Helpful Score: 2
My chief complaint about this book is the first half is sooooo slow I almost gave up on it. However, if the reader can hang in there the pace definitely picks up in the second half.
The story is told in the first years of the last century and is very much involved with the beginnings of the widespread use of electricity, although that is really only part of the backdrop for this mystery tale. It is interesting and very thought-provoking to imagine life without electricity and what a remarkable boon to civilization harnessing that power has been.
Other interesting subplots involve greedy industrialists, whackadoodle political activists, and amoral politicians including a President. It is a bit breathtaking to realize that we grappled with these exact same issues 100 years ago and dismaying that we still have to contend with them.
Perhaps the most important takeaway for me was the vivid description of life for women in this country just a century ago. Not one of us would want to go back to that and we would be wise not to take our freedom lightly.
If a person enjoys historical fiction, they will likely enjoy this book. It has a lot to offer--insight into the treatment of the mentally ill as well as those who aren't but are shunted into a mental hospital anyway, President Grover Cleveland, the Pan-American Exposition, President McKinley, status and treatment of African-Americans in the north, treatment of professional women, and more.
The story is told in the first years of the last century and is very much involved with the beginnings of the widespread use of electricity, although that is really only part of the backdrop for this mystery tale. It is interesting and very thought-provoking to imagine life without electricity and what a remarkable boon to civilization harnessing that power has been.
Other interesting subplots involve greedy industrialists, whackadoodle political activists, and amoral politicians including a President. It is a bit breathtaking to realize that we grappled with these exact same issues 100 years ago and dismaying that we still have to contend with them.
Perhaps the most important takeaway for me was the vivid description of life for women in this country just a century ago. Not one of us would want to go back to that and we would be wise not to take our freedom lightly.
If a person enjoys historical fiction, they will likely enjoy this book. It has a lot to offer--insight into the treatment of the mentally ill as well as those who aren't but are shunted into a mental hospital anyway, President Grover Cleveland, the Pan-American Exposition, President McKinley, status and treatment of African-Americans in the north, treatment of professional women, and more.
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