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Paula's Reviews > American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century
American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century
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A couple of years ago, "The Devil in the White City" kicked off a trend of writing history books with a narrative, almost fictional style, and "American Lightning" is clearly indebted to it. They even designed the cover with a similar aesthetic. I thought it was the same author until I checked the "Other Works" page. Devious, yes. And in this case, acceptable, because it was nearly as good.
"Lightning" follows the 'American Sherlock Homes' as he pieces together the Crime of the Century. No, not O.J. And not the Lindbergh babynapping, either. The ORIGINAL Crime of the Century took place closer to the start of the century, when a group of anarchists or possibly unionists or maybe even the owner himself blew up a non-union printing press. Meanwhile, D.W. Griffiths is busy inventing the movie business (yeah, that's right, Birth of a Nation guy) and Clarence Darrow is brought in to defend the accused. Blum ties in so many big names, it's almost like reading the People mag of the early 1900's. And it all goes down, appropriately enough, in Los Angeles.
Part of the fun for me was finding out the origins of why L.A. is such terrible city (as in, urban center) today. And if you thought our justice system is screwed up now, I highly recommend you read "Lightning." Witness intimidation, out-and-out bribery, wheeling and dealing and more weren't so much expected as they were mandatory. "Lightning" is a fun, fast-paced read that will actually make you feel like we've made progress in the last hundred years.
"Lightning" follows the 'American Sherlock Homes' as he pieces together the Crime of the Century. No, not O.J. And not the Lindbergh babynapping, either. The ORIGINAL Crime of the Century took place closer to the start of the century, when a group of anarchists or possibly unionists or maybe even the owner himself blew up a non-union printing press. Meanwhile, D.W. Griffiths is busy inventing the movie business (yeah, that's right, Birth of a Nation guy) and Clarence Darrow is brought in to defend the accused. Blum ties in so many big names, it's almost like reading the People mag of the early 1900's. And it all goes down, appropriately enough, in Los Angeles.
Part of the fun for me was finding out the origins of why L.A. is such terrible city (as in, urban center) today. And if you thought our justice system is screwed up now, I highly recommend you read "Lightning." Witness intimidation, out-and-out bribery, wheeling and dealing and more weren't so much expected as they were mandatory. "Lightning" is a fun, fast-paced read that will actually make you feel like we've made progress in the last hundred years.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
December 1, 2008
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Finished Reading
December 8, 2008
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rated it 2 stars
Feb 15, 2011 06:54AM
Good catch on both the cover design and the story telling trend; I must admit the jacket caught my eye precisely because I enjoyed "The Devil in the White City" (and pretty much everything Erik Larson writes). On the other hand, I'm a L.A. history junkie largely because I live in this not really "such a terrible city". :( Larson, however, has the form down pat whereas Blum strains the device by round-robining three personalities, one of whom really doesn't belong (it should not be incumbent on every book about Los Angeles to include a reference to the movie business). And it would have been nice if Blum had tied off the fates of the bombers -- J.B. died of cancer in San Quentin and his brother, John, died a free man and labor organizer the same year, 1941.
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I thought the same thing about Erik Larson's books, thinking it was one of his works. I opted not to read this one though.
