Book Club Book #1 (Final Thoughts)

Alright, avoiding homework means its time to finally write a bit of a review on Devil in the White City.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It probably won't be listed on my list of all time favorite books, but I will highly recommend it to anyone interested in architecture, serial killers, history, and/or Chicago. On Goodreads one can give 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars to a book. Three stars is "I liked it," 4 stars is "I really liked it," and 5 stars is "I loved it." I am going back and forth between 3 and 4 stars as I really did like the book, but there are some things that knock it down a bit.

While I found the process of building the fair fascinating, getting to that point took forever. Granted, it was a complicated process getting the fair, the architects, and all the money together, but it still took far too long to get from that to the actual building process. The kowtowing and animosity between the east and west was also a bit drawn out for my taste.

This isn't to say I did not enjoy reading the background in the beginning on Root and Burnham. That was good because looking back later on in the reading and seeing how far they, well Burnham really, had come was pretty inspiring. That one man had so much power and did not really use it for ill purposes is amazing. Burnham had a vision, and he stuck with it. Without him, I doubt the Fair would have made it to completion, and Chicago, with America, would have been a laughingstock and the joke of the world. He was quite the man.

I do wish the chapters on Holmes had been longer. The title of the book is "The Devil in the White City," so I thought there would be more about this particular Devil than there actually was. In other words, I believe he deserved to be covered more than he was. Yes, the whole ending was about him and the search for the Pitezel children, but that was post-fair, and I wanted more during the fair.

I guess I also was expecting there to be more of a relationship between the two stories than there actually was. I have read a book in the past where there are two parallel lives going on (The Bureau and the Mole), and there was more of a link between those stories than here. Rarely was Holmes seen at the fair, and never with someone who we hadn't already met (like Minni and her sister). I know the author was trying to avoid speculation and such, but once again the title "The Devil in the White City" led me to believe there would be more of a link shown. I think the book could have been two entirely separate novels and nothing would be lost; that's how little I felt they were related by the author.

As to the story line about Mayor Harrison and Prendergast, I thought it was kind of pointless, distracting, and that it pulled away from the story instead of adding to it.

I did enjoy the odd little tidbits: Twain never making it to the actual fair, Helen Keller meeting the guy who created the Braille typewriter, the Spanish Princess' visit and her relationship with Chicago's high society, the info on Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill, Walt Disney's father being one of the builders, L. Frank Baum visiting and creating Oz in the Wizard of Oz from his visit to the White City, Susan B. Anthony's visit, Frank Lloyd Wright's relationship with Sullivan and the fair, and finally, the building of the Ferris wheel. While the Ferris wheel may not be seen as having the same iconic status as the Eiffel Tower that was created for the World Fair in Paris, it is still pretty freaking awesome. Especially as we now know what Ferris was up against. It was a marvel of engineering ingenuity.

For all the the terrible crap that women went through in this book, I found it refreshing that Burnham was so in love with his wife and wrote her constantly. He was a nice foil to Holmes, I just wish it had more pronounced, as stated above.

There were some fun moments for me reading the book as well. When the author is describing the 4th of July and Chicago Day, I was trying to imagine what it would feel like to be in that kind of crowd, where there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who are all feeling the same exhilarating emotions. Then I remembered, the Inauguration in DC must have been similar to that: it was the feeling of being a part of something bigger than you are, and knowing that nothing can ever compare or outdo it in any possible way. I don't think that happens very much in the world, much less the US, any more, as we are all so focused on ourselves, our own beliefs, and the belief that everyone else is wrong. Its unfortunate, as that was one of the best feelings I have ever had.

Its also sad that little to nothing is left of the White City. As I was reading I was thinking it would be great to go to Chicago and check some of this out. Then I got to the end of the book and the fire. I suppose it is almost appropriate though, as it never would have lasted. It is funny though, I am pretty sure that one of the parks mentioned in the book is where the election party was held for Obama on Nov 4, 2008...Jackson Park maybe? Random. :-)

I'm not sure what else to write about, so if more comes to me, I will post again. Overall though, I think it was a great first book for this nascent book club of ours. Reading other posts was fun and I don't know when I would have gotten to this book otherwise. All in all, a good choice and a good read.