The Devil in the White City book review

This is our The Devil in the White City book review and book banter. This bestseller is a non-fictional narrative about 1893 World’s Fair that took place in Chicago, and about a notorious serial killer who was active in the area at the same time.

Out of respect for your reading pleasure, I promise not to reveal any plot twists. Instead, I’ll use this review to comment on the style of writing, and why I might have completely missed out on reading this excellent, insightful book.

I bought this book because I thought it was mostly about a psychopathic serial killer in 1890’s Chicago. As I read, though, I realized the book was mostly about the preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair held in Chicago.

My guess is that only 20% of the narrative, or maybe even less, was devoted to the dastardly deeds of Herman Webster Mudgett, or H. H. Holmes, as he was best known. Instead of focusing on the psychology of the murderer, the majority of the book centered on an architect and how he prepared for the 1893 World’s Fair.

Sounds boring, right? Well, that’s what I thought at first, too. In fact, I felt the publisher had used an unscrupulous bait-and-switch tactic that only the sleaziest of businesses incorporate to get customers in their doors.

However, as I read about city life in early Chicago, and learned about each of the people involved, many of whom would become world-renowned after the World’s Fair, I became captivated.

After I read the first 75 pages, I realized that the skillful author, Erik Larson, had me hooked. I was fascinated about early Chicago and its Union Stock Yard, which made an industry out of food production and the slaughtering of animals.

The descriptions were absolutely barbaric and made me cringe at the thought that I still eat meat. And, I wondered how the people who worked there coped with the barbarism that was an integral part of their jobs.

After reading the descriptions, I wished I were a vegetarian. Yet, despite the obvious pain and terror each animal faces before they are killed, I still eat meat.

Anyway, that was the reality of Chicago in the late 1800’s. The author did lots of research to show how city life could be dirty, muddy, and not for the faint-of-heart.

Not only was an animal’s life cheap in Chicago, but human life was cheap, too. Many people were transitory, and had to survive any way they knew how. That was the setting that made the crimes of H. H. Holmes so easy to execute without detection.

While life seemed cheap and disposable back in those relatively primitive days, technology was about to change the world. Lots of exhibits during the 1893 World’s Fair showcased the harnessing of electricity, and the showdown between alternating and direct current.

That, alone, was an interesting topic. In addition, there were many more exhibits that displayed new technologies, including ice making machines, many of Thomas Edison’s inventions like the incandescent light bulb, as well as new farm implements that would make agricultural work less labor-intensive.

The author’s descriptions of the innovative exhibits made me wish I could have been there to see our modern world in its infancy.

In the story, architects, landscapers, financiers, and elected officials were the stars. Each one of them experienced big successes in their lives, but also big failures. Learning about their failures made these professionals seem more human. Fortunately, they surmounted their failures and continued fighting for their lofty goals.

The author effectively intertwined and documented these interesting people with their own written communications. Thankfully, back then, letters were more literate and filled with details that today’s quick, abridged, and casual electronic instant messages lack.

Quotes from the letters conveyed the main characters’ hopes, successes, failures, and fears as they worked toward the almost impossible goal of constructing all the buildings The architects and financiers had stringent deadlines and tight budgets.

While I’m sure many of those details might seem excruciatingly mundane to some readers, I really enjoyed the revelations.

I’m also thankful that our ancestors took the time to write and save those letters. Otherwise, much of that fascinating history about putting together the 1893 World’s Fair would have been lost.

When the author was researching this book, there was a limited amount of quality content about the life and crimes of H.H. Holmes. It seems that newspaper editors sensationalized many of their stories about this case. Even Holmes’ own self-authored memoir included untrue details.

So, I can only imagine it was a difficult process to gather all the sources, and then use court records and other documents to sort out the facts from the sensationalized fiction. Looking back, it’s easy for me to understand why such a small percentage of this book was about Holmes.

There’s just not much known about the man. In fact, authorities may not even know all of the people he murdered.

All the characters in this true story were interesting to me. The author did a brilliant job of giving them personalities that were based on their documented actions.

In addition to the serial killer and the architect, I especially was interested in one character—this young man wrote odd letters to different elected officials in the city. We learned about his background in one chapter, and then later, the author would interject a paragraph or two about what this guy was thinking and doing.

Little-by-little, and word-by-word, we got to know and understand this intelligent but troubled soul. While I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone, let me just note that this young man also had psychological problems.

His story was such an interesting sub-plot, that it might also be a captivating subject for a book. I enjoyed all the sub-plots, and loved how the author tied them all together.

TAKEAWAYS

For me, the intertwining stories of this book were not suspenseful nail-biters. Nevertheless, this book was an entertaining, engaging narrative about a different era.

As I read the book, I saw that their technologies were different from our modern world, but people were still the same. While we have the same character flaws as the architects, financiers and landscape designers in this story, we also have their same noble spirits.

Our ancestors led difficult lives, and even the most brilliant people involved in this story had dreadful failures. Despite that, they also achieved astounding successes. That’s the big message that I pulled out of this book.

Sure, initially I felt upset that the publisher might have misled me about the content. At first, I was most interested in learning about the serial killer.

However, I doubt that I would have bought an entire book devoted to the intricacies of creating a world’s fair. That topic would have sounded extremely boring and uneventful to me.

So, I see the author’s and publisher’s brilliance in interweaving the serial murders and other sub-plots into this wonderful narrative. Thanks to that clever strategy, I did buy this book, and I did love this book.

If you love history, or learning about other peoples’ lives, you will love The Devil in the White City.

Thank you for reading The Devil in the White City book review. If you’ve already read the book, please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Content and photos by Doug Martin and Our Book Banter