August 27, 2009: Page Turners 7 p.m.

Book: Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Discussion:

The Page Turners’ opinions on Thunderstruck, this month’s selection, were very mixed. Of the seventeen group members that attended, seven gave the book a thumbs up vote, two voted down, and six voted sideways. The two remaining members abstained from voting.

The majority of the complaints about the book fit into two categories, detailing and style. Erik Larson is obviously a dedicated and skillful researcher. His extensive notes and bibliography prove this. However, his plethora of detail may have overwhelmed us and thus caused our tepid reaction to the book. One of the first things we discussed was the number of towers Marconi erected in his development of wireless telegraphy and Larson’s recounting of what seemed to be every one of them. If there were in fact more towers than Larson described we were glad we were spared descriptions of their constructions. The many we did read about were quite enough. We did however find their increasing height amusing. I seem to recall one topping out at about 400 feet. We wondered how high the tallest would end up reaching, as Marconi seemed to out do himself in this respect with each additional tower.

Some of us also got a bit bogged down by the amount of science in the book. Perhaps I should have expected more since half the story focuses on an invention, but I had considered the book to be more of the historical crime persuasion. I was therefore, not surprised at science being present in the book, but at the depth of science in the book. I also think most of the group was more interested in the biographical details of Marconi’s invention. We might be hard pressed to explain how Marconi got the device to work, but we do remember the people who felt exploited by him and the effect his determination had on his love life and later, his marriage.

The second detractor of the book involved Larson’s style. In his previous book, Devil in the White City, Larson alternated the stories of two men, Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the 1893 World’s Fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer posing as a charming doctor. Larson employs the same device in Thunderstruck, switching between Marconi’s experiments and Dr. Hawley Crippen’s exploits, yet the pacing in this second book leaves something to be desired. The book does not always “flow”, and some of the vocabulary is awkward. One Page Turner described these as “weird words you have to stop and Google before going on”.

It also took a great deal of time before the reader got to what I thought of as “the meat” of the story, the murder of Belle Elmore, Crippen’s wife, and the subsequent race to Canada between the doctor and Chief Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard. I had expected the majority of the book to cover this, yet the murder did not occur until sometime after page 250 of a less than 400 page book, and the trans-Atlantic chase did not begin until page 300. Thus it seemed that the majority of the action in the book was jammed together at the end.

We did enjoy the chase and apprehension of Dr. Crippen. At times we found Crippen’s story more interesting than Marconi’s. We questioned his motives and actions more than once, especially his allowing girlfriend Ethel Le Neve to wear Belle’s prized broach. We wondered how a man who was so smart could do something so dumb. This led to our creation of the idea of “the dumb-genius”. We also put Marconi in this category because his narrow focus on wireless caused him to skip his own engagement party, which put an end to his betrothal.

We ended the meeting by discussing Belle’s extravagant spending, considering Crippen’s medical specialties, and debating whether or not he would have killed his wife if he had not been having an affair. We also passed out the ballots for voting on next year’s reading list titles. Group members are to select the twelve books they would like to read from the list provided and turn in or email their selections to Krystale by the September meeting. Flyers for upcoming programming and books for next month were also distributed.