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The Last Days of Night
The Last Days of Night
Author: Graham Moore
New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history -- and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul&rsqu...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780812988901
ISBN-10: 0812988906
Publication Date: 9/20/2016
Pages: 384
Rating:
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 13

4.1 stars, based on 13 ratings
Publisher: Random House
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 2
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
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maura853 avatar reviewed The Last Days of Night on + 542 more book reviews
I made it to page 100 before I admitted that I was struggled with this, and skimmed the rest. (#Life Is Too Short ...) This was done with honest disappointment: I thought it started well, and was very interesting (Illuminating!! Thank you, I'm here all week. There's a tip jar on the bar ...), but then, I realized that I was struggling, and picking it up every day was a bit of a penance. After that strong start, it seemed very one-note and plodding, with characters and storytelling.

A clue to why comes, I think, from the author's CV: this is going to make a fabulous movie or TV series. Talented actors will bring the characters to life, talented cinematographers and set-dressers will bring New York of the 1880s into vivid focus. The author doesn't have to do much with that: he just has to provide the dialogue and the bare bones of a plot, and the rest will be brought to life by a finishing process. Even the relatively short, choppy chapters feel like the scene cuts in a movie, rather than seriously developing the narrative ...

In the early chapters, when I still felt there were possibilities here, I thought Moore was cleverly playing with the idea that the 1880s were, in many ways, were similar to our own times, and it was all spookily familiar. I took that to explain why there was less in the way of establishing the time-period -- the styles and fashions, the feel and sounds and smells of the streets, the alien attitudes -- than you might expect. Look, it seemed to be saying, with their hipster beards, and driving entrepreneurism, they're just like us!

And perhaps that is what he had in mind -- my problem is that it was watered down by flat characterization and poor narrative.


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