 |
“In Swerling's fourth Old New York novel, the Devreys and the Turners forge new alliances as their city and their rivalry evolve.”
“It's 1833 and Samuel Devrey has made an advantageous marriage with beautiful heiress Carolina Randolf. But his heart belongs to Mei-Hua, whom he married three years earlier in a Chinese ceremony not recognized under New York law. Samuel bought Mei-Hua as a toddler from her father, a river pirate in Canton, and had her brought up in New York as a Chinese lady, complete with musical training and, most important to Sam, bound feet. Carolina disgusts him, mainly because of her intact feet. When he's not in Mei-Hua's bower in China Village on Cherry Street, where wily nursemaid Ah Chee guards her, Sam plots to regain control of Devrey Shipping (lost by his profligate father Lansing) by building the world's fastest clipper ship and wresting the China trade, including opium, from John Jacob Astor. Meanwhile, surgeon Nick Turner proves himself ahead of the times by performing painless operations using ether and advocating that medical staff wash their hands. Appalled by the squalid conditions at Bellevue Hospital, Nick battles its corrupt administration to secure proper care for patients, aided by his saintly cousin Manon, a nurse. To prevent Sam from gaining control of Carolina's inheritance, her father Wilbur alters his estate plan; after he dies, the ruined Sam retreats to Cherry Street and succumbs to opium addiction. Carolina sets up housekeeping with secret soul mate Nick, takes over Devrey Shipping and realizes Sam's dreams with the speedy and profitable clipper Hell Witch. A gangster usurps Sam's power in China Village, and Mei Lin, his daughter with Mei-Hua, must make a terrible choice to protect her mother. Avoiding plot-slowing chunks of exposition, Swerling skillfully interweaves background information about the territorial and socioeconomic transformation of Gotham's landscape.”
“Sure to fascinate even readers who don't know 'up-the-town' from 'down-the-town.'”
Kirkus Reviews
top |
 |
“Swerling sets her enthralling follow-up to City of Dreams against the backdrop of the War of 1812, when New Yorkers are suffering the dire economic effects of a British blockade of American ports, and talk of secession is rife. In Manhattan, the wealthy and unscrupulous trader Gornt Blakeman is the leader of the secessionist schemers. Blakeman's nemesis, and Swerling's larger-than-life hero, is surgeon and patriot Joyful Patrick Turner. Having lost a hand to a British cannonball earlier in the war, Joyful returns to Manhattan to start over as a "Canton trader." When Blakeman tries to rally New Yorkers to secede and kidnaps Joyful's sweetheart, the comely and headstrong Manon Vionne, Joyful races to expose Blakeman's treachery and rescue Manon from his clutches. Swerling's swashbuckling tale brings old Manhattan vividly to life, throbbing with restless energy and populated with a diverse and intriguing cast of characters: both real (John Jacob Astor) and richly imagined. Fans of historical fiction and those interested in the early history of Manhattan will enjoy this evocative and entertaining saga.”
Publishers Weekly
“In this smartly executed, highly entertaining sequel to City of Dreams, Swerling continues tracing the physical, social, and moral development of Manhattan through the stories of the fictional Turner and Devrey families. Nearly all the action occurs over 10 days in mid-August 1814, a critical period during America's "second war of independence." The numerous characters, all fascinating and distinct, include a mulatto brothel owner, a sly merchant prince, an Irish ship's captain, and a devious young widow, not to mention John Jacob Astor himself. At their center is Joyful Patrick Turner, a multilingual trader, businessman, and ex-surgeon who sets out to preserve the family shipping company, save his country from secessionists, and win the hand of Manon Vionne, a jeweler's lovely daughter, in the bargain. As the characters scheme among themselves, hoping to leave their mark on the growing city, the plot fairly gallops along, and historical-novel fans will relish the bountiful period details of old New York. The perfect antidote for readers who mistakenly believe American history is either boring or unromantic.”
Booklist
“Beverly Swerling calls her latest epic about the early history of Manhattan "a novel of war and desire," but it contains a lot more desire than war. In fact, war is pretty far down its list of ingredients -- below pirates, prostitutes, runaway slaves, Chinese gangsters, man-eating rats, kidnappings, riots, rapes, amputations, secret engagements, financial panics, buried treasures and crotchless bloomers. Clearly, if Swerling had been my history teacher, I would have paid closer attention. .
City of Glory takes place some 35 years after the setting of her earlier novel about the American Revolution, City of Dreams. Now the young nation is facing its first international crisis: the War of 1812, a series of skirmishes with Britain and Canada that challenges the Republic's survival from within and without. In addition to being America's most poorly named conflict, the War of 1812 (which actually lasted until 1814) is also its most poorly remembered. Swerling will not do much to correct that problem. As she confesses in an afterword, "The history in this book is true -- except for the bit I made up." That "bit," as it turns out, is the central plot, but there's so much blood, sex and intrigue here that only the dustiest academics could object.
Our hero is a dashing young doctor named Joyful Patrick Turner, who lost his left hand during a naval battle against the British on Lake Erie. Although he managed to sew up his own stump, carry injured sailors, and conduct life-saving operations as the cannonballs flew, he has returned to Manhattan convinced that there's no future for a one-handed surgeon. Instead, he throws himself into the lucrative China trade, but that puts him in direct competition with a ruthless businessman named Gornt Blakeman, who plans to corner the trade himself. . Blakeman's ambitions are even more sinister: Backed by a goon squad of Manhattan butchers, he plans to exploit widespread discontent with "Madison's war" and install himself as king of a secessionist government, a cure for "this madness called democracy.".
But wait, there's more: He's secretly acquired the largest diamond in the world, with which he can buy recognition from the emperor of Austria. All that stands between a Gornt dictatorship and the survival of these United States is the red, white and blue patriotism of a one-handed surgeon. But saving the Union isn't the only thing that makes Joyful joyful: He's also wooing the daughter of the city's best jeweler and sleeping with a prosperous madam named Delight Higgins. (... In one scene they have sex on a balcony overlooking the gaming tables.)
These private and national escapades play out in a great swirl of plots and counter-plots, with everyone spying on everyone else, crossing and double-crossing, gossiping and tattling. Several irresistible female characters struggle to survive and thrive with the meager tools at their disposal, while slaves and freed slaves. negotiate the deadly terms of their existence as best they can. A few real-life characters make appearances, too, particularly a crafty millionaire named John Jacob Astor, who pulls the nation's purse strings from "a chair carved to look like a snarling tiger" in his imposing mansion, which is staffed by Manhattan's only Chinese residents.
Periodically, the story breaks away to the British advance on the Federal District in the recently drained swamp we now call home. Just before the Redcoats burn the Executive Mansion to the ground, Dolley Madison retreats with the president's dishes and curtains with such dignity that you'll either laugh or start belting out "The Star-Spangled Banner." Which is pretty much the way you'll feel throughout this riotously entertaining novel. Joyful's old cousin reminds him, "It wasn't pretty getting to independency," but in Swerling's hands, it's awfully fun hanging on to it.
”
Washington Post
top |
