cjeanne99's review against another edition
4.0
Entertaining audio book, thank you Fred Berman, that tells the story of the first 100 plus years of Chicago. Starting with a chess game at Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable's home - moving through the early settlements and settlers. The lives and voices of multiple early Chicagoans are shared - Carr paints a picture of the wide variety of characters who shaped the formation of the city.
I was struck by the question posed in the later part of the book - what would Chicago be like if John Kinzie had honored the agreement with du Sable about the chess game? Would Chicago be a more caring, honest and forthright city? Is the Chicago "norm" of relying on trading favors and making progress only by cutting deals - a norm that was developed because of John Kinzie's untrustworthy behavior in the early days of Chicago? He started the trend - and we continue to follow it
I was struck by the question posed in the later part of the book - what would Chicago be like if John Kinzie had honored the agreement with du Sable about the chess game? Would Chicago be a more caring, honest and forthright city? Is the Chicago "norm" of relying on trading favors and making progress only by cutting deals - a norm that was developed because of John Kinzie's untrustworthy behavior in the early days of Chicago? He started the trend - and we continue to follow it
abeanbg's review against another edition
4.0
Big-hearted, brawling, grand, intimate, inquisitive, and full of judgment - this is a novel that captures the dynamic of Chicago in its madcap first century of existence. Carr's novel, which is structured as a series of interlocking short stories, scratches an itch I have long had for good historical fiction set in Chicago's past. It's not quite E.L. Doctorow or Hillary Mantel, but what is? This wonderful re-mythologizing of how a prairie swamp became the city of the century is instantly one of my go-to recommendations for books about my city.
dreesreads's review against another edition
4.0
I had a galley of this 2019 release, and I got overwhelmed and bogged down, and then had a little reading slump. I finally got to it, and I'm so glad I did.
In this novel Carr tells the story of the first hundred years of Chicago, framed around the supposed 1902 "Alternative History of Chicago" by one Milton Winshop and a variety of "primary sources". He starts with the mulatto first settler of Echicagou, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable--who, we know, really was the first settler of Chicago, but the idea being in 1902 this was "alternative".
Carr goes on to tell his story through a mix of people--Potowatomies, original settlers, immigrants, boosters, transplants from the East, laborers, engineers, aldermen, builders, men, women, children. We see some children grow up, immigrants find their calling, residents suffer and succeed. Some of the characters are real people, others are fictional representations. They occasionally interact--and honestly this can be a little confusing as vastly different characters come and go and you jump forward in time. But I love this kind of structure. It is sweeping, it is disjointed and choppy and you get a picture of so many different kinds of people. I kept reminding myself "THIS IS FICTION"--I also tend to be annoyed by books that use real people to tell fictional stories. I thought he did this well, but where were fictional words put into real peoples' mouths? I'm not sure, and as a historian it bugs me. But I could not stop myself from enjoying this book.
I did wish there was more on the Potowatomies, and I found some of the writing in dialect (of Point du Sable, and one of the Irish brothers) to be a bit much--but I don't often like writing that is made to seem in dialect, it always feels false to me. I also would have liked a character list.
I am amazed that this is a first novel. The complex structure is so well done, it doesn't seem like it. The author is also English--though well traveled and not young.
In this novel Carr tells the story of the first hundred years of Chicago, framed around the supposed 1902 "Alternative History of Chicago" by one Milton Winshop and a variety of "primary sources". He starts with the mulatto first settler of Echicagou, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable--who, we know, really was the first settler of Chicago, but the idea being in 1902 this was "alternative".
Carr goes on to tell his story through a mix of people--Potowatomies, original settlers, immigrants, boosters, transplants from the East, laborers, engineers, aldermen, builders, men, women, children. We see some children grow up, immigrants find their calling, residents suffer and succeed. Some of the characters are real people, others are fictional representations. They occasionally interact--and honestly this can be a little confusing as vastly different characters come and go and you jump forward in time. But I love this kind of structure. It is sweeping, it is disjointed and choppy and you get a picture of so many different kinds of people. I kept reminding myself "THIS IS FICTION"--I also tend to be annoyed by books that use real people to tell fictional stories. I thought he did this well, but where were fictional words put into real peoples' mouths? I'm not sure, and as a historian it bugs me. But I could not stop myself from enjoying this book.
I did wish there was more on the Potowatomies, and I found some of the writing in dialect (of Point du Sable, and one of the Irish brothers) to be a bit much--but I don't often like writing that is made to seem in dialect, it always feels false to me. I also would have liked a character list.
I am amazed that this is a first novel. The complex structure is so well done, it doesn't seem like it. The author is also English--though well traveled and not young.
allisonbsk's review against another edition
2.0
Oh my, what to say, where to begin. I have very mixed feelings with this book.
On one hand- Well, it took me a very long time to get into this book. I found the flow of it to be rather choppy and just too many characters to keep straight. I thought about making a flow chart for myself at one point, it was that confusing, as we'd meet a character and then see that name again many pages later and have to remember why that name sounded familiar- that got tedious. The mention of "excerpts" and "sources cited" and the idea that this was all "taken from a book written by a professor" was very disorienting for me, as this was still all a fictionalized history, and an alternative one at that (whatever that means- I'm still not clear, not knowing my history very well I felt like an idiot and at a huge disadvantage honestly- not a nice feeling while reading)- this was simply too much for my brain to handle on top of everything else and instead of adding to the story, truly muddled it for me. Which was it- the author's book or the professor's book or what? I just really didn't "get it." Who was "I" in the end? The professor? Some other person? The author? I didn't like having to work that hard to really understand what was going on and appreciate the novel.
On the other hand- this was a major feat of a book and actually rather interesting, in theory. Once I got somewhat more into the book and invested in it, I did appreciate the craft and literary feat behind this novel. It was interestingly done, that's for sure, and the stories woven together were well told, if a little confusing. I eventually came to enjoy the game of seeing when a character might pop up again and how they were related to other characters recently seen. The lives of the characters intersected in fun ways. I finally figured out the flow of the novel as a whole a little better, too, and that helped me anticipate things and look forward to reading a little more. It just took a lot of work to get to this point.
I would never have read this book if it weren't for my book club and I truly hope my book club will actually try to read this because I sure worked hard at it (I don't see this as their sort of book at all, however), but mostly because, in the end, I could appreciate the work behind the novel through the creatively and cleverly woven stories. I did find myself wondering, as poor as my historical knowledge is, what did actually happen and which characters were really real, so the book did incite my interest in learning more about Chicago history. I wanted a detailed author's note at the end and was frustrated not to get that, I wanted some clarification within all my hard work. Now I'm off to set this book against some real info...or WILL it be real or just SOMEone's perspective? That, I think, is the point.
On one hand- Well, it took me a very long time to get into this book. I found the flow of it to be rather choppy and just too many characters to keep straight. I thought about making a flow chart for myself at one point, it was that confusing, as we'd meet a character and then see that name again many pages later and have to remember why that name sounded familiar- that got tedious. The mention of "excerpts" and "sources cited" and the idea that this was all "taken from a book written by a professor" was very disorienting for me, as this was still all a fictionalized history, and an alternative one at that (whatever that means- I'm still not clear, not knowing my history very well I felt like an idiot and at a huge disadvantage honestly- not a nice feeling while reading)- this was simply too much for my brain to handle on top of everything else and instead of adding to the story, truly muddled it for me. Which was it- the author's book or the professor's book or what? I just really didn't "get it." Who was "I" in the end? The professor? Some other person? The author? I didn't like having to work that hard to really understand what was going on and appreciate the novel.
On the other hand- this was a major feat of a book and actually rather interesting, in theory. Once I got somewhat more into the book and invested in it, I did appreciate the craft and literary feat behind this novel. It was interestingly done, that's for sure, and the stories woven together were well told, if a little confusing. I eventually came to enjoy the game of seeing when a character might pop up again and how they were related to other characters recently seen. The lives of the characters intersected in fun ways. I finally figured out the flow of the novel as a whole a little better, too, and that helped me anticipate things and look forward to reading a little more. It just took a lot of work to get to this point.
I would never have read this book if it weren't for my book club and I truly hope my book club will actually try to read this because I sure worked hard at it (I don't see this as their sort of book at all, however), but mostly because, in the end, I could appreciate the work behind the novel through the creatively and cleverly woven stories. I did find myself wondering, as poor as my historical knowledge is, what did actually happen and which characters were really real, so the book did incite my interest in learning more about Chicago history. I wanted a detailed author's note at the end and was frustrated not to get that, I wanted some clarification within all my hard work. Now I'm off to set this book against some real info...or WILL it be real or just SOMEone's perspective? That, I think, is the point.
melissadeemcdaniel's review
4.0
Make me a City is a sprawling, raucous, noisy novel set in the early years of Chicago. Told through the lens of the founding father Pointe du Sable and his descendants, “City” delves the depths of the striving, ambitious, often criminal but always energetic stories of the first inhabitants of the city on the prairie.
I loved the way story kept returning to the family of du Sable. In every generation, the history kept returning to the lie that formed the founding story, and its reverberations through the years.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I loved the way story kept returning to the family of du Sable. In every generation, the history kept returning to the lie that formed the founding story, and its reverberations through the years.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
More...