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The Devil in the White City
Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson
Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Illustrated
Softbound: 447 pages
Publisher: Vintage
February 10, 2004
This well-researched book is so entrancing at times that you feel like you've gone back in time when
you read it. Fin de siecle America and all its excesses and darkness in a way that no other book has come
close to describing. The book tells the parallel and converging stories of the World Fair held in
Chicago during the presidency of Grover Cleveland, and that of Dr. H. H. Holmes, our first serial killer.
We see an America that is on the one hand naive, and on the other already overbloated and self-possessed.
Somehow this first fantasy theme park is the perfect vehicle for the appearance of our first sociopath,
as though he was to be conceived and born by a concert of forces that was to also spawn an America ready
to become the imperialist titan that T. Roosevelt was to make it a few years later.
That a cold-blooded killer could walk undetected and unimpeded is at once amazing and on the
other not surprising, as anonymity and identity were already lost in faceless urban America. It is in
some way, premonitory. This is historical fiction that is at once well-structured and paced.
It is a fascinating read, that could well have been novelized. Read it, and it will change the way you
feel about Cracker Jacks, Ferris Wheels and Juicy Fruit gum. And anyone interested in the crimes
of H.H. Holmes should read "Depraved" by Harold Schechter, the definitive work on the subject.
Book has been gently read, the pages are clean and bright with light wear to it's cover.
Order by ITEM #BKS-44-07
PRICE: $12.95
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