|
New York: The Novel |  | Author: Edward Rutherfurd
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy Used: $5.82
as of 7/29/2010 22:25 CDT details
You Save: $24.18 (81%)
Seller: _beaglebooks_
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 2521
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First American Edition
Pages: 880
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.8
ISBN: 0385521383
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780385521383
ASIN: 0385521383
Publication Date: November 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| | |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Edward Rutherfurd on New York
Strangely, I suspect it was Viking ancestors who drew me to New York. For centuries my father's family lived on Britain's biggest tidal river, the Severn, on which there was a huge trade with the interior, and through the port of Bristol with America. In the nineteenth century they were in shipping from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and on the great rivers of Europe--the Rhine, the Danube, even the Russian River Dnieper. I myself was born beside a river--the Avon in Sarum. So when I first encountered New York's great harbor and the Hudson River as a teenager, and came to understand their historic canal and railroad links to the vast spaces of the Midwest, I felt both the thrill of a new adventure, and a deep sense of homecoming. I first considered writing New York in 1991. I'd been in the city for a decade, was married to an American wife and sending my children to New York schools. I was even on the board of a coop building. But I wasn't sure how to organize such complex material, and for many years I put the project aside. It was kind encouragement and old-fashioned editing from William Thomas at Doubleday that finally persuaded me to try again. And soon I was hooked. New York's gift to the storyteller is magnificent: Indian and Dutch beginnings; larger-than-life historical characters like Lord Cornbury, the transvestite British Governor, the socialite Mrs. Astor, and the titanic J.P. Morgan; huge events from the Revolutionary War and the Civil War--when New York threatened to secede from the Union--to the Crash of '29 and the tragedy of 9/11. But it's the ordinary people I discover in my research--African slaves, Irish laborers, society ladies and sweatshop workers--whose lives move me most, and who provide so many of my plots and characters. My own personal experiences also helped. I descend from both Philadelphia Quakers and Carolina colonists whose families were separated by the Revolutionary War. That helped give me insight into the agony of Patriots who, until the British government denied their claims, had always, like Ben Franklin himself, thought of themselves as free-born Englishmen. One of my closest friends since university is an Italian immigrant. Understanding the poverty and humiliations of her childhood helped me create the book's Caruso family who came through Ellis Island and lived in Little Italy. I also love discovering how things work. It was as fascinating to study the history of Wall Street banking--and how financial crises always repeat themselves!--as it was to learn how the Empire State Building was constructed. But above all, what I love about New York is that people have always come there in search of freedom, and usually found it. I was lucky to be born beside Sarum's Avon. But I'd like my New York children to scatter my ashes in the Hudson. --Edward Rutherfurd (Photo © Jeanne Maseoro)
Product Description
The bestselling master of historical fiction weaves a grand, sweeping drama of New York from the city's founding to the present day.
Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, bestselling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families.
As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York and America: the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near-demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the '90s, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sprinkled throughout are captivating cameo appearances by historical figures ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Babe Ruth.
New York is the book that millions of Rutherfurd's American fans have been waiting for. A brilliant mix of romance, war, family drama, and personal triumphs, it gloriously captures the search for freedom and prosperity at the heart of our nation's history.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Outstanding!!! July 28, 2010
Outlier_1
It was the first novel from Edward Rutherfurd which I read and was impressed very much. It's really very interesting to observe the history of this legendary for me city. Characters described very well and there is no any uninteresting character at all.
new york July 15, 2010
mary c sry (HARWICH, MA, US)
Not only have I learned a few things about N.Y. city that I love, but the storyof the families was interesting.
Well put together July 8, 2010
Morgan Chan (N Z)
This gives history about America based around New York but spans over 300 years which is better than the book "London" trying to span over 2000 years.It gives background from 1700 where the Dutch were fighting English for control of the land, the Indians losing their land,the black slave trade,the introduction of the Jury of Nullification whereby a Jury s decision can override law.
Then there is the Boston Tea Party whereby England wants to dump all thier surplus Tea into America causing the American Patriots to rebel against the English (Red Coats) and then there is war.The English guarantee the black slaves freedom if they join the English but then the French allie with the Americans beating the English.In the end the Americans get independence with George Washington leading the war.
It builds into the story the history about the Draft Riots whereby Abraham Lincoln reqired drafting and so the poorer class rioted as they would get drafted.The higher class could buy there wayout.There were lynching of Blacks as they also enlisted and the North did not want them in as lots were coming up from the South to freedom in the North. P.G.588 gives you the feel of the war from a photographers perpective whose pictures become famous in galleries.
It touchs on the immigration of Italian migrants in 1907 and when they see the Statute of Liberty when they enter America which was a gift from the French. Then the car comes and the share crash in 1907. It brings into the story about how old famlies with old money try to keep themselves in an elite class as opposed to families with new money.
It also brings to light women striking in the sewing industry.It also give you an insight into the building of the Empire State building.It brings about the hatred of the Jews and the racism against them by having one character wanting to marry a Jew girl but cannot as the father does not permit her to marry a non Jew.
It also touchs on the life for the Puerto Rican by introducing into the story of a Puerto Rican family and the gangs and poor life they lead in America. Coming to the end it takes us to the last generation living in New York with their extravagant parties and the materialist life style and ending the story with the 911 plane crash of the twin towers.
It ends linking the start of the book with an old Indian belt passed down in the generations.
All this history is built into the story with a family saga spanning over 300 years.This is a fanatstic fast moving book which was hard to put down.
In the Mood for Rutherfurd? July 6, 2010
Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anyone familiar with Rutherfurd's work will know what to expect here. The title says it all. This is the story of New York or, more precisely, lower Manhattan (since he never ventures far from here), as told in the style of Edward Rutherfurd: a long, sweeping novel that doesn't dig too deep but puts us there at important historical moments so we can get a sense of what it might have been like.
In some of his novels, Rutherfurd has a tendency to hit the history a little too hard and make the generations of the families he traces a little too similar and consistent. For the most part, he avoids that here. I did see traces of Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World in the early sections of the novel (an excellent book which Rutherfurd acknowledges) and Robert Caro's The Power Broker in later sections but I read a lot of New York history so that type of thing is to be expected. He deserves credit for really being quite good at hitting the historical highlights of a city and he was more subtle in this novel that he has been in others.
My only real complaints about this novel are two. First, he was completely unwilling to put his characters through any real trials in this novel. For the most part, generation after generation lived fundamentally successful lives. I understand that he wants to get us into the houses of Gramercy Park and Fifth Avenue, but the almost complete absence of any real tragedy in the lives of the major characters is a little hard to swallow. Second, he goes a little off track with the flow of the novel at the very end. There's a short digression into anti-semitism in the 1950's and the tidy set-up and survival at the Twin Towers did not ring true to the rest of the book.
If I'm going to be completely honest, I have to be in the right mood for an Edward Rutherfurd book. I deplore the modern tendency towards only short, superficial novels. Rutherfurd is willing to conjure a big stage, which I love. On the other hand, his novels, while informative, are not particularly challenging. But, when I feel like it, delving into a Rutherfurd novel is a real pleasure. This is a good one.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...... July 3, 2010
Rod M. Holland (Colorado)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
But its not the absolute best Rutherfurd.
Pros: Rutherfurd always writes a cut above, and this is no exception. Some of the passages of New York are the ABSOLUTE BEST of Rutherfurd, in particular, the section concerning Charley Master and Sarah Adler. Historical, not really, but the interplay between the Charley and Sarah was wonderful. As with all Rutherfurd, I sat there with google maps, scrolling, trying to figure out how all the places related. I've never spent any time in New York, but this was classic Rutherfurd, now I'm quite familiar with the place
Cons: This book seemed to skip larger sections of time than I was comfortable with or liked. Maybe its because its America and I'm more familiar with my subject and was constantly saying "What about the....". It seemed to jump around a bit more and the family lines didn't interplay as much or as well as in London or the Irish series. Actually, a bunch of the stubs were just that, stubs. That may be reality, but its not the Rutherfurd I know and love.
Bottom Line: Well worth reading, but for Rutherfurd aficionados, this is not quite up to the standard of London or the Irish series.
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
| |
