The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In reading this book, I found that my imagination was taken away, not only with the story of Herman W. Mudgett, but especially with the whole of Chicago during the Gilded Age. This tale of the White City juxtaposed with the Black is not only compelling, but enthralling.
The length of time I have taken to read this book is far more a fault of my own time management than any trouble caused by the length and depth of this work. Mr. Larson’s studious examination of primary and secondary sources makes his work rife with detail that implies a fictional flair, but Larson does not hesitate to cite his sources for every controversial and suggestive claim in the book.
With such high-minded praise, then, it may seem odd that I limited my rating here to four stars. The weaknesses of the work were few and far between (and other readers may not agree with me in the least on their existence at all). The very depth that made the work so compelling seemed at once to take away from its historical accuracy; I had the distinct impression that this or that scene must surely be fabricated, for no one could possibly have known what Mr. Larson posits. At the same time, I have no knowledge of his sources, and his citations strike my untrained eye as legitimate.
There is a certain amount of sensationalism, too, which must of necessity accompany any story about the first American serial killer. It is the same sensationalism, I suspect, that accompanied the discovery and trial of the infamous man, but it is here presented in an oblique fashion. On the one hand, it demands that the next page be turned, but on the other, the great tragedy of these events (and also, perhaps, the great grandeur of the Fair) is faded and colorless in the light of the shocking nature of it all.
Perhaps I am being too harsh, especially considering that I have given five stars to works of far less skill and scope in the past, simply because they entertained me. But at any rate, I certainly enjoyed the book, and if you are a fan of history, you should, too. The full exposure to Mudgett’s evil, though, turned my stomach so much that I nearly put the book down for a time, if only to escape the imagery; Mr. Larson in no way focuses upon the grue, but he does help us to befriend the victims before their wicked demise. So keep that in mind.
On the note that Mr. Larson’s integration of the two focal points of the book – the World’s Fair, and Mudgett’s murders – is either inefficient or ineffective, I will admit that the contrast is occasionally obvious. One, however, could not be properly addressed without examination of the other, and they tie together with sufficient aplomb that the book itself does not suffer.