I made it to page 100 before I admitted that I was struggled with this, and skimmed the rest. (#Life Is Too Short ...) This was done with honest disappointment: I thought it started well, and was very interesting (Illuminating!! Thank you, I'm here all week. There's a tip jar on the bar ...), but then, I realized that I was struggling, and picking it up every day was a bit of a penance. After that strong start, it seemed very one-note and plodding, with characters and storytelling.
A clue to why comes, I think, from the author's CV: this is going to make a fabulous movie or TV series. Talented actors will bring the characters to life, talented cinematographers and set-dressers will bring New York of the 1880s into vivid focus. The author doesn't have to do much with that: he just has to provide the dialogue and the bare bones of a plot, and the rest will be brought to life by a finishing process. Even the relatively short, choppy chapters feel like the scene cuts in a movie, rather than seriously developing the narrative ...
In the early chapters, when I still felt there were possibilities here, I thought Moore was cleverly playing with the idea that the 1880s were, in many ways, were similar to our own times, and it was all spookily familiar. I took that to explain why there was less in the way of establishing the time-period -- the styles and fashions, the feel and sounds and smells of the streets, the alien attitudes -- than you might expect. Look, it seemed to be saying, with their hipster beards, and driving entrepreneurism, they're just like us!
And perhaps that is what he had in mind -- my problem is that it was watered down by flat characterization and poor narrative.
A clue to why comes, I think, from the author's CV: this is going to make a fabulous movie or TV series. Talented actors will bring the characters to life, talented cinematographers and set-dressers will bring New York of the 1880s into vivid focus. The author doesn't have to do much with that: he just has to provide the dialogue and the bare bones of a plot, and the rest will be brought to life by a finishing process. Even the relatively short, choppy chapters feel like the scene cuts in a movie, rather than seriously developing the narrative ...
In the early chapters, when I still felt there were possibilities here, I thought Moore was cleverly playing with the idea that the 1880s were, in many ways, were similar to our own times, and it was all spookily familiar. I took that to explain why there was less in the way of establishing the time-period -- the styles and fashions, the feel and sounds and smells of the streets, the alien attitudes -- than you might expect. Look, it seemed to be saying, with their hipster beards, and driving entrepreneurism, they're just like us!
And perhaps that is what he had in mind -- my problem is that it was watered down by flat characterization and poor narrative.
