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A review by mchester24
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
4.0
I debated whether to give 4 stars or 5 stars, mainly because this book really is two different books in one. While they tell two stories that are going on at the same time (the build up to and finish of the World's Fair in Chicago along with the murderous life of H.H. Holmes), they failed to come together to make one cohesive story to me. I was definitely more interested in the chapters of the book about Holmes and would have probably given the story of his evil deceits and murders five stars, but they were always seemingly sandwiched between the longer and a bit slower chapters about the fair (though, to be fair, I ended up enjoying the 'book' about the fair more than I would have anticipated).
I wish the two stories came together more cohesively and satisfyingly in the end. What tied them together was the city of Chicago in the late 19th century, and the city itself (as cliche as it feels to say) was a character all its own in this book-- prominent in each half of the book. I really felt like I got to know and understand the mentality and spirit of Chicago during these years-- a city that was proud of what it had achieved and could achieve but always felt like the little brother on the world's stage; a city determined to show just how cosmopolitan and elite it could be, even still in the recovery of the Great Fire and with a corrupt and crime-ridden atmosphere.
The story of the fair, like I said, was more compelling than I would have initially thought. If the book was just about the fair and didn't splice in the juicy and vulgar story of Holmes, I probably wouldn't have picked it up to begin with. But because I did, it was compelling to learn about just how much of 20th century America's tent poles can trace their way back to the fair, or at least are tangentially touched by the fair-- things like the first Ferris Wheel, the future vision of the Disney family, the incandescent light bulb, decades of American architecture and public parks, the Titanic, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Frank Lloyd Wright, the pledge of allegiance, modern labor laws, Columbus Day, the first zipper, Aunt Jemima's brand, PBR, Dewey Decimal System, the electric chair, braille (and Hellen Keller encountering it), L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, and more.
The story of Holmes is, to say the least, chilling. But it's the story of a sociopath that proves the archetype for all fictional serial killers you see in media-- charming, unfeeling, uncaught in his own lies, unflappable, gruesome, devious, alluring. The idea that someone could be killing people for no other motive other than the power to know they could and the satisfaction that could bring was unheared of at that time, which made the hunt for the killer of all these missing women even more compelling at the time. It's no wonder it made front page news all the time, a fact that no doubt fed into Holmes' self image as an all powerful God or, more accurately, the devil himself.
I wish the two stories came together more cohesively and satisfyingly in the end. What tied them together was the city of Chicago in the late 19th century, and the city itself (as cliche as it feels to say) was a character all its own in this book-- prominent in each half of the book. I really felt like I got to know and understand the mentality and spirit of Chicago during these years-- a city that was proud of what it had achieved and could achieve but always felt like the little brother on the world's stage; a city determined to show just how cosmopolitan and elite it could be, even still in the recovery of the Great Fire and with a corrupt and crime-ridden atmosphere.
The story of the fair, like I said, was more compelling than I would have initially thought. If the book was just about the fair and didn't splice in the juicy and vulgar story of Holmes, I probably wouldn't have picked it up to begin with. But because I did, it was compelling to learn about just how much of 20th century America's tent poles can trace their way back to the fair, or at least are tangentially touched by the fair-- things like the first Ferris Wheel, the future vision of the Disney family, the incandescent light bulb, decades of American architecture and public parks, the Titanic, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Frank Lloyd Wright, the pledge of allegiance, modern labor laws, Columbus Day, the first zipper, Aunt Jemima's brand, PBR, Dewey Decimal System, the electric chair, braille (and Hellen Keller encountering it), L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, and more.
The story of Holmes is, to say the least, chilling. But it's the story of a sociopath that proves the archetype for all fictional serial killers you see in media-- charming, unfeeling, uncaught in his own lies, unflappable, gruesome, devious, alluring. The idea that someone could be killing people for no other motive other than the power to know they could and the satisfaction that could bring was unheared of at that time, which made the hunt for the killer of all these missing women even more compelling at the time. It's no wonder it made front page news all the time, a fact that no doubt fed into Holmes' self image as an all powerful God or, more accurately, the devil himself.