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The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

By MelodyLane | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (22)

Devil_in_the_White_City-Chicago_Architecture_Tour_Review.2.jpg

Chicago is a really interesting city. It’s huge, ridiculously so to this small town girl, and beautiful, but with that special something found only in the midwest. Anthony Bourdain has called Chicago the only other true city in America outside of New York. Having recently visited Chicago, I can’t say if that’s true or not. I did fall in love with the city; it’s food (oh Three Little Pigs sandwich, I adore you), the architecture, and the lakeshore.

The Chicago of today is a far cry from the Chicago of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then, Chicago was a dirty, dingy place, full of undesirable industry like the meat packing businesses of Armour, and Swift and Pullman’s train car company. Devil in the White City starts with the bidding for the location of upcoming 1893 World’s Fair Exposition. America dearly wants to prove to the world that they are just as capable of throwing a glamorous event just like the French did with the 1889 World’s Exposition. In a contest decided by the Senate, Chicago bested New York City and Washington, D.C. for the honor of hosting the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The 1893 Columbian Exposition was to mark the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus 400 years earlier. Two young architects were put in charge of transforming a marshy, swampy area on the lake shore into the most glorious fairgrounds ever seen. These men were Daniel Burnham and John Root. They enlisted other architects from Chicago and around America to help make the World’s Fair a success, most prominently Fredrick Law Olmsted. Daniel Burnham, as head of the construction team and fair overseer, is the main character of this portion of the book.

Devil in the White City follows the designing, building, and transformation of a formly undesirable park known as Jackson Park into a beautiful new city known as the “White City.” Many things that we take for granted were first created and sold at the 1893 World’s Fair, including Cracker Jacks and Juicy Fruit gum. The World’s Fair wasn’t all bright and shiny though. There was a darker, more seedy side. The other half of the title, the Devil, refers to one of the most prolific and the first American serial killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes, aka Herman Mudgett. Holmes used the beauty and spectacle of the fair to lure his victims, typically young, lonely, beautiful women to his hotel for the duration of their stays at the Fair. The story of Holmes is disturbing, creepy, and cannot possibly be real.

Devil in the White City is very interesting book. The back and forth between the stories of Daniel Burnham, a honest, hardworking man, and Dr. Holmes, very likely a sociopath, makes for engrossing reading. This was an intelligent, well-written account of one of the most interesting periods in American history and two very interesting men.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. For more of MelodyLane’s reviews, check out her blog, Procrastinating Grad Student.









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Comments

I began reading this book and while I found the history behind the World's Fair interesting, that wasn't what I was hoping to spend a lot of time on. I wanted more information on Holmes and eventually got bored with the turmoil behind the World' Fair. I did find the tidbits about the Ferris Wheel and other innovations interesting. I think I would have enjoyed a book focused only on the Fair or one focused only on Holmes, but not intertwining the two together as this one did. Of course, had I finished the book I might have had the payoff I was looking for.

Great review though!

Posted by: Pinky McLadybits at February 23, 2010 8:22 AM

as a native Chicagoan, thanks for this review! I'm going to check it out, though it sounds a bit uneven. Jackson Park is still very pretty and nicely laid out, but is now a very iffy area. Sad.

Posted by: banana at February 23, 2010 8:41 AM

I also read Devil in White City, and found it fascinating. I agree it was a little jolting going back and forth between the historical elements and the murder mystery. But the book would have suffered by eliminating one or the other. The Fair was the backdrop to the murders, and the story of the twisted Dr. Holmes provided context for what it was like to live (and die) in those times.

Posted by: Mickey at February 23, 2010 8:45 AM

Since I love Chicago, history, and murder mysteries, this book was ideal for me. I loved it so much and felt even more connected to my city as a result.

Posted by: caroline at February 23, 2010 8:50 AM

I really felt like I knew Chicago (a city I've never visited) a lot better after reading this. If you liked the descriptions of the city during the turn of the last century, go check out Crazy '08. It's a baseball book about the 1908 season, but there's a great digression about Chicago that you can easily take in over a cup of coffee at Barnes & Noble (that way you don't have to spring for a book about baseball).

Posted by: sansho1 at February 23, 2010 8:54 AM

i read this and really enjoyed it, but i swear i found out about it on this site.
did someone else review this for cannonball?

Posted by: gem at February 23, 2010 8:57 AM

I think someone suggested this book when we had a comment diversion about scary shit or something. That's how I came to read this book. I think.

Posted by: Pinky McLadybits at February 23, 2010 9:04 AM

Melody, as I recall Larsen actually toned down Holmes' activities. Do a Wikipedia search on him and you'll see what I mean.

Posted by: Jay W. at February 23, 2010 9:07 AM

I just read this for the Cannonball, too, and enjoyed it. I agree that it's very back-and-forth and doesn't transition easily between the construction of the fair and Holmes' depravity, but it's true that you need one to inform the other.

Holmes really freaked me out. But I also kept shaking the pages and yelling when yet another woman he knew would go missing and the police would barely even question him. It's a testament to the fact that Holmes' evil really was something new in the world.

Posted by: vikky at February 23, 2010 9:20 AM

SPOILERS!!!

I kept waiting for Burnham and Holmes to cross paths somewhere along the way, and felt a little cheated that they didn't. Larson tries to make the case that they were both in the same place at the same time, out roaming around all this glory, so they MUST have engaged somewhere, sometime, doing something. But there's no actual proof they did. It's just a historical coincidence.

This seemed to me like two books tied together only because either story by itself wasn't enough to write a book about.

Posted by: , at February 23, 2010 9:34 AM

I really liked this book a lot. I disagree that it should have been two books. I think the ambitious of the World's Fair organizers to build the White City and to attract the world's attention contrasted in a really interesting way with Holmes' bizarre "murder hotel" and his efforts to attract guests/victims. Plus I think it really added shading to what an exciting time that must have been in Chicago.

Posted by: The Wandering Parakeet at February 23, 2010 10:54 AM

I didn't say it SHOULD have been two books. I said it seemed like there were two stories here, but neither one made enough material for an actual book. So he created a full book out of two stories that just happened to be coincident, not because they seem to have any real connection.

Posted by: , at February 23, 2010 11:05 AM

Totally agree with vikky, the stories could have worked together, but Larson's transitions needed more work.

Posted by: Quorren at February 23, 2010 11:09 AM

I have to agree with what a lot of the people have said about the transition between the fair and Holmes being rough and not as smooth as it could be.

Jay, he did to some extent. There is lot of the details of Holmes' activities left untouched, but there is certainly enough detail present. I think more detail of his activities would have overshadowed the Fair.

Commadaddy, I can see how they never would interacted simply because they existed in separate social circles. At that time in history, people did not interact with those who were not in their ranks. Holmes simply did not fit into that level of society. Doing so would have drawn more attention to him, which was something that he simply could not have.

Posted by: Melody at February 23, 2010 11:32 AM

I read this a few years ago, and couldn't get to sleep at night after reading the parts about Holmes.
While I agree a bit with the criticism that it sometimes felt like two separate books pasted together, both of the invidual books would have been interesting and well-written, so the ocassional visible seam didn't bother me too much.

Posted by: ormaisonogrande at February 23, 2010 11:45 AM

H.H. Holmes is totally real. Which is super creepy.

I actually went into the book thinking that the murder mystery would get me through the World's Fair stuff, but actually about halfway through the book I found myself being much more interested in the fate of the ferris wheel than Holmes being murdery and creepy.

The only part that bothered me in terms of connection was the man who shot the mayor (pete something maybe?) he was in like 2 passages of the book and as for as I can remember (I read this in 2007), it wasn't all that important to the plot.

Posted by: buttercup at February 23, 2010 11:53 AM

I loved this book. I agree buttercup--I found myself more interested in the fair's successes/failures than in Holmes' psychopathy. However, both were very compelling. Also, the reason these two stories are part of one book is that they both occurred at the same time, in the same place. They contrasted in their perception (Man's great triumphs v. man's incredible depravity), but were unified in their reality (man's ambition).

Posted by: Hoof Hearted at February 23, 2010 1:14 PM

I read this for Cannonball this year, too. :)

I agree that both of the main stories were compelling, and I agree that Holmes' story might not have been as compelling had it not been set against the backdrop of Burnham's story. But does it immediately follow that both of them needed to be told to the extent that they were in the same book?

I agree with COMMAndo: I expected their paths to cross, considering the way the book was set up. They were connected, but not enough to warrant putting both stories in the same book, IMO. I actually found it jarring to jump from story to story the way Larson did.

The stories were both insanely compelling, but, for me, they didn't fuse very well into a unified work.

Oh, and that stuff about the mayor's assassination was totally random, too. This was a crazy time for ol' Chi-Town.

Posted by: Jelinas at February 23, 2010 2:49 PM

This one's been on my list for a while, and now I'm even more interested in reading it. Thanks for the review.

Posted by: Sophia at February 23, 2010 3:48 PM

SPOILER:

The subplot involving the mayor distracted me quite a bit from the fair and Holmes. While it was incredibly relevant to the time period and actually happened, it seemed out of place in the larger context of the book.

Posted by: Melody at February 23, 2010 4:03 PM

Good review... I'll probably check it out since I used to live in a suburb of Chicago and therefore of very very fond memories of it. It can be the Chicago version of my Alienist.

Posted by: dene at February 23, 2010 5:55 PM

I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly.

Posted by: gyms york pa at March 5, 2011 11:56 PM