The life story of Griffin Dunne, actor, director, producer and son of producer, actor and director Dominick Dunne, offers a fascinating glimpse into aThe life story of Griffin Dunne, actor, director, producer and son of producer, actor and director Dominick Dunne, offers a fascinating glimpse into a time and world different than my own. The memoir of Griffin tells that story along with surviving the murder of sibling, actress and his sister Dominique Dunne. The name of the memoir Griffin Dunne wrote is titled “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir”.
The memoir offers things intriguing and entertaining regarding family dynamics and history. The interpersonal traumas were keen and real, as were the feelings that Griffin needed to experience concerning his sister’s murder, the familial needs in coping with that, and the needs to cope with familial illness and separation offering much to feel and consider.
The interactions Griffin Dunne experienced growing up in a family with fame in Hollywood, California circles were interesting. This line alone was worth the read, getting to acquire views into experiences with Joan Didion, Sean Connery, Carrie Fisher and Martin Scorsese among some of the more memorable tales.
Overall, I grant the experience of “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir” by Griffin Dunne 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
Five months stood between the election of United States president on November 6, 1860, and the first inauguration of Republican Abraham Lincoln as preFive months stood between the election of United States president on November 6, 1860, and the first inauguration of Republican Abraham Lincoln as president on March 4, 1861. James Buchanan, the moderate Democratic U.S. president from Pennsylvania and predecessor to Lincoln, was sympathetic to the Southern desire for slavery. The tension of not being able to broker a compromise to avert an American Civil War, either before or during the five months mentioned above, is the subject matter of Erik Larson‘s book 'The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War'.
As quoted from marketing for 'The Demon of Unrest', we gain a glimpse of what this narrative nonfiction book sets out to accomplish. “Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, [Eric] Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late…Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals.”
An important part of the focus for the history shared with 'The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War' is the story of Major Robert Anderson. “Anderson was the commander of the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces under P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on his position. This marked the beginning of the American Civil War.” The attempts by Anderson to get reinforcements for the fort through the Buchanan and Lincoln administrations ahead of the attack are examined with care that grew sadder and more perilous as the book unfolded.
There was the story of Edmund Ruffin, “a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity.” Ruffin was highly influential as a farmer, though “turned his attention more and more to defending slavery, largely on racial grounds…Ruffin fired one of the first shots at Fort Sumter in 1861.” The counterpoints to the Northern point-of-view were taken in decent measure through the lens of Edmund Ruffin within 'The Demon on Unrest'.
“Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both,” was given presented with some depth by Larson through his book. Boykin Chesnut was the wife of Confederate General James Chestnut Jr., who was also an aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Boykin Chesnut wrote 'A Diary of Dixie', which offered insight into the life in the South through the period of the American Civil War.
“In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he [Lincoln] fears is inevitable.” Seward was the standard bearer of the Republican Party following the collapse of the Whig Party, failing to capture the U.S. Presidency in 1856 and 1860. Seward in many ways was a counterpoint to James Buchanan, as one aimed for compromise on the slavery while the other argued against further compromise.
The sharing of Southern attitudes and Northern attitudes in the six months between Lincoln‘s election and the attack on Fort Sumter were interesting and new. The exploration of the 'Code Duello', or the rules of dueling, as chapter openings and explorations of Southern honor, was an interesting device tying content together through the book. I appreciated the perspective of the differing attitudes, the period covered, and the fresh details uncovered. I grant 'The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War' as written by Erik Larson 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
A medieval travelogue that serves as biography brought me to British historian John Man‘s retracing of Italian Marco Polo‘s journey to China in servicA medieval travelogue that serves as biography brought me to British historian John Man‘s retracing of Italian Marco Polo‘s journey to China in service of Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan from 1271 to 1295. First published in November 2014, 'Marco Polo: The Journey that Changed the World' serves partly as a modern day correction to the Rustichello da Pisa and Marco Polo co-written 13th century autobiography 'The Travels of Marco Polo'.
The Rustichello da Pisa work, which in its original form has been lost to history, has been reworked from multiple languages. That book is thought to be true in broad strokes rather than a firsthand telling of legitimate testimony and experience. The John Man book that is our focus here made efforts to visit historical places in the reconstructed original accounts to make judgments of truths in the original accounts informed by Man‘s sense of what is likely, possible and improbable from the reassembled original. With commentaries on original cultures and religions a part of 'The Travels of Marco Polo', Man comments on the fact of the commentary as well as the objectives in the original writing.
Man‘s book is maybe half about the journey that Marco Polo took as a European visiting Far East Asia, with the other half, as Jason Pettus observes, serving as “a detailed archeological and anthropological guide to emperor Kublai Khan, his summer imperial city Xanadu, and other such details about ancient China that don’t really have much to do with Polo or his journey at all.” Xanadu, in the usage of Pettus and Man, is thought to be Shangdu, Mongolia, China. The book title focuses more on the first half of the story rather than the full scope of the book as part of a marketing decision related to a television series that had been released ahead of the John Man book.
The overall work as presented here today offered insight into a pair of related subjects that were interesting to me. I hadn’t realized ahead of the reading that the focus of the second half of the book would get into subjects that offered historical knowledge in a direction slightly afar from what I would have known to expect. This said, I grant 'Marco Polo: The Journey that Changed the World' by John Man 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
Published following the 48th year of park operation, we look this day to the Evan Ponstingle book 'Kings Island: A Ride Through Time'. Kings Island isPublished following the 48th year of park operation, we look this day to the Evan Ponstingle book 'Kings Island: A Ride Through Time'. Kings Island is a regional amusement park located 24 miles (39 kilometers) northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio. Featuring rides that today include The Beast, Banshee, Diamondback and Orion, the park first opened in the spring of 1972.
This history offered a well researched, chronologically delivered history of the park born as an amusement park to replace flood prone Coney Island of Anderson Township, Ohio along the banks of the Ohio River. The early work of Gary Wachs and final Coney Island president Ralph Wachs to secure investor Taft Broadcasting Company to invest in the new park, which would later be named Kings Island, brought the park into existence. It was the Hanna-Barbera animation studio and production company as owned by Taft that brought an interest in opening the new park on the Mason property. A popular early attraction for Kings Island was the John C. Allen designed The Racer.
The book itself takes the reader through the initial decision-making, marketing and investment in the park to bring about the opening. A season-by-season review of the park, along with new investments and inevitable changes gave an appreciated perspective to the growth and philosophies that fed into the popularity of the park through time. The ebb and flow of live entertainment, including externally focused visits from The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, Karl Wallenda, Evel Knievel and more, were recapped through the ownership groups that punctuated the park’s history.
The three primary ownership periods for the park began with the Taft Broadcasting and KECO (Kings Entertainment Company) years, from 1972 to 1992. The Paramount years ran from 1992 to 2006. The Cedar Fair years commenced in 2006 and remained in play through the publication of 'Kings Island: A Ride Through Time'. Hearing about how management approached the park’s philosophy, theming, investment and entertainment like Halloween Haunt and Winterfest were as interesting as the new or removed attractions, the last sections of the book offered an in-depth focus on the theming and development that occurred in advance of the opening of Mystic Timbers and Orion roller coasters.
Overall, the reminiscing that I was able to enjoy in looking back at Kings Island provided me much joy. This contributes to my granting the Evan Ponstingle book 'Kings Island: A Ride Through Time' 4-stars on a scale of one-to-five....more
It was March of 2017 when we last looked into the writing of Dava Sobel with our review of the 1999 book 'Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of SIt was March of 2017 when we last looked into the writing of Dava Sobel with our review of the 1999 book 'Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love'. I return today with our review of Sobel‘s 2016 book 'The Glass Universe How the Ladies of Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars', a book every bit as spirited in sharing the value of women in scientific discovery in the face of odds stacked against the proposition.
The book succeeds in providing portraits of strong, intelligent women working meaningfully in astronomy against a backdrop of history not commonly known. The history offered is a scientific one largely based in the Harvard College Observatory of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The scientific analysis of glass plates, which had been taken of the night sky, were analyzed in ways that revolutionized the field of astronomy. The women were central to the burgeoning field in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in influencing worldwide astronomical research into directions still relevant today. The research shared is impressive in scope and depth, including the work of directors Edward Charles Pickering (1877-1919) and Harlow Shapley (1922-1951), in addition to women that included Annie Jump Cannon and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.
Mary Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of Henry Draper, and Catherine Wolfe Bruce were an early benefactors to the Harvard program. The ladies sponsored awards that are still given to this day. The science achieved, in addition to these driving forces behind them, are the stories told by Dava Sobel. Those seeking a more comprehensive social tale, in my candid observation of the accomplishments recognized and discussed, will be disappointed if a more social biography point-of-view is the interest in this book.
Overall, the educational factor coupled with the subject matter worked for me. I give 'The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars' by Dava Sobel 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five....more
Among his many legal successes arguing cases across the United States and in the south, Thurgood Marshall would be confirmed to the Supreme Court by tAmong his many legal successes arguing cases across the United States and in the south, Thurgood Marshall would be confirmed to the Supreme Court by the United States Senate after being nominated by United States President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The successful nomination was unprecedented on multiple scores, which is the subject of the Wil Haygood book 'Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America'.
The five-day hearing of the U.S. Senate that confirmed Thurgood Marshall, of New York, the first African-American Supreme Court justice on July 13th, 14th, 18th, 19th and 24th, 1967 are the central timeline that Wil Haygood uses to share Marshall‘s biography. At state in Marshall‘s life story were the stakes of the American civil rights movement of the era, with Justice Marshall‘s career, preceding legal practice and social activity geared at moving the dial forward. Marshall led the legal case that legally struck down the separate-but-equal doctrine, which led to school integration (Brown v. Board of Education overturning Plessy v. Ferguson). Haygood documented scores of legal defenses for the underrepresented and unfairly attacked. These points and more established Marshall‘s candidacy for the supreme court. The establishing of that background, and the tactics used against him through the Supreme Court hearing, have been replicated in the Senate since.
The Marshall nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in September 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy by southern US senators for many months. James O. Eastland of Mississippi, a noted southern US senator with a similar motivation through the Supreme Court nomination, aimed to stack the deck. The tactics of Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was given notable attention through this biography as well.
There is much to recommend the story of this book from an educational and entertainment perspective. There are life lessons and philosophical approaches to life and intellect that offer insight, along with the underlying drama and contributing actions of two separate presidents in aiming to successfully nominate a qualified jurist. The history lessons in the subject matter, the tactics and the humanity of the Thurgood Marshall path to the Supreme Court helps me grant 'Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America' as written by Wil Haygood 4.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars....more
The book 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West' is described by Macmillan Publishers as “Dee Brown‘s eloquent, meticuThe book 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West' is described by Macmillan Publishers as “Dee Brown‘s eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century.” The 'Encyclopedia of World Biography' quotes Brown‘s book as an “invaluable and extensive impact on how Native American history is viewed” while National Public Radio (NPR) reviewed the book in 2019 as telling a “story of U.S. government betrayal, forced relocation and massacres.”
The book is told from several firsthand points-of-view of members of the distinct native cultures impacted by the incoming United States government composed largely of Europeans. After giving a brief overview of the United States and native population from the Christopher Columbus landing in 1492 to 1860, the novel gives extensive tales of American encroachment on native lands and against native populations. The point-of-view relies on direct quotation through the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 1890.
The message book is not without those wishing for a fuller articulation of the American point-of-view. While the book touches on elements of the American Civil War, for example, there is other history of the United States at the time. The notion of Manifest Destiny was discussed strictly in its effect on broken promises in furtherance of land and cultural encroachment. That said, the book is subtitled as an “Indian History”. The David Treuer book 'The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present' tackles issues he, Treuer, had with 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West' among at least some surviving natives.
There is merit to the effort of Dee Brown from Alberta, Louisiana aiming to tell the first-person story of native populations affected by their interactions with the European counterparts that in large part established a new government in North America. There are issues on multiple levels as well, which tempers my overall grade for the book. I grant 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West' by Dee Brown 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars....more
Nero was the last of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty of five emperors to rule Rome. Though his name was passed down to history as simply Nero, his full namNero was the last of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty of five emperors to rule Rome. Though his name was passed down to history as simply Nero, his full name was Imperator Nero Cladius Divi Claudius filius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Released November 8th, the Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth book 'Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome' looks into the reign of the last Caesar to serve as Roman Emperor.
The biography 'Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome' aims to offer a look into the historical record of Nero passed down to us with a fresh eye to see if the common perceptions of the man still seem correct. In a sentence, the record suggests that Nero was vain, cruel and incompetent as a ruler. While certainly disinterested in the day-to-day ruling of empire, further and clearly focused on artistic pursuits that have not survived the passage of time, a more comprehensive view of the man as ruler is certainly possible.
Part of the story of this biography is that of the people of the Roman empire, and their intersections with their ruler. Nero pursued the playing of the lyre and theatrical production to military service or empire ruling. While capable of working through the Senate at times, the man led thoughtfully through delegation through some crises for the larger empire. This occurred in the face of some brutal paranoia the promoted the killing of intimates, family members, confidants and successful leaders throughout the empire who Nero feared would seek his life in pursuit of his mantle as head of the Roman empire.
The biography by Everitt and Ashworth show that Nero‘s reign did bring an end to corrupt practices of previous Roman leaders while showing leniency towards enemies of the sovereign. Putting down revolts in Britain and Judea. The man promoted competitions in the arts, sometimes in place of gladiatorial competitions that persisted throughout and beyond his reign. The great fire of 64 did much to tarnish Nero‘s reputation through the end of his reign, with his incessant charioteering, recitations and lyre playing doing little to help rehabilitate that issue. It was when, eventually having lost popular support among the people, the senate and the Praetorian Guard, that Nero would take his own life to bring about the end of his life and rule in 68.
What I appreciated most about this book was the addressing of the personal and political intrigue of the time without the political axe that writing from Nero‘s time and afterward tended to offer. Said another way, I appreciate how the authors interpreted much of the original sourcing using contemporary standards of cause and effect. That a sense for fair treatment to the facts, as much as can be reconstructed from the record, gives a sense for what the life and times were like was fantastic. That a sense for the choices faced and taken in a recognizable yet different historical period also helped.
I walk away with more understanding and respect for how Nero was raised, how life was conducted in leadership and common circles, and the nature for what life was really like. Overall, I give 'Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome' as written by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
Jim Thorpe was an athlete with an unparalleled sporting mythology and legacy that has been handed down through the ages. Thorpe was also a Sac and FoxJim Thorpe was an athlete with an unparalleled sporting mythology and legacy that has been handed down through the ages. Thorpe was also a Sac and Fox Nation Native American with a personal history complicated by the prejudices of many people in government, authority and in stereotypes empowered by personal interest, arrogance and what an introduction to 'Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe' by David Maraniss describes as “racist assimilationist philosophy” towards Native Americans.
The David Maraniss biography 'Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe' tells a compelling story of Jim Thorpe the man, his circumstances, his influences and a respectable distance into the external influences of his life. The sharing of his athletic feats, the efforts to carve out of life that was of his choosing, and the self-serving and sometimes petty factors that conspired against him were strong factors in the tale.
The tale in earnest begins in the David Maraniss biography at the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a football and track athlete coached by Pop Warner. The relationship between Warner and Thorpe is a complicated one, as was Thorpe‘s relationship with the school, the 1912 Stockholm Olympics of Stockholm, Sweden, and the first of three marriages that Thorpe had that occurred not long after those summer games. The fact that Native Americans were in many ways considered wards of the federal government of the United States through the course of Jim Thorpe‘s life presented a recurring theme that is poignantly in this biography.
The career that Jim Thorpe had as a baseball player was one that felt like it was mismanaged by people in baseball, in addition to the blurry lines between amateur and professional sports in the early twentieth century. In particular, Thorpe‘s popularity among the general public for his football and track prowess did not pair well with John McGraw of the team then known as the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants). The impact that this had on Thorpe’s development as a baseball player is detailed well, and in part possibly contributed to Thorpe‘s ultimate induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Much of Thorpe‘s life in sports, and that outside of sports, demonstrated difficulties in part due to the choices of his profession. Being in sports, and supporting causes rooted in his fame from sports, led to his being on the road for long stretches of time. This contributed to time away from his family. Fair compensation was an ongoing consideration, as were the man’s alcohol consumption, which factored into the ending of his first two marriages. The disposition of the medals Thorpe won in the 1912 Olympics proved a thread through much of the rest of Thorpe’s life, as well as his third marriage.
The depth of the man, along with the complexities of his life and legacy, were told in much further detail than I have raised with this introduction. The work itself spells out the humanity of Jim Thorpe, his three wives, his children, and many who shaped and were shaped by their contact with the man who has come down in mythologized fashion to me. That the David Maraniss book offers a fuller context for the man, his life and times, and many cultural and interpersonal realities that shaped the man, proves helpful. I rate 'Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe' as written by David Maraniss 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
The book 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' by Timothy Snyder offers a conversant perspective about experience in the face of tyrThe book 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' by Timothy Snyder offers a conversant perspective about experience in the face of tyranny. The viewpoint is current day politics in the United States seen through the lens of history from the last century. The edition I had was 126-pages in length. The analysis was succinct and impactful. The thought provoked leads me to recommend the book.
Timothy Snyder is a professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He received a doctorate from the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, United Kingdom. These artifacts of education buttress a brevity of style and directness of evidence shared in twenty (20) essay length lessons on being aware and vigilant to the ways authoritarianism and lost freedoms can rise in republics or representative democracies.
As identified in a review by Tim Adams in 'The Guardian' from March 2017, this Snyder book advances a “20-point “how to” guide for resisting tyranny.” For example, it’s Adams that quotes Snyder‘s ninth lesson in this way: “Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone else is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.”
That the book highlights important lessons girded by the notion for actively thinking then behaving consistent with the underlying values rings true. Other lessons offered include defending institutions, remembering professional ethics, believing in truth, investigating facts, and learning from peers in other countries being some that stand out for me. The discussion around drawing meaning in the differences between patriotism and nationalism seems particularly relevant.
The effort to remember what has happened in the past stands as an important underpinning for 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century'. The application of memory in knowing how things like facism, communism, Nazism, socialism or other authoritarian doctrines leads to lessons drawn from a look many of the conflicts through the twentieth century on these points. I give 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' by Timothy Snyder 5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
The historical record frequently is not known to the fullest extent that it can be. This point, combined with difficulty within the United States in hThe historical record frequently is not known to the fullest extent that it can be. This point, combined with difficulty within the United States in having an awareness of the history that continues to exert itself within the social fabric of that country from actors both foreign and domestic, led to my engaging in the nonfiction reporting in the David Zucchino 2021 Pulitzer Prize winning book 'Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy'.
The Wilmington Coup and Massacre of 1898 occurred in a fashion wherein the “the multiracial … city government of Wilmington, North Carolina, was violently overthrown on November 10, 1898, and as many as 60 Black Americans were killed in a premeditated murder spree that was the culmination of an organized months-long statewide campaign by white supremacists to eliminate African American participation in government and permanently disenfranchise Black citizens of North Carolina” (Encyclopedia Britannica).
In the months leading up to the election of November 1898 in North Carolina, virulent hatred was stirred between predominantly white and black populations. The gains of African Americans in the south with Reconstruction following the American Civil War was not met well with those that lost political, economic and social control following the war. Social stereotypes were used to instigate angry or bitter disagreement spurred in part through “virulent racist propaganda” (Encyclopedia Britannica) perpetuated in large measure by newspapers in Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington. The notion was “to eliminate forever, by ballot or bullet, voting and office-holding by Blacks” (Encyclopedia Britannica) in North Carolina. The means of this were spelled out in 'Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy'.
The black-owned newspaper The Daily Record in Wilmington was a specific target of the coup and massacre in the build-up and conduct of the rioting that occurred as part of the coup. Alex Manly editorialized for The Daily Record. “In an editorial published August 18, 1898, Manly challenged interracial sexual stereotypes, condemning white men for taking advantage of black women. His assertion that it was no worse for a white woman to be sexually involved with a black man than a black woman to be sexually involved with a white man infuriated conservative local Democrats, who were able to capitalize on white fears of interracial intimacy at the ballot box” (Blackpast.org). This debate fanned negative sentiment against the multi-culturalism across North Carolina and the American south, in addition to putting Manly's life at risk.
The book itself tells the story of the above with an engaging degree of detail, intrigue, and depth. The information shared goes well beyond the notion of dates and names into identifying motivations, methods and precisely who had something to gain, to lose, and circumstances of both. I was stricken by the use of the media to fan popular opinion against reason, fairness and self-interest with such intensity. The power of group thinking overrode interpersonal motivation and the tendency towards stewardship for many. This is a clear story that David Zucchino captures with 'Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy'.
There are many books on the relationships among groups in the United States that you can aim to learn from. It is my feeling that you can do worse than 'Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy' by David Zucchino; I grant the book 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more
Continuing in the genre of narrative nonfiction, I return to the authorship of Erik Larson with his 2006 release 'Thunderstruck'. The narrative of thiContinuing in the genre of narrative nonfiction, I return to the authorship of Erik Larson with his 2006 release 'Thunderstruck'. The narrative of this biography that reads in part like a paperback novel is the intersection of Italian wireless communication inventor Guglielmo Marconi, American born murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen, and the Scotland Yard pursuit of Crippen using the nascent technology developed by Marconi.
The story of 'Thunderstruck' is that of three stories intertwined into a single piece of nonfiction. The first involves the laying of the groundwork for the advent of wireless communication across great distances that many physicists thought could travel only in lines that move tangentially away from the curvature of the Earth. In practice, Marconi proved that above notion incorrect.
It was in laying out of Marconi‘s methods, the personal cost for him and other scientists of the day, and who ultimately reigned in this pursuit of communication application that offered perhaps the worst sense of timing and outcome for Hawley Harvey Crippen, in that the application of Marconi‘s communication that proved decisive in authority’s capture Crippen, a notorious murderer of the last century.
The British judicial system found Hawley Harvey Crippen guilty of killing his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen. The marriage of Hawley and Cora had occurred in Jersey City, New Jersey prior to the couple moving to London, England. Offering an abbreviated account here of a story much better told in 'Thunderstruck', ultimately it was the discovery of the remains of Hawley Harvey Crippen‘s second wife, Cora, in London that led to a well detailed pursuit to capture a murderer with his mistress attempting to flee the jurisdiction that offers Erik Larson‘s book it’s closing resonance.
The stories included in 'Thunderstruck' offer touches of stories that belong in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Italy. The jurisprudence largely has a British provenance, which offered me a bit of attraction of the macabre. The science underpinning the business sense of Guglielmo Marconi as pitted against physicists and nationalist interests of the Edwardian era of England also proved interesting. Ultimately, I give 'Thunderstruck' by Erik Larson 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5....more