Customer Reviews

Signal & Noise: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There is so much packed in this gripping novel: the laying of the transatlanitc cable, the failed launch of the Great Eastern (the world's largest ship at the time); The Civil War, Karl Marx!, the story of a crumbling family in the wake of a child's sudden death, the dawn of the Technological Age, and great, powerful (Dickensian even) writing. I bought this for Memorial Day weekend and finished this morning. Couldn't put it down. Best book I've read since The Corrections.

Signal and Noise is a sprawling novel that follows the lives of a handful of characters for roughly a decade during the mid-19th century. All of the figures on whom Griesemer focuses are somehow involved, whether directly or indirectly, in the various attempts made during that period to lay the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. The book's principal character, to the extent that it has one, is Chester Ludlow, the chief engineer of the Atlantic Cable Company and the genius behind the paying-out mechanism that will, it is hoped, prevent the cable from breaking while it is unspooling. Chester's wife Franny, still grieving from the accidental death of their young daughter, and his fragile brother Otis are also central to the story.

Griesemer's book, nearly 600 pages long, covers a lot of ground--not only the cable and the wave of progress of which it was a part, but also the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination, spiritualism, the stinking sewers of London, and the building of the world's largest ship (at the time), the Great Eastern. The book is a historical narrative, but it is not at all clear from the text how historically accurate it is, or which of the characters if any were historical figures. An author's note ought to be added to clarify matters.

Griesemer's novel is not enthralling, or at least not obviously so. Indeed, it is downright slow at times. Yet perhaps two-thirds of the way through it becomes clear that the author has created a world, or described a world, that will have staying power in your imagination. The book does not demand your attention in the way that a thriller does, but it does, by the end, have a claim on you.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

it's always a pleasure to jump into a book that decides to take on so much. In this case, the laying of the transatlantic cable, the Civil War, the sewage plight of London, the spiritualist fad, and then more personally, grief over the death of a child, failed marriages, falls from a height, and more. There is a wealth of plot and an even greater wealth of character and Griesemer succeeds in handling it all with ease and aplomb. The history and technological details are interesting in their own right, but they never overshadow the characters and their own stories. Griesemer takes his time in this work and therefore everything that happens to these characters, everything that serves to make us laugh or moves us or surprises us is earned. In such a large, sprawling work it would have been easy to have entire sections weaker than others, but that is not the case. The book holds at a high level from beginning to end. One of the best reads I've had this year.

If this book doesn't manage to get out there reach the many many many MANY lovers of inventive, vividly written fiction...well, it's yet another crime of the marketplace. The writing is superb - both beautiful and direct - and the story itself is wonderfully transporting, like curling up with Dickens, or with a great film of a great Dickens book. I also think 'Ragtime', only with a larger canvas. There are all sorts of thematic things going on here that are fun to ponder as you read...but to spell them out in a quicky review like this would likely make them seem ponderous. Ponderous this book is not. It's a great escape.

While I'm here, let me plug the author's first book as well - No One Thinks of Greenland - wholly different in style and feel from S&N, but equally rewarding in originality. No...even more rewarding in originialty. Talk this guy up. We want writers like this to thrive.

Few things satisfy like a well-written, engrossing, factually dense historical novel. As a lover of both history and fiction, I find such books scratch two itches simultaneously, making the history far more memorable by being told through clever story, and assuaging one's guilt for reading novels (as opposed to, say, mowing the lawn) with the self-explanation (or is it delusion) that one is really learning something.

John Griesemer's Signal and Noise, a novel about the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable in the 1850's and 1860's fits the bill nicely. Greieser nicely sets forth both the technology and finances (much of the plot follows a sort of circus side-show put together to impress prospective investors), while doing so in the context of mesmerism, illicit loves, the American Civil War, and derring-do. Gresemer manages a large, but not overwhelming, cast of characters and an extended scope of both time (twenty years) and distance (both England and North America) in a way that both moves the story briskly and explicates his history.

Where Griesemer falls down - and this is not a small frustration - is his failure to provide any sort of "Forward" or "Author's Note" explaining for the reader which characters and events were real, and which were made up for purposes of story and drama. Such omission in a historical novel is close to unforgivable; I do not know whether only his dates are to be trusted (if even those) , whether the cable failed as many times and for the reasons Greisemer's characters suggest, and whether any (or all) of his characters were "real" or based on historical personages. Taken on its face, and without taking into account its "historical" nature, I give Signal and Noise high marks for plot, character and writing. As a purportedly "historical" novel, however, Griesemer's book frustratingly leaves more questions than answers.

I couldn't b elieve I could be so captivated by what is considedred to be an "epic" novel. I just want to say that the characters were fully drawn, I cared so much about them, the adventures were awesome, and the writing was exceptional. I f you want a book to savor over a period of time, just go ahead and enjoy Signals & Noise....truly terrific.

As a fan of historical fiction, I felt this book effectively told the history of the laying of the transAtlantic cable (an amazing technological feat) while integrating a fictional tale that held my interest. It took a number of pages to pull me in but isn't that what the best books do? I worry that in this MTV age everything has to grab you fast and let you go just as quickly. One of the reasons I read is to get transported to another time and place and this book does that effectively. Take a look at his first novel as well. Completely different and fascinating in its own way.

I like others here, tired of this book early. But after reading some of the glowing reviews I persevered and plodded my way through, much like the Great Eastern did. I am relieved that monumental task is behind me now. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but I really don't feel like I know the true motivations of any of the characters in the book, except maybe Spude. What happened to Whitehouse? Why even, was Marx ever mentioned? What drew Trace to love a whore he met in a tunnel?Don't know, don't know, don't know. With all the detail of the cable, I would like to know how much money they made on it. Not a book I would reccommend

Note to Terence: Sure you can drop a book after 75 pages...but can you really condemn it? I wrote my review when not quite halfway through the book and now that I'm three quarters of the way through all I can say is that I really am not looking forward to its ending and to my then having to locate a book to replace it. This author is keeping the plates spinning with grace and style and wit...and verve. They will only fall when he wants them to fall. A great read

If this book doesn't manage to get out there reach the many many many MANY lovers of inventive, vividly written fiction...well, it's yet another crime of the marketplace. The writing is superb - both beautiful and direct - and the story itself is wonderfully transporting, like curling up with Dickens, or with a great film of a great Dickens book. I also think 'Ragtime', only with a larger canvas. There are all sorts of thematic things going on here that are fun to ponder as you read...but to spell them out in a quicky review like this would likely make them seem ponderous. Ponderous this book is not. It's a great escape.

While I'm here, let me plug the author's first book as well - No One Thinks of Greenland - wholly different in style and feel from S&N, but equally rewarding in originality. No...even more rewarding in originialty. Talk this guy up. We want writers like this to thrive.