines of plot for me personally, I can’t help but admit that they were most skillfully executed.
The organization of the work is also a strength as the back and forth narrative does a good job of helping the reader understand what events were happening at and about the fair when Mudgett was grooming his eventual victims. Not having any further knowledge on the topic I cannot say with any authority on the accuracy of the work, but the tone and quality of the book suggests solid reliability in this respect as well.
On the smaller scale, I also greatly appreciated the moments of theatricality that Larson brings to the work. By hiding recognizable names for a time in order to surprise the reader, explaining the origin of popular items, pieces of music, and inventions of all sorts, there's a sense of playfulness that lightens what would otherwise be alternating between the monumental and the morbid. This is most entertaining when Larson strategically withholds the name of the engineer behind one of the fair’s most iconic construction, the Ferris wheel.
One of the most difficult things I found as a reader was imagining the reality of some of these buildings. While Larson does his best to describe the detail and size of these buildings, I found it difficult to envision the final products of much of this work. This may be due, in part, to Burnham’s prohibition on amateur photography, and even artistic renderings of the fair, but I know that I would have benefited greatly from imagery of not only the fair but the famous buildings and their respective architects that I might better appreciate the collected genius the fair represented.
Greedily, I also found myself hoping for a more extensive explanation of what it was about these architects and their work that made them so superior to those of their contemporaries. This, of course, is not an actual failing of execution but rather of preference, but it does frustrate one to have someone described as a genius in one artistic endeavor or another and to not be able to understand why. This leaves the reader with only the weight of collected opinion in the way of evidence. This is not to say that I in any way doubt Larson’s assertions about these men. The quality of his work, along with its thoroughness, commends him. I just wish that I was better equipped to further that opinion.
I enjoyed this work thoroughly and would recommend it to anyone interested in American history or true crime. It’s refreshing to look back into eras that receive so little attention.
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