Too many long lists of actions and reactions make the narrative drag, though the book is historically enlightening enough to...
Molesky (History/Seton Hall Univ.; co-author: Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France, 2004) chronicles the history of the Portuguese Empire up to the catastrophic series of events beginning Nov. 1, 1755.
To fully appreciate the utter devastation of the earthquakes, tsunamis, and fire that ravaged Lisbon that year, readers must also understand Portugal’s vast wealth during the time period. Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India just before 1500 opened the country’s first golden age, which drew all of Europe to trade for pepper, spices, porcelain, gemstones, wood, and skins. However, her empire dwindled with the Restoration War in 1668 and widespread incursions by the Dutch. Portugal’s second golden age began with the Brazilian discovery of gold, emeralds, and diamonds at the end of the 17th century. By this time, Lisbon was one of the most ostentatiously wealthy cities in Europe, allied only to England to ensure defense from ever threatening Spain and France. At about 9:45 a.m. on All Saints Day 1755, three successively longer earthquakes struck, catching the populace off guard on their ways to Mass. The total time elapsed was around 10 minutes. Walls and buildings fell, and candles lit for Mass, chimneys, and home cook fires started blazes throughout the city. Three tsunamis also struck, killing many more than the earthquakes. But it was the fire that finally leveled the city, destroying riches, records, art, and, eventually, the Portuguese Empire. The author teases readers in the beginning with the promising stories of two men who stepped in after the disaster: priest Gabriel Malagrida and the Marquês de Pombal. Unfortunately, their tales are minimized, replaced with anecdotal forewarnings, international lists of who-heard-what-when, accounts of offers (and refusals) of aid, and philosophical arguments about the reasons and causes of the disaster.
Too many long lists of actions and reactions make the narrative drag, though the book is historically enlightening enough to appeal to readers familiar with Lisbon and its history.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-307-26762-7
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
