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EL NUEVO CLÁSICO DE LAS LETRAS NORTEAMERICANAS.
William Hamilton-Sweeney y su hermana Regan, herederos de una de las mayores fortunas de la ciudad, no se han visto desde hace más de una década. William rompió con su familia durante su adolescencia, y ahora, tras dejar el grupo de música punk que fundó, vive en el barrio de Hell's Kitchen con su novio Mercer, un joven profesor procedente de Georgia que sueña con escribir la Gran Novela Americana. Regan sigue en el seno de la élite y, en pleno proceso de separación de su marido, Keith, se enfrenta a un escándalo familiar. Por otro lado, Charlie y Samantha, dos adolescentes de los suburbios, sucumben a los encantos del lado más radical y underground del Bajo Manhattan mientras la música de una joven Patti Smith resuena por sus calles. Un tiroteo en Central Park durante la Nochevieja de 1976 será el detonante que emplazará a los personajes de esta extraordinaria novela sobre el tablero de una ciudad que, al verano siguiente, colapsará durante el famoso apagón de 1977.
Ciudad en llamas, novela debut de Garth Risk Hallberg, ha sido seleccionado como uno de los mejores libros del año por The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public's Radio y Barnes&Noble. Crítica, lectores y prensa lo comparan con Donna Tartt, Charles Dickens, Tom Wolfe, Jonathan Franzen, Thomas Pynchon o Michael Chabon, y coinciden al señalarlo como una obra maestra, uno de los libros más importantes que se han escrito en los últimos años.
Description
The all-too-human individuals who live within this extraordinary first novel are: Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city's biggest fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Sam, two Long Island teenagers seduced by downtown's nascent punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter; his spunky, West Coast-transplant neighbor; and the detective trying to figure out what they all have to do with a shooting in Central Park. From post-Vietnam youth culture to the fiscal crisis, from a lushly appointed townhouse on Sutton Place to a derelict squat on East 3rd Street, this city on fire is at once recognizable and completely unexpected. And when the infamous blackout of July 13th, 1977 plunges it into darkness, each of these entangled lives will be changed, irrevocably.… (more)
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Not going to use the "a" word (cf every single mainstream review).
I love long books. That was one of the things that drew me to this one. But the last part of this novel just dragged on interminably.
A good story that was lost in the midst of
There are much better books out there as long or longer. I would advise staying away from this over-hyped monstrosity.
Much like its setting of New York City, the story itself is a hodge-podge of eclectic parts that come together to create a vibrant whole. The novel explores every facet of city living from the very rich to the disenfranchised to the middle class. Gay, straight, black, white, old, young, conservative, revolutionary, criminal, cop – it is all there with an amazing attention to detail that fills a reader’s senses. Add to that the fact that the story itself is part crime mystery, part coming-of-age, part social commentary, and one quickly understands that there is a little something for everyone and anyone.
One hesitates to use the word Dickensian when describing any modern novel, and yet, for Mr. Hallberg’s debut, the word fits. Not only does Mr. Hallberg capture the most mundane aspects of NYC living in the mid-1970s, but a great deal of his story explores social justice as it pertains to the poor versus the wealthy and a growing population of young adults drawn to the anarchical ideals expressed in the burgeoning punk movement. His characters are seemingly unrelated, which turns out to be patently untrue. Much like Dickens, he weaves every character’s story together so finely that the blending of stories is truly masterful. Lastly, much like Dickens, City on Fire is not the type of novel that one can read in a few sittings, nor is it a plot that moves quickly. However, what it lacks in fast-paced action, it more than makes up for with its detailed descriptions and exquisite character development.
City on Fire is an ambitious novel for any writer. The fact that it is the work of a debut novelist makes it that much more impressive. Many people who pick up Mr. Hallberg’s debut novel will be doing so only to determine whether this weighty tome is worth the $2 million Knopf paid in the 2013 bidding war. The answer to that question, in this reviewer’s opinion, is a resounding yes.
Nope. Everyone exclaiming how wonderful this novel is -- LIES. They're doing it because they're just impressed with themselves for finishing it. What you'll read below will most likely contain SPOILERS. Keep reading at your own risk (or just read this instead
I started this book at the END OF AUGUST. I read roughly six chapters and then sat it aside to read a bunch of other books. I picked it back up because those first few chapters did pique my interest. By the time I was halfway through it was too late to just abandon it and I wanted to know WHO SHOT SAM.
Who shot Samantha is the mystery that moved this book forward for me (someone dared to call this book thrilling -- LIES).
The way the story unfolds is more than a bit annoying. Once Sam is shot we move back in time to BEFORE and then we end up back in "the present" to Sam in the hospital. Then we GO BACK again and make our way back to "the present". THEN IT GOES BACK AGAIN.
There's one part where one of the main characters (Mercer) travels to his childhood home and hides his brother's gun. This entire chapter WAS POINTLESS.
By the time I made my way to the THE BLACKOUT (oohhh, it's dark!), I was DONE. It went on FOR.EV.VER. But at least I finally found out who shot Samantha -- Surprise! Surprise! It was her weird punk "friend" Sewer Girl with assists from the other S.G. and D.T.
And even through ALL OF THAT. I still don't know how in the world the Demon Brother managed to hook up with Nicky Chaos. Or why Mercer is now in Europe. Or how Will and Cate finally ended up back at their mom's apartment.
To sum up -- this is an overwritten novel that I would not recommend. The interludes were the best part of the 900+ pages. There were a few chapters that I found myself enjoying, but more often than not I found myself confused. Two stars (the interludes bumped it up from one star).
Reading Progress
08/28 currently-reading
08/28 3.0% "I've read two chapters so far and I feel like I need 1. A dictionary nearby 2. A list of characters 3. Someone to hold it for me & 4. An editor. But the ridiculous part: I want to keep reading."
10/25 13.0% "Anyone out there ever used "pusillanimous" in a sentence?"
11/10 22.0% "I'd like to know how many people have finished this book since its publication. I can never find a good time to read it because it's so stinkin' heavy or I'm too tired to to read it (takes a lot of brain power and the occasional research break to look up words no one actually uses in conversation)."
11/12 31.0% "Oooh! Now the cover art makes sense...but why'd the chapter have to end like that?! What happened?!"
11/12 35.0% "Am I supposed to understand what Nicky Chaos just said to Charlie?"
11/13 36.0% "If I start skipping the Charlie chapters, will I really be missing anything?"
11/20 44.0% "Raise your hand if you know what ratiocination, phalanstery, and/or suppurate means."
11/20 45.0% "So maybe it isn't the Charlie chapters that I want to skip, but ANY chapter with Nicky Chaos."
11/21 49.0% "Some chapters, I'm convinced it's worth finishing. Other chapters, I wonder why I've read this far. Not all of these characters are necessary and some of these chapters don't even make sense. I understand now why there's a "mystery" label on the spine because I do have many questions." 1 comment
11/22 55.0% "We're going BACK to 1959?! Oh.em.gee. I'm over halfway through...no quitting now."
11/22 55.0% "Also...it's difficult to keep up with "when" I am in the story between all of the perspectives. I remember way back in the first few chapters questioning if it was on New Year's Eve or before New Year's Eve. It seemed to go back and forth depending on which character we were with."
11/23 60.0% "So this might be spoiler-ish, but I find this interesting (for lack of a better word). Out of the many characters in this novel, 3 with major parts are women. So far 2 of them are victims -- one is shot in a park and the other raped at her father's engagement party. The men it's drugs, writing struggles, wrong place/wrong time, being an adopted red-headed teenager. Maybe I'm belittling the male problems?"
11/24 69.0% "Did the author forget about Mercer through that entire last section? Was any of that really necessary? I think not. The things that did come up as "a-ha moments" could have easily been snuck in elsewhere. And then the Will L part...it's a little late in the book to make me ask more questions. I want answers now."
11/29 95.0% "I feel like the pages are multiplying. This last bit is going on FOREVER." 1 comment
11/29 100.0% "I preferred the interludes over any other sections. They weren't nearly as overwritten as the rest of this novel."
11/30 finished
City on Fire is chock full of
This is a novel that demands you follow it closely. Multiple generations of a powerful family are a major part of the story, with numerous other characters woven in. The action is non-linear, with time periods bouncing back and forth and forward and backward as different characters are introduced. By the end of the book, when the perpetrator is finally identified, you feel you know every character very well. I’m not saying they’re good people to know- in fact, there are few sympathetic characters in the entire 900 pages of the book.
The writing in City on Fire is just spectacular. I only have a few issues with it: the gratuitous use of obscure words, the over-use of similes, and the inclusion of nearly every generalization about NYC somewhere in the book. In the grand scope of things, 920 pages of excellent prose more than balances out these minor points.
If you enjoy great writing, have a tolerance for descriptions of the NYC of the rough era of the 70s (and all that entails), and you can hang in there for a long book that requires your attention, you’ll be rewarded with an unbelievable ride. I really wonder what Garth Risk Hallberg will do for an encore.
The city was a powder-keg. It is also the backdrop to this massive novel, which is centered around the shooting of a young girl in Central Park and a wealthy family named, Hamilton-Sweeney.
This was one of the most buzzed about books, last year, and the publisher paid an ungodly advance. 2 million? Obviously they pushed it like crazy. Honestly, I don't get it. I was very impressed by the author's ambition and scope and the writing was pretty solid but the story never really took off for me and that's too bad, considering, that at 900 pages, it was a major commitment.
New York stories from the punk, anti-disco,
And two truly evil characters: minimal backstory for them, slimy, sneaky, killerish, ratty. Without much to motivate besides greed, desire for power, and sliminess. But those motivate even presidential candidates.
If you have a week and want a time travel book, read it.
This is a very rich, well described novel of a cultural time-period and specific place in our near past. Although it was somewhat slow moving, I enjoyed the character development and the sensory experience of being in NYC during the early punk scene. However, I also spent almost an entire month reading this 940-page tome. I got through it, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was about half the length. Was it up to the hype? Possibly. If nothing else, than for the amazing amount of effort it took to create a story of such depth and magnitude. Give it a shot if you have nothing to do for the next few weeks!
A conceptual art project is described in the final pages of the novel depicting an inscription which requires ten
This is a busy novel, though, frankly-- it lacks in ideas. It isn't heady. An ensemble of characters delineate NYC in that fecund period of 1976-77. The echoes of the pyrotechnics of the Bicentennial find physical manifestation in the arrival of AIDS. Punks chords of dissent turn blight into renewal. Everyone will be rich, except for the poor.
Fuck the poor.
Charles Bronson.
Bernie Goetz.
Do the Right Thing.
As noted this is more Balzac than even a Franzen. At the core is a crime, much like Bleak House and the clues to such are disparate. Many of them are revealed in the "found" text but City on Fire (a line in punk song) lacks the ominous detachment which make a W.G. Sebald or a Teju Cole so unsettling. I wish I could praise this, call it a punk Naked Singularity---but that comparison is ludicrous. This is a fat novel for the vicarious. It is timid fare. A reference to Marcuse doesn't leave the novel steeped in the Frankfurt School. City on Fire does however make one want to listen to Patti Smith--I do thank the author for that.
Garth would not know a tough city if it slapped him in his face. Maybe step across the river and hang out in Booker's Jersey for awhile.
Party on
Also does anyone actually edit anymore? Anyone?