A review by ury949
The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert
2.0
The setting is this book's redeeming quality and what made it worth finishing. 1889 Omaha World's Fair: there's rich folks and poor, ruthless spending, politics, grand glittering buildings with secret doors for the street rats to stay out of sights. Theater troops with crafted costumes, ruffles, glittering crushed glass, dredging skirts, animal bones, face paint. They drink, deceive, divine, pick pockets, protest, and yet they all have hearts and make the heart of the fair; it is so fun to imagine every stinking corner of it.
Otherwise this is a tragic love story that's too thin for the tragedy to really take hold. The last third is especially long when Ferret lets his life scatter, the reader, similarly, begins to not really care any more. At some point about halfway through, I realized that nothing was going to work out, really, and if it did, it wouldn't be because Ferret deserved it in any way, and no great plot twist really pulled the story out of that doldrum. Sorry for that disappointing review, but if you do read this story, read it for the beautifully rich fair scenes, it made me want to be there.
Otherwise this is a tragic love story that's too thin for the tragedy to really take hold. The last third is especially long when Ferret lets his life scatter, the reader, similarly, begins to not really care any more. At some point about halfway through, I realized that nothing was going to work out, really, and if it did, it wouldn't be because Ferret deserved it in any way, and no great plot twist really pulled the story out of that doldrum. Sorry for that disappointing review, but if you do read this story, read it for the beautifully rich fair scenes, it made me want to be there.