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A Novel
by Elizabeth GaffneyFrom the book jacket: Elizabeth Gaffneys Dickensian Metropolis captures the
splendor and violence of New York in the years after the Civil War, as young
immigrants climb out of urban chaos and into the American
dream.
On a freezing night in the middle of winter, Gaffneys nameless hero is
suddenly awakened by a fire in P. T. Barnums stable, where he works and
sleeps, and soon finds himself at the center of a citywide arson investigation.
Determined to clear his name and realize the dreams that inspired his hazardous
voyage across the Atlantic, he will change his identity many times, find himself
mixed up with one of the citys toughest and most enterprising gangs, and fall
in love with a smart, headstrong, and beautiful young woman.
Comment: Metropolis is set in the notorious 'Five
Points' area of Lower Manhattan in the mid 19th century, a time when the area
teemed with alcoholism, violence and prostitution, and was also home to a
rotating population of destitute European immigrants and freed slaves from the
South. By the mid 19th century, the neighborhood's Irish population was
second in size only to Dublin's and the streets were ruled by Irish gangs.
This is the same setting as portrayed in Martin Scorsese's 2002 movie Gangs
of New York or (broadly speaking) E.L. Doctorow's novel, Billy Bathgate
(1989).
In case you wonder, Gaffney tells me that the hero of her story, Frank Harris, is not
intended to be a fictionalized version of the Irish author and editor, Frank Harris
(1851-1931), author of 'My Life & Loves'. She chose the name simply
because she liked it and it was a common name of the time.
"The pace and density of Metropolis are rewarding yet stubbornly unpredictable.
The book's vivid tableaus and high drama are
offset by close study of how urban planning, construction projects and
contagious illnesses actually work. All this moves circuitously but firmly
toward a finale that validates all the sprawl and unexpectedness of what has
come before." -- Janet Maslin, The New York Times.
"Gaffney's tale of old New York is pure bliss." - Booklist (starred
review).
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in March 2005, and has been updated for the February 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.
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