Customer Reviews

Aftershocks

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Richard Wheeler's novels are the richest and most humanistic to be found among today's writers of the American West. Aftershocks, a story set in the tumult of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, is reminiscent of Jack London's character-rich tales, such as The Valley of the Moon and Burning Daylight.

I really enjoyed the historical aspects of this book, but I couldn't help but find the characters and situations a bit trite. None of the characters seemed to really come to life and the storyline is a bit predictable.

Known for his character driven historical fiction, Wheeler steps a wee bit over the line of banality in this one. Set during the great fire and earthquake (yes, many locals order it that way) of San Francisco in April 1906, he would have done a lot better with a non fiction novel in the vein of Dan Kurzman's vastly superior "Disaster!"

Wheeler's writing style can veer from either extreme at times, but the real problem with the novel is how he seems to be checking stock characters off of an tv movie cast list. Yes, persons of all backgrounds were affected, but seriously. There is the cuckolded wife with workaholic spouse (who is later shanghied), cute kids that wander into direct disaster, bitter guy in a wheelchair, sick woman optimistic above all else, domestic worker redeemed thru love, etc. etc. I also found the portrayal of Asian Americans to be rather stereotypical. Character development is one thing, but you don't need to milk it and having one character's loose ends resolved by the sudden appearance of another gets really tiring really fast.

With the time he probably spent on research the author could've come up with a much better book. Skip this and read Disaster! instead.

I was facinated by the history in this book, but it made me want to read, well, a history book. There's nothing real or compelling about the characters, and the stories that Wheeler weaves around the earthquake are interesting for their details, but not for their human drama.