#7. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Paperback, 447 pages (Vintage)
First published October 17th, 2002 by Crown
Borrowed from A.S.
I’ve been meaning to update my reading list over here. I’ve managed to make a large dent in my book stacks in February, and I’m up to my 13th book for the year. Number seven was a book that’s been sitting in the house for months, borrowed from a friend. Feeling like it had overstayed it’s welcome in the house, I finally picked it up and read it in a weekend, barely surfacing from the pages to eat.
Made up of several (non-fiction) sub-plots, the book revolves around the World’s Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World’s Fair). A substantial portion of the book is devoted to architectural history – the outstanding feat of Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the veritable who’s who of architects of the day – building the shining White City on a timeframe that seems impossible even now to imagine. The other half of the book is devoted to a deliciously evil serial killer – making it a poor choice of reading for the evenings that I was alone in the house. Weeks later I’ve been thinking about this book almost daily. Loved it!
