Books: Two about the Turn of the Century

Maybe it's because Florida experiences so much rain on summer afternoons, but I've always found that I get the most books read during the traditional summer reading season. What's more natural than curling up with a book while feeder bands buffet the world outside?

Similarly, the transition from the 19th century to the 20th was a stormy period. Here a couple of books set around that time:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn



This classic novel was largely drawn from author Betty Smith's real-life experiences growing up in Brooklyn. It's the story of a girl named Francie and her coming-of-age in an environment of crushing poverty, family problems, and social change. Betty Smith's upbringing flavors the entire work; when Smith details the grime and beauty of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, you can almost feel yourself there, paying for stale bread with pennies and haggling over cuts of meat at the butcher.

There isn't much of a plot, at least in the conventional sense. It's apparent from the start that Francie is a bright, bookish girl, but there's no Daddy Warbucks to come in and cart her off to a better life. Instead, her dreams get delayed and deferred but never destroyed. It's ultimately a hopeful tale, though, and required reading for anyone wanting to catalog the history of the American woman in literature.

The Devil in the White City



Erik Larson has achieved a rare thing: a work of historical nonfiction that has the pacing and suspense of a good mystery novel. Unlike most history books, the subject is not a war or a revolution, but an event - the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The book follows two architects (one a mogul and the other a madman) as their lives, and everyone else's, are intertwined into one of the great but lesser-known milestones of American history.

The mogul here is Daniel Burnham, and if you have any interest in architecture, you might already know about Burnham & Root, the legendary firm that designed many of Chicago's greatest buildings. Without giving anything away, let's just say that the madman in the story is a charismatic serial killer who takes advantage of the Fair in order to harvest his victims. Larson does a good job of sticking to the historical record while allowing in just enough conjecture to make for a flavorful read, and it's no surprise the book became a bestseller.

Larson's other historical work, "Isaac's Storm," is decent, but avoid his gun control diatribe "Lethal Passage," which reads like a Brady Campaign press release.