City of Light
by Lauren Belfer | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 044023512x Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 044023512x Global Overview for this book
3 journalers for this copy...
Book description:
It is 1901 and Buffalo, New York, stands at the center of the nation's attention as a place of immense wealth and sophistication. The massive hydroelectric power development at nearby Niagara Falls and the grand Pan-American Exposition promise to bring the Great Lakes "city of light" even more repute.
Against this rich historical backdrop lives Louisa Barrett, the attractive, articulate headmistress of the Macaulay School for Girls. Protected by its powerful all-male board, "Miss Barrett" is treated as an equal by the men who control the life of the city. Lulled by her unique relationship with these titans of business, Louisa feels secure in her position, until a mysterious death at the power plant triggers a sequence of events that forces her to return to a past she has struggled to conceal, and to question everything and everyone she holds dear.
Both observer and participant, Louisa Barrett guides the reader through the culture and conflicts of a time and place where immigrant factory workers and nature conservationists protest violently against industrialists, where presidents broker politics, where wealthy "Negroes" fight for recognition and equality, and where women struggle to thrive in a system that allows them little freedom.
Wrought with remarkable depth and intelligence, City of Light remains a work completely of its own era, and of ours as well. A stirring literary accomplishment, Lauren Belfer's first novel marks the debut of a fresh voice for the new millennium and heralds a major publishing event.
I offered this book in the 15th Yankee Book Swap on the bookrelay site. I'll be sending it off to Sidney1220 who stole it out of the game!
It is 1901 and Buffalo, New York, stands at the center of the nation's attention as a place of immense wealth and sophistication. The massive hydroelectric power development at nearby Niagara Falls and the grand Pan-American Exposition promise to bring the Great Lakes "city of light" even more repute.
Against this rich historical backdrop lives Louisa Barrett, the attractive, articulate headmistress of the Macaulay School for Girls. Protected by its powerful all-male board, "Miss Barrett" is treated as an equal by the men who control the life of the city. Lulled by her unique relationship with these titans of business, Louisa feels secure in her position, until a mysterious death at the power plant triggers a sequence of events that forces her to return to a past she has struggled to conceal, and to question everything and everyone she holds dear.
Both observer and participant, Louisa Barrett guides the reader through the culture and conflicts of a time and place where immigrant factory workers and nature conservationists protest violently against industrialists, where presidents broker politics, where wealthy "Negroes" fight for recognition and equality, and where women struggle to thrive in a system that allows them little freedom.
Wrought with remarkable depth and intelligence, City of Light remains a work completely of its own era, and of ours as well. A stirring literary accomplishment, Lauren Belfer's first novel marks the debut of a fresh voice for the new millennium and heralds a major publishing event.
I offered this book in the 15th Yankee Book Swap on the bookrelay site. I'll be sending it off to Sidney1220 who stole it out of the game!
Received in the mail. I've been really into historical fictions lately, so thanks for sending it to me...
6/27/06 Offered on historical book swap. Reserved for WestofMars.
7/20/06 Have read about 70 pages so far but couldn't really get into it. I thought that I had found a winner when I read the first page, when the author's evocative prose practically made the turn of the century Buffalo jump off the pages. Since then, I've mostly been feeling bored. The author has a tendency to describe EVERYTHING...Even a character who appears only once would get a half page paragraph describing his looks, his family background, his personality traits...don't know if I'll pick this up again.
8/9/06 Decided not to finish this book afterall. Will put it in the mailbox.
6/27/06 Offered on historical book swap. Reserved for WestofMars.
7/20/06 Have read about 70 pages so far but couldn't really get into it. I thought that I had found a winner when I read the first page, when the author's evocative prose practically made the turn of the century Buffalo jump off the pages. Since then, I've mostly been feeling bored. The author has a tendency to describe EVERYTHING...Even a character who appears only once would get a half page paragraph describing his looks, his family background, his personality traits...don't know if I'll pick this up again.
8/9/06 Decided not to finish this book afterall. Will put it in the mailbox.
This book has a long swap history, it seems! Too funny!
Anyway, it's here, I'd totally forgotten about it, and it was a great and pleasant surprise to see it. I'm eager to read it ... and maybe swap it again? *grin*
Anyway, it's here, I'd totally forgotten about it, and it was a great and pleasant surprise to see it. I'm eager to read it ... and maybe swap it again? *grin*
I picked this up as I waited for some library books to be ready. In this covid age, library books can take forever to be transferred from branch to branch and be ready to be picked up.
It was a pleasant read. Louisa's voice is lovely. But... there's no plot tension (despite the quote on the front cover proclaiming this book to be "gripping"). I'm not entirely certain what the book is about, not if we break it down to its simplest form: This is a book about Louisa, who wants....
There are too many ways to finish that sentence.
Still, it was pleasant. Until my library books came in and I read an entire trilogy, start to finish, before picking this back up.
That wasn't good. I got about twenty or thirty more pages in -- remember, this book is almost 700 pages -- and decided I was tired of reading the same argument over and over, that I was tired of not knowing where the story was heading, why another quote on the cover proclaimed it "suspenseful" when it's not, and so I decided to cut my losses. There are too many books waiting for me.
It was a pleasant read. Louisa's voice is lovely. But... there's no plot tension (despite the quote on the front cover proclaiming this book to be "gripping"). I'm not entirely certain what the book is about, not if we break it down to its simplest form: This is a book about Louisa, who wants....
There are too many ways to finish that sentence.
Still, it was pleasant. Until my library books came in and I read an entire trilogy, start to finish, before picking this back up.
That wasn't good. I got about twenty or thirty more pages in -- remember, this book is almost 700 pages -- and decided I was tired of reading the same argument over and over, that I was tired of not knowing where the story was heading, why another quote on the cover proclaimed it "suspenseful" when it's not, and so I decided to cut my losses. There are too many books waiting for me.
