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A review by jackalope_tale
London by Edward Rutherfurd
4.0
I read Rutherford's novel, New York, several years ago and greatly enjoyed it so when I found a copy of London in the Little Free Library by my place I was excited to read it. I was not disappointed either! Just like New York, London is incredibly well researched, the accuracy of the historical timeline and descriptions are rich and thorough. Not that this book reads like a tedious middle school textbook, far from it. The richness of the historical details serves as the perfect backdrop for the interweaving tales gof family lines that go back thousands of years.
I found the earliest years (pre-Elizabethan Era) to be the best in terms of narrative storytelling. This is probably due to there being comparatively recorded details which would dictate how these versions of London and Londoners would have looked and behaved. Rutherford had the freedom to imagine the scenes of this time, and he does a beautiful job of both painting rich literary pictures of the people and their relationships from these early centuries.
This does not mean that the later time periods (beginning with the Elizabethan Era) are lacking in narrative energy, instead, while Rutherford's characters and events will probably become more familiar to readers, the author leverages the increase in historical knowledge in order to create longer and more complex storylines.
As with anything of this scale, there are areas of weakness. Certain periods (different time periods tend to span one chapter, although there are some exceptions with some periods, such as the Elizabethan and the Victorian, which span more than one due to the breadth of content) come off s formulaic. For example, the characters of the Georgian period/chapter are little more than tropes and the storyline seemed rather reminiscent of a romance novel at times. There all only about 2 or 3 periods or segments that read this way, as if they are included for the sake of continuity and historical accuracy, which is impressive for a project of this size.
While almost all of the characters are crafted so that a reader can recall them when coming across pieces of their lives in a later chapter, perhaps the greatest character of all is fate. No matter the action, no matter the reasoning, no matter class, nationality or race, it is clear that in Rutherford's world all actions will bring an equal or opposite reaction whether the next day, the next year, or the next generation. In London, the reader is taught that fate misses nothing and we would all be smart to remember she is a very clever and patient arbitrator of both justice and revenge.
I found the earliest years (pre-Elizabethan Era) to be the best in terms of narrative storytelling. This is probably due to there being comparatively recorded details which would dictate how these versions of London and Londoners would have looked and behaved. Rutherford had the freedom to imagine the scenes of this time, and he does a beautiful job of both painting rich literary pictures of the people and their relationships from these early centuries.
This does not mean that the later time periods (beginning with the Elizabethan Era) are lacking in narrative energy, instead, while Rutherford's characters and events will probably become more familiar to readers, the author leverages the increase in historical knowledge in order to create longer and more complex storylines.
As with anything of this scale, there are areas of weakness. Certain periods (different time periods tend to span one chapter, although there are some exceptions with some periods, such as the Elizabethan and the Victorian, which span more than one due to the breadth of content) come off s formulaic. For example, the characters of the Georgian period/chapter are little more than tropes and the storyline seemed rather reminiscent of a romance novel at times. There all only about 2 or 3 periods or segments that read this way, as if they are included for the sake of continuity and historical accuracy, which is impressive for a project of this size.
While almost all of the characters are crafted so that a reader can recall them when coming across pieces of their lives in a later chapter, perhaps the greatest character of all is fate. No matter the action, no matter the reasoning, no matter class, nationality or race, it is clear that in Rutherford's world all actions will bring an equal or opposite reaction whether the next day, the next year, or the next generation. In London, the reader is taught that fate misses nothing and we would all be smart to remember she is a very clever and patient arbitrator of both justice and revenge.