Hardcover, 448 pages
English language
Published Nov. 12, 2015 by Random House.
It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.
Very interesting story of the multiple motivations and perspectives that led to the Lusitania disaster.
As with Devil in the White City, Larson does a fantastic job relying on original sources to paint a vivid picture of events from more than 100 years ago. Direct quotes - from journals, letters, articles, trial transcripts - make this work of non-fiction read like a novel. On a few occasions I wondered how he could possibly know w/certainty that something happened the way he said it did - but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all.
Even if you think you know the broad outlines of what happened to the Lusitania - the Germans torpedoed it, the Americans eventually joined WWI - this book gives you so much more background about the series of events that led up to the sinking of the boat and its aftermath. There are a few loose ends and inferences that are intriguing but unresolved - not because Larson …
As with Devil in the White City, Larson does a fantastic job relying on original sources to paint a vivid picture of events from more than 100 years ago. Direct quotes - from journals, letters, articles, trial transcripts - make this work of non-fiction read like a novel. On a few occasions I wondered how he could possibly know w/certainty that something happened the way he said it did - but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all.
Even if you think you know the broad outlines of what happened to the Lusitania - the Germans torpedoed it, the Americans eventually joined WWI - this book gives you so much more background about the series of events that led up to the sinking of the boat and its aftermath. There are a few loose ends and inferences that are intriguing but unresolved - not because Larson didn't chase down the leads but because there are some things we'll just never know.
Great read.
