Book Annotation-Historical Fiction

Author: Edward Rutherfurd

Title: New York

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publication Date: 2009

Number of Pages: 862

Geographical Setting: New York, NY

Time Period: 17^th century to 21^st century

Series: NA

Subject Headings: New York (N.Y.), History, Fiction

Appeal Terms: Family sagas, Historical fiction, Large cast of characters, Intricately plotted, Plot-driven, Leisurely paced, Strong sense of place, Descriptive, Richly detailed

Plot Summary: 

Though it’s not clear early on if a single family will become the through-line for the city of New York in Rutherfurd’s novel, it is clear that the author intends to render history into an intimate story of major events seen through the eyes of characters and families that would have been on stage in New York at the time.  Beginning with a prosperous fur-trading family, the van Dyck’s, and adding in the Master’s, the Hudson’s, and the Caruso’s among others as he moves along, Rutherfurd weaves a tale that follows the city from when Wall Street was actually a wall to the trains of Park Avenue to the day the World Trade Center was brutally attacked and destroyed.  With a powerful sense of place and the ever-marching hands of time this story attempts to put into perspective everything the city has been and what it has the potential to be in the future.

Other than the literal fact that Rutherfurd’s book is written about people in a place removed in history from the author’s “lifetime or experience” other details that set the novel firmly in the Historical Fiction camp are its enormous length and leisurely pace (Saricks, 2009).  At 862 pages the book never hurries forward but quietly seeks to put each major event that comprises its overall plot into a character-based context.  Readers get subtle and not so subtle history lessons at every turn, even down to where New York City’s five boroughs get their names, while also being drawn into the challenges and trials each character faces; from being sold back into slavery to the frenzied cell phone calls to loved ones on September 11, 2001.  The “wealth of details” and “world-building” (this being supplemented by several maps) the novel employs are typical Historical Fiction characteristics (Saricks, 2009).  Although Rutherfurd’s novel doesn’t provide a list of characters or a family tree as some Historical Fiction novels do, it still is an example of the “Family Saga” that is often a detail of Historical Fiction (Saricks, 2009).

Fiction Read-Alikes:

Forever by Pete Hamill

Covering a similar stretch of time and set on the island of Manhattan, this book is a title that  could expand readers of Historical Fiction horizons through its use of a ghostly, semi-immortal narrator among other Urban Fantasy trappings.  Hamill’s novel shares the appeal factor of Richly Detailed as well as being leisurely paced and follows the rise of New York City to its present day status as a metropolis much like Rutherfurd’s novel does.

Dreamland by Kevin Baker, City of Fire series, Book 1

Like Rutherfurd’s novel Baker’s novel has a Family Saga aspect, though more as a microcosm.  Following a newly arrived immigrant’s rise through New York City’s underworld around the turn of the 20^th century the novel captures famous persons of the time as well as major events in feminist and labor history.  Baker’s book also shares the appeal factors of Historical Fiction, Leisurely-Paced, Strong Sense of Place, Richly Detailed, and Descriptive with Rutherfurd’s novel and shows an era of development in New York City as much as any other character in the novel.

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

Doctorow’s Historical Fiction novel would also expand readers horizons a little with its Literary Fiction and Classic Fiction attributes.  Set mostly in New York at the beginning of the 20^th century Doctorow’s novel also follows a family story including famous personages and the development of America as a whole.  Sharing the appeal factor, Descriptive, the names, places, and facts of Doctorow’s novel should mostly scratch the itch of Historical Fiction readers. 

Nonfiction Read-Alike:

Jerusalem by Simon Sebag-Montefiore

Though widely removed in historical expanse and culture from Rutherfurd’s novel this “biography” of the city of Jerusalem seeks to capture the major events that formed this part of the world much like New York.  With an aspect of a Family Saga, Sebag-Montefiore also traces his family’s history that is somewhat intertwined with that of Jerusalem’s.  Sebag-Montefiore’s Richly Detailed, Accessible “History Writing” appeal factors also overlap with many aspects of Rutherfurd’s novel in that Sebag-Montefiore attempts to open up the tomes of history in an appealing way to laypersons much like Rutherfurd uses fiction to accomplish the same thing. 

Work Cited:

Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.