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A review by serinde4books
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
3.0
This is the January book for my book club NNCC. I listened to the book on audio, and as plus the narrator did a good job, in fact my kids listened to parts and liked it too.
This is the story of the famous lawsuit between Edison and Westinghouse over who invented the light bulb, and the reality that it was about much more than a simple patent, it was about the future of electricity as we know it. It is set in New York in 1888; George Westinghouse hires Paul Cravath fresh out of Columbia Law School to be his lawyer on the billion dollar lawsuit between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.
The book was good; I liked the dynamics and the writing style. I knew a little about the historical figures, especially the rivalry between Edison and Tesla because my Ex was fascinated by Tesla and had both told me a lot about him and I had read some of Tesla's papers and biography. I liked the main character Paul and how in the end everything wrapped up nicely, I suspect if this had been more fact than historical fiction it may not have been quite so smooth, life rarely is. I liked that there was enough fact in the fiction to make the story feel authentic and I don't feel like Moore took too much creative license.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com
This is the story of the famous lawsuit between Edison and Westinghouse over who invented the light bulb, and the reality that it was about much more than a simple patent, it was about the future of electricity as we know it. It is set in New York in 1888; George Westinghouse hires Paul Cravath fresh out of Columbia Law School to be his lawyer on the billion dollar lawsuit between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.
The book was good; I liked the dynamics and the writing style. I knew a little about the historical figures, especially the rivalry between Edison and Tesla because my Ex was fascinated by Tesla and had both told me a lot about him and I had read some of Tesla's papers and biography. I liked the main character Paul and how in the end everything wrapped up nicely, I suspect if this had been more fact than historical fiction it may not have been quite so smooth, life rarely is. I liked that there was enough fact in the fiction to make the story feel authentic and I don't feel like Moore took too much creative license.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com