Customer Reviews

American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, and the Birth of Hollywood

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

at 321 pages of text (not counting notes and afterword), there may be just a bit too much going on in this relatively slim book.

some spoiler material ahead - i'll try to minimize it, but it's hard to discuss the book without revealing something of it.

the main story - that of detective Billy Burns chasing down the mad bomber(s), later involving Clarence Darrow - was agreeable enough. author Blum's "bias," alluded to by another reviewer, was nowhere near as prevalent as i'd been led to believe: Otis of the LA Times was, by all accounts, as belligerent and unpleasant as he comes across here, and the union leaders ... well, read the book and you'll see. personal bias in writing will always be there, but the astute reader knows not to read to much into these things (or to accept the word of just one source).

as mentioned, the crime and manhunt aspects of this book went down pretty well. not dinner at a 5-star restaurant, but much better than mcdonald's. my only real question is this: was the inclusion of director DW Griffith even necessary? his connection to Burns would have made for a good walk-on, possibly an introduction to the main story (in the form of an interesting historical footnote), but having read the book as a whole, his presence seems forced. the quote from former president Woodrow Wilson that closes the book - the one about writing history with lightning - seems to be the principle justification for his inclusion, as it's the basis for the book's title. Blum's final argument regarding Griffith - how 'Birth of a Nation' was founded in the class struggle he'd been witness to - seems especially flimsy.

there are better books out there, sure, but not many on this era and subject. Billy Burns, in particular, could do with a current volume or two all his own.

three to three-and-a-half stars. good, readable, might start a person on a course of research into this era, but probably not life changing for many.

I really enjoyed this book. What I loved about it was the fact that it was so engaging and that it made me want to find out more about something I didn't think I had much interest in. I was particularly interested in Darrow. Burns, the detective, is pretty amazing too...but ALL the characters are presented in such a way that made me want to stay with this narrative. The author paints a very realistic picture of the way various social aggregates work interdependently on one another to drive the unfolding of human experience. His focus was L.A. and water, Labor and Corporations, film-making and Hollywood as well as male desire, ambition and human folly and the general national circumstances circa 1910 in America. I was nominally interested in this prior to reading the book - but Blum's craft for storytelling attracted me to want to learn more...I also think I want to read more by this author. Are all his works as good as this one? I think I'll get Gangland. In any case, I highly recommend this to anyone interested in any of the topics listed above, anyone who enjoys seeing exalted craftsmanship in storytelling and/or anyone who enjoys historical narrative.

AMERICAN LIGHTNING propones the "crime of the century" (the bombing of the L.A. TIMES building in the early 1910s) to a modern audience. In short, a group of socialists went on a bombing spree in 1910 that culminated in the bombing of the TIMES building. The ringleaders of the crime were eventually caught by the famed private detective William J. Burns and their defense was led by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. During the time of the bombing and the trial, D.W. Griffith made movies and became a famous director.

The book is well written, rather informative, and sometimes engaging. I personally enjoyed the story of Billy Burns and his search for the bombing conspirators the best. AMERICAN LIGHTNING jumps from telling Burns story to telling Darrow's story and every once in a while is interrupted by the tale of D.W. Griffith. Darrow's and Burn's stories intersect, but neither really has any connection to Griffith. I originally wanted to read AMERICAN LIGHTNING because I am a huge film buff and love the history of the medium. However, though I enjoyed reading about Griffith's struggles and rise to fame and fortune, it was out of place from the rest of the book. The main focus of the book is the L.A. TIMES bombing trial and I feel AMERICAN LIGHTNING would have been stronger if the author focused on that; the parts about Griffith seem more like the filler a college student uses to expand their term paper to the length needed to get a good grade and though the information is educational, it muddies the central focus.

Blum tries to present a balanced look to the trial, though it's evident from the way he describes the bombers and treats Darrow that he favors them and their cause over that of Billy Burns. It's made clear that Burns was an excellent detective, but AMERICAN LIGHTNING suggests that the central reasons he took the case were for fame and fortune. Those probably were factors in Burns's drive to solve the case, but the primary motive was probably something much more simple and honorable: Burns wanted to get his men and see justice done. He was a better detective than the police and he (and most of America) knew it. Why wouldn't you want the best detective working on the "crime of the century"?

Anyway, I enjoyed reading AMERICAN LIGHTNING, but it wasn't really the book I thought it would be. The story is supposed to be about three famous men from the early 1900s and the reader is led to believe that they all met. Though they did meet after the trial was over, it was in passing and not the climax the book builds it up to be (there's a reason this meeting is the epilogue). The stories of Burns, Darrow, and Griffith are all fascinating, but the inclusion of Griffith seems unnecessary. I'd recommend AMERICAN LIGHTNING for those interested in early 1900 American history, those interested in 20th century crime in America, and those who have any interest in the three featured characters of the book: Burns, Darrow, or Griffith.

Not a lot to add to some of the other critical reviews of this book as I agree that the Burns/Griffith/Otis narrative was scattershot and made for a lot of extraneous material.

One point I have not seen in other reviews that I would expound upon is Blum's clear bias, which - for me - made the book less enjoyable from the beginning. The central conflict in Blum's set-up is the labor versus capital tension that escalated from striking and strike breaking to the bombing that serves as the book's central narrative.

As he lays out this conflict, he is unsparing in his criticism of Otis, his trade association and his allies. While they are "uncompromising," the LA Times' writing is "shrill and unyielding," and their actions to break strikes are "brutal." By contrast, the union leaders are possessed of "strident minds," Griffith's work embodies "the workingman's struggle to put a loaf of bread on his dinner table." Where Otis is "intransigent" and "belligerent," union leader Olaf Tveitmoe is "fierce," "formidable," and "intellectual."

But, that is just one element. Overall, there are just much better reads out there unless you really want to hone in on this crime, this city, or these historical figures.

In fiction or in historical nonfiction, I would look elsewhere for a capsule of this rocky time period at the turn of the century, only forty years removed from the Civil War and in the midst of America's fitful rise to the global power that it would cement in WWII. There is no shortage of good material in what has been a fertile historical period for literature recently.

Mike Dash's work is superior on true crime - as is Larson's in both Devil and Thunderstruck. Many of the social dynamics here explored were better studied in Watson's Sacco and Vanzetti.

Daniel Stashower's The Beautiful Cigar Girl takes a similiar celebrity artist/true crim connection, mining a real-life NY murder and Edgar Allan Poe's fictionalization to much more dramatic result.

In fiction, Lehane's The Given Day is a Boston-based look at the same period and in many ways the same idiom.

I thought this book was interesting, but never quite got THAT involved in it. I felt the substance was worthy, but the author was lacking.