Book Club Reads The Devil and the White City
by Sarah Hallstein
December 01, 2007
This month’s selection for book club is Eric Larson’s The Devil and the White City. This book is centered at the turn of the 20th century in Chicago. The Chicago World’s Fair is on the verge of opening, but everything is not going to plan. A murderer is striking on the streets and innocent women are dying.
The writing style of the author allows the reader to see through the eyes of the murderer and through the eyes of one of the architects for the fair. The author switches between these two main characters throughout the entire book. This allows for an interesting dual view of the fair.
Jenny Park, a junior, hasn’t finished reading the book yet, but she says she’s enjoying it. “I like mystery books and detective stories,” she said.
The book is eerily told from the murderer’s perspective but his story is vital to the history of the Chicago’s World Fair. The architect offers the more structural side of the fair, as he tells the story of how the buildings were all put up in time for the grand opening. The two different views offer a very interesting and complete story of the late 1890’s.
