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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun ride, but lots of negatives, August 21, 2007
I was torn between giving this book 4 stars or only 3. There are lots of negatives that distracted me from really enjoying this book, but, when I got to the end, I realized that it was worth the read.
I won't describe the plot - plenty of others have done that, and the book's summary is sufficient. Suffice it to say that the plot itself is one of the book's weaknesses: other reviewers mentioned the coincidences that forced me to suspend disbelief over and over again, but I think, as the book progresses, you get so used to these coincidences that it doesn't matter. In the end, the book is a kind of fairy tale, and coincidence is essential for such stories.
What bothered me most, however, is the author's need to flex his historical muscles at every turn. He clearly did lots of research, and wants to make sure you know it. He almost uses Tom Swifties - bits of exposition that go overboard to explain what he's presented - when tossing around "authentic" elements from the time. Inventions, clothing, food, and anything else he can present, Andersen keeps reminding us that he did his homework. Yet this ends up more distracting than if he simply mentioned these things in passing, or, rather, _didn't_ mention them all.
I read a lot of 19th century fiction, and Heyday does fit well into that style (though clearly it is contemporary, ie 21st century, 19th century fiction.) It's a fun read, full of interesting characters, and only a few tics mar its overall effect.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heyday is a big,brawny, sexy, violent panoramic look at America in 1848, April 3, 2007
Novelist Kurt Andersen has hit the jackpot with "Heyday." This big book
(over 600 pages) turns the page of history back to that pivotal year of 1848. Steam was replacing sail in shipping; telegraph wires were buzzing; Womens' Rights activitist were meeting at Seneca Falls, New York and the California Gold Rush was pushing the new nation westward to the Pacific Ocean. Charles Darwin was challenging traditional biblical beliefs regarding creation; France and other European nations were embroiled in mass revolts in which the poor cried for justice and the Victorian world was moving into the modern industrial world as seen in the huge factories of Manchester and Birmingham. America was a big adolescent as ethnic groups fought loved and were learning to co-exist in the land of the free and home of the brave!
Giants were walking the American and world stage. In the USA there was Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. Edgar Poe was a popular lecturer and author. Elizabeth Cady Stanton a champion for Womens' Rights while Frederick Douglass demanded the slaves be freed. Such men as John Charles Fremont were opening up California to statehood through their pioneering efforts. In Europe it was the time of Marx and Engles. Great English authors such as Charles Dickens were in their prime. The novel alludes to a stage work of "Dombey and Son" evincing the interest on this side of the Atlantic in Mr. Dickens works.
Andersen has read thousands of articles, books and newspapers to take the reader back to this crucial time. He has also written a popular, exciting adventure story featuring murders, prostitutes, army deserters, 49ers, theatrical folk and a vast assemblage of the average citizen of that colorful era. You will learn such arcana from the time as the use of condoms; the effects of cholera epidemics; fashion of the day; how to pan for gold; what Paris, London, New York and San Francisco were like at the time, the rise of Mormonism...the list of what interesting facts you will learn is mind boggling
The fast paced tale begins with the wealthy English aristocrat Benjamin Knowles emigrating to America. He falls in love with a prostitute/actress the beguiling Polly Lucking. We meet her insane pyromaniacal murdering brother Duff Lucking who was a deserter in the Mexican War. We also become acquainted with Timothy Skittles an author of cheap novels, photographer and man about New York town. These three have their lives entwined as together they set out for a new life in the West.
Little do they know that Benjamin and his friends are being pursued by an evil French police officer named Drumont who seeks to murder Benjamin whom he blames for his brother's death in a Paris riot.
Andersen writes best about 1848 life in New York while the part dealing with the California gold rush is a bit slower. Nevertheless this novel is reminiscent of an updated Dickens novel in its character potrayals, mystery and colorful descriptions. It is a fine book which will stand the test of time. You will enjoy it!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Birth of a Century?, June 11, 2007
This is one of the broad scope of 19th century history stories coloring the lives of the family and friends who make up the main characters of the book. It is not really historical fiction, but more in the line of one of the John Jakes type of novel where the characters are witnesses to the birth of modern times rather than the agents of the historical events.
This is an enjoyable tale, but not a book with a definable plot. It would be a great book to make into one of those television mini-series with a "Winning of the West" type of theme. In this story, you follow the adventures of the main characters through a period of not much more than a couple of years when the world was changing. This book takes you from one of the many revolutions (or maybe just revolts) in France through an enlightenment period in England and the growing pains of a growing immigrant population in New York City to the gold fields of California.
There are some spots in the book where the story was somewhat stretched to bring the main characters into contact with famous people or historical events. It is hard for me to fathom that four diverse people at that time in history would be personally acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, Alexis de Tocqueville and John C. Fremont. The four characters consist of the son of a wealthy, titled peer in England, an often fired reporter in New York, an "actress" and her obsessively religious, Mexican War veteran brother. I was sort of expecting the last page of the book would close with "And they lived happily ever after" since there was no real ending to the book,
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