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Genealogy Book Store > Genealogy books beginning with C
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City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan |
Author: Beverly Swerling
Published: 2002-06-04 |
List price: $16.00
Our price: $11.68
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As of: January 05th, 2009 08:08:04 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 hodge-podge bodice ripper
I was very disappointed in this book. I looked forward to learning about early New York and the (fictionalized) lives of its inhabitants. Instead,Swerling serves up an uninspired multigenerational tale of reprobates, murderers and uppercrust schemers, interspersed with cliched, poorly written sexual encounters featuring deflowering and rape. Oh, I forgot the graphic description of early medical procedures. How odd that two characters murder their husbands, and two women horribly raped.
Swerling didn't generate any empathy in this reader for the protaginists.
Yes, it's a page turner, a mindless diversion to read on the beach.
But I found it to be an enormous disappointment.
 Swerling improves with other novels
I enjoy historical fiction and appreciate Swerling's portrayal of the settling of New York City through several generations of a family. She tells their stories much like a soap opera shows several different characters' scenes throughout an episode. The reader must get used to switching scenes every few pages because this is the author's preferred method of storytelling. She writes from a third person omniscient point of view so you understand each character's motivations and aspirations. Some you will despise and wish to see satisfactorily killed off; others you will hate to find disappear from her storyline altogether. Nonetheless, I have read two of her novels already and am purchasing Shadowbrook as well. She has another coming soon - City of God, and I'll read that one, too. Like I said, I enjoy historical fiction and especially love a good series. She may not be the best author, but her characters are interesting enough in a novel way. Her historical references are actually gratuitous and inserted all throughout the story. These are really not needed to keep the plot going. I found myself skipping those pages to get back to the story again.
Also, I agree with the reviewer who commented that her graphic depictions of violent and sexual acts are offensive. The story is neither enhanced by these scenes nor elevated at all by them. Some are actually gross and I put the book down several times because I was sickened by them.
Additionally, I found that in City of Dreams, Swerling just does not know how to capture a truly noble and good character. She seems to enjoy making her main characters into nasty beings with little moral or spiritual value. I believe she must be hostile toward religions as she depicted religious figures as immoral, depraved, and greedy. Her characterizations lead the reader to believe that the settling of New York City was entirely about people advancing their unscrupulous desires. The second novel City of Glory has a much better balance of characters and tells a more believable story.
 Life In Nieuw Amsterdam
This book should have been divided into at least threes books. Each generation should have its due. There were just too many characters to keep straight. Doctors do see a lot of blood and gore, however I prefer that it be down played in my reading. The slavery in the south and also in the north was terrible. People did mistreat their slaves and you have heard or read about these stories. However there were more that had slaves, which was wrong, that treated them well, and even some like family. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"
Sins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersWriting as a Small BusinessThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War
 Interesting...
This book was interesting. But, you need to like a steamy sex and bloody medical scenes.
 Captivating!
When I bought this book a few years ago, the original hook (for me) was due to my fascination with medicine and medical history. From the very first page, I was Swerling's willing prisoner. I loved following the stories of these generations and all their tragedies, loves, and loves lost. Yes, she's graphic, and the tales are quite gruesome at times, but completely enticing. Her detail in writing made the story play out like a vivid epic movie in my mind.
With this being Swerling's debut novel, I was afraid there might not be anymore books coming out like this. (Nothing I've read since has held me quite like this one did.) But now I've got City of Glory and I can't wait to dive in!
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