Locations and Hours
Services
About the Library
Support your Library
Contact Us
Downloadable
Audio Books
askMONTANA:
Reference 24/7
|
Thunderstruck
By Erik Larson
The first Erik Larson book I read was The Devil In the White City and I was totally captivated! Chicago was home for many years and I couldn't believe I had not heard any of this totally bizarre true story before!
I went on to read Isaac's Storm, another compelling, splendidly written and researched nonfiction story, once again as spellbinding as any novel I have read. The Great Hurricane in Galveston made Katrina, years later, easier to understand.
I went back farther in Larson's writing career and read Lethal Passage the story of one gun's journey through many lives.
Thunderstruck, just published in 2006, was certainly on my
" must read " list. I have just finished digesting the newest of Larson's remarkable ventures into history, and was not disappointed. The true life story of Marconi and his wonderful invention, the telegraph, would not be as compelling, without the way it influenced the tracking down and arrest of Hawley Harvey Crippen for murder.
Dr. Crippen was a mild mannered, kind and patient man who had married a domineering, bossy woman that manipulated his life in every way.
Marconi was an Italian from a prosperous family, that focused his life on inventing the telegraph, and let nothing stand in the way of his success. The wireless took precedence over his wives and children and his final success was enormous.
The convergence in history of these two men is unreal --
a ship in the Atlantic is the stage, and the whole world was watching! The politics involved in the invention of the wireless is unveiled in these pages by the unrelenting scholarship and story telling ability of Erik Larson. The parallel story of kindly Dr. Crippen almost committing the perfect murder is researched with the same meticulous attention to detail.
Edwardian London comes alive, as do the great shipping companies and luxury ocean liners that made the wireless famous with their seemingly magical way to communicate across the Atlantic and affect the great wars of the 20th century as well.
There is so much history contained in these pages it is necessary to stop a bit, go back and digest the information, and then forge ahead to the conclusion.
The transatlantic stations on the coasts of Cape Cod, Cornwall and Nova Scotia take their bows in this panorama of history unfolding.
The notes and archives and Bibliography listed at the end of the book make referring back to events much easier. When the last page is turned, it is almost a necessity to take a final look back to remember "what happened when!"
|
|
