The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

It took me 2 weeks to get through this book. Mainly because it's been crazy in my life lately, but also because this is, in some ways, a dry book. I was fascinated by the architecture and building practices of the time. The history of foundations in the Chicago area, the time/effort/labor it took, all that stuff interested me. BUT it did seem to drag on and on at times. The Holmes connection wasn't really connected, it happened at the same time and I think the fair only allowed him to get away with it because of the large number of people and craziness that went down around there. I wish we had heard more of the Holmes story and a little less of the fair. They were inter-woven, yes, but I think they deserved equal time.

Having said that, it is a good book, a bit tedious, definitely not a beach read. It did make me go look up more information and pictures about the fair. I always knew we had one there back then, but I didn't really know much about it. The whole project seems huge and frankly, amazing, for the time. Impressive.

This book makes me wish I had a time machine to go back and see the White City in person. I work in downtown Chicago and I walk by many of the buildings described in the book every day. I find it fascinating to think of what Chicago must have been like in 1893. Of course the story of HH Holmes is also fascinating and frightening. It makes me think that people were more trusting and naive back then as well.

Many parts of this book are very absorbing: how the US wants to host the 1893 World Exhibition to demonstrate its progress; how, within the US, upstart Chicago gets the Exhibition, triumphing over New York. Chicago is sketched vividly, as a place developing breathlessly, filled with slaughterhouses, meatpacking, the introduction of electric lighting, the whirlwind urbanization.

And then, the Exhibition had its cast of characters, including Olmsted, the man who designed Central Park. All of them puzzled how to equal and even beat Paris (which had crowned its 1889 Exhibition by setting up the Eiffel Tower). They ran into challenges, from internal committees to major storms, all in the backdrop to a major financial crisis. Eventually, against these odds, the Exhibition became an extraordinary success. Its story is extremely readable, and the writing flows with ease. Even the writing about architecture remains engaging, opening up the spaces, creating a strong sense of place.

The part that I liked less was the introduction of a psychopath serial killer. The story of this man is meant to balance out the magical White City, but while I can see how it was tempting for the writer, for me it just didn't work. The murders, described in some detail, add unnecessary salaciousness, and while the writing here is smooth, it simply is the wrong track.

Towards the end, the book feels like it is getting into its own hurry. The different storylines never converge, nor does the author step back to put them into a reflective perspective. If the book had had more confidence in its main subject, focusing primarily on the Exhibition I would be more inclined to fully recommend it. For these passages, it's worth reading it, but the remainder is a bit of a distraction.

I am always interested in a great mystery. When I read the reviews I wondered how mysterious this read would be already knowing the outcome before the first page was read. The book did not disappoint in any way. I found the text revealing, tantalizing, and mysterious. It kept my interest through every page. The historical information concerning the worlds fair was interesting and not dry like some historical data proves to be. All in all I found the book a welcome departure from the ordinary mystery/history. A delightful read.

The hardest thing about this little gem is remembering that it is not a work of fiction. I've lived in Chicago my whole life and was quite disconcerted to have such a thick underline placed beneath my ignorance of its history. I have no doubt that Larson embellished some things and deleted others and indeed no reasonable reader would ever presume that the author knew the goings on in the mind of a serial killer but the book read so easily and addictively, that I didn't care. Think of this book as the artist's rendition of space telescope data. Instead of electromagnetic, we have this jumble of historical data that the author took and painted a picture. I liked it. You probably will too. If you don't I don't much give a flying rat's badonkadonk.