Customer Reviews

Dizzy City: A Novel

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

 

 

Just because Griffin's latest is set in New York City doesn't mean it doesn't have war on its mind. Most of the fiction I've read set during the First World War locates itself directly in the trenches, but Griffin is looking at different aspects of the war.

He takes a deserter, puts him down in Manhattan and then looks at the world of arms dealers and high society earners through the lens of a low-down gang of semi-sophisticated con artists. I say semi-sophisticated because every time you think one of them is up to something sharp, the plot will turn and you'll figure out there's a more aggressive shark swimming close by.

Old-fashioned, enjoyable, page-turning story-telling, a meeting of `The Sting' and `All Quiet on the Western Front', this is a fast and absorbing read. The characters - especially Ben Cramb, unforgettably intense and compelling - combine with the exciting plot and exotic locale to provide the best New York historical fiction for decades - more literary than "Billy Bathgate", more exciting than "The Alienist".

"Dizzy City" is the first novel I've read by Nicholas Griffin and it proved to be a fine story, indeed. Set during the First World War, it follows a shifting cast of shifty characters, each determined to perpetuate the big con. No one is quite who he seems to be, which makes the set pieces of historical perspective even more striking in their verisimilitude.

Griffin writes a tight narrative, using short passages and a changing third person point of view that eventually allows the readers to understand (and even empathize) with all of the principals in "Dizzy City."

This turned out to be a real find--a page-turner with literary and historical weight.

This is a top notch novel, and Griffin, like a fine wine that Ben Cramb might use to seduce a mark, gets better and better as the years go by. As in all his books, the characterisations are fantastically strong but in Dizzy City you really sense that a huge amount of thought has got into each plot twist and turn. You will want to take your time reading Dizzy City. It's worth savouring every page, as it's that good. Let's hope that we don't have another four years to wait for Griffin's next effort. It's too much to expect him to bang out a book of this quality every nine months a la Lee Child,Stuart Woods or Tomas Otto but there's a shortage of historical novelists with his range and talent.

A shifting plot is common enough in the world of con games, but what makes Dizzy City stand apart is both the structure and the characters. First, this is a real entertainer of a book. You keep one eye on one character, only to find you've been looking in the wrong direction and then it twists again. But Griffin succeeds in letting you get to know the three different narrators: a war veteran and deserter who's so damaged he doesn't even know it, a con man with a twenty year old grudge, and a woman who may or may not be playing every man in the book. They're all involved with one another in 1916 New York and we get to travel with them through the grubby Bowery, Coney Island and into fancy hotel rooms and summer houses where they go scouting for the wealth that they're all after. But this being a twisty book, the war that the central character has escaped, has a funny way of never quite letting him go. It's a pacy, intriguing story and as a frequent NY visitor, I got a kick out of reconsidering the city I thought I knew.

Nicholas Griffin writes a cagey, twisty page-turner about a wounded British soldier, Ben Cramb, who deserts in 1916. He stows away on a freighter that ends up in New York City and soon beefs up his rudimentary grifting skills under the tutelage of one Julius McAteer. The two artfully "rope" a fellow by the name of Henry Jergins, and soon the reader is swept into a dexterous web of deceit, retribution, and wartime munitions intrigue. In succession, shell-shocked Ben, flamboyant dresser Henry, a beautiful stage actress called Katherine Howells, and then Ben again, relate the stings in progress. As they do, they each also clue us into their colorful pasts.

DIZZY CITY builds several times to the climax and then recedes backward in time with another character's perspective. This technique both spurs the reader and induces a trace of irritation at the manipulating delay. When the denouement, based on an actual act of sabotage, finally takes center stage, it does so under the guise of Ben's post-traumatic, dreamy/nightmarish, spluttering perception. Readers will have to decide for themselves whether this is great atmospheric writing or more confusing than it ought to be.

Some twists in the story can be guessed beforehand, but all in all, Griffin presents a historical novel that grips the reader not only for its creative cons and war conscience; but for the rogues it brings to life and for the unsentimental, yet sympathetic, love stories they fabricate...only to discover intimations of the real thing. [4.5 stars]

I picked this book up because I'm interested in New York City around the time of World War I and hoped to find some great period detail in its pages -- that and I love a good con artist story. It opens with the harrowing story of Ben Cramb, a London lad who joined the Army with his tearaway pals in order to avoid prison. As with so many others in the trenches, disaster finds them quickly enough and only Ben survives to escape the war as a deserter, ending up in New York. There, suffering somewhat from PTSD, he falls in with an experienced con artist, and attempts to learn the trade from him as they embark on an elaborate con of a wealthy Midwesterner.

Rather surprisingly, a third of the way into the book the narrative changes to that of the wealthy Midwesterner. He's not at all what he appears to be, and this sudden shift in perspective takes a little while to get used to after having gotten invested in Ben's story. We learn about this man and see Ben and Ben's wily mentor from his perspective as things build to a climax -- only for the story to halt and shift to a third narrator! Now, the story is told by a beautiful actress who is tied to several of the characters, and may actually be the master of them all. The elaborate multi-layered con game plays out against a backdrop of America's neutrality, daily news of the war, war material profiteers, and soforth.

Griffin's decision to halt the action right before the climax, shift perspective to a different narrator, and go back in time is a bold choice, and one I ultimately found to be more of nuisance than worthwhile. Part of the problem may be that he establishes Ben as such a compelling protagonist in the first third that we are loath to leave him for the company of other, less interesting narrators. And when that climax does finally arrive, it is accompanied by an historical event that robs the scene of its drama and sends it into a more ambiguous place. It's not a particularly satisfying finale to all the contortions and machinations that precede it. Nonetheless, the book is worth reading by fans of historical fiction for the careful plotting and keen use of the period.

Dizzy City is the fourth novel by Nicholas Griffin. Mr. Griffin's forte is period pieces and this novel, which takes place during WW1 follows suit. The main focus of the novel is a british con artist who abandons the war after being severly injured and stows away on a ship and goes to New York City. America has not yet entered the war, and the characters that are introduced are just as shady as our English friend. What follows is a tale of con against con, with many surprises. The novel is an interesting one with many unforeseen twists and turns. It is well written, a quick read and well worth your time.

If I could deconstruct "Dizzy City" into the component parts of its story and reconstruct it in a more streamlined novel that's about 150 pages shorter, I might have a four- or even five-star book. But as it is, it's a whole lotta tedium getting in the way of a good adventure caper.

Unlike some other reviewers, I liked the changes in perspective. I was only mildly interested in the book until the perspective changed to Henry Jergens'; suddenly, it had much more depth and intrigue than I'd initially thought. Katherine Howell's layer added even more complexity. However, I'd shave about 50 pages off each of the four separate perspective stories. Katherine's story, especially, is laden with so many unnecessary (and frankly uninteresting) details. And I really got tired of Ben's war flashbacks. A few to build Ben's character, okay. But after the third or so time, Griffin was just beating a dead horse: war is hell and really messes up fragile young minds, I got it already! Back to the story at hand, please! Griffin seemed to be aiming for a cross between "Ragtime" and "Catch Me If You Can," hitting a gray area somewhere in between that blends some of the good, but more of the bad, elements of each book. I don't know if Griffin's other books are as long-winded and tangent-filled as "Dizzy City," but he would be a much better writer if someone could teach him how to write cohesively. I don't mind non-linear narratives; in skilled hands, they're quite compelling and effective. But to pull them off, you've got to have tight writing and a clear direction, both of which Griffin lacks.

I would have to say that the book is rather good. The author dogs a great job of setting up the um...setting.
But it takes awhile for it to get the point, and even then it could have done without the backtracking.

A good book, a good twist, but drags.

Great historical fiction book based on World War I time con-men in NYC. A very fun read that is well written.