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#5 Platform - The Whiskey Rebels
Sep. 11th, 2008 10:54 pmSurprisingly modern for the 18th century.
Book #36: The Whiskey Rebels
Author: David Liss
Provenance: Received from the Librarything Early Reviewers program
Getting a historical financial crisis to seem large and important to one's readers can't be an easy task. People have a hard time following all the economic bits even when it concerns them now. So it's much to David Liss's credit that he pulls it off so well in the Whiskey Rebels. In fact, to place a story in that time period, soon after the Constitution of the US was ratified, is a big task, since so many people are familiar with it, and would probably think they know what to expect.
Whatever I expected, it wasn't this story, as well as it was carried out; it was a very pleasant surprise. Liss tells his tale mostly in the early 1790s in Pennsylvania, at the urbane eastern end in Philadelphia and the wild frontier around Pittsburgh (weird to think about, that). We've got two first person narrators here, with somewhat different writing styles for the pair: Ethan Saunders, a discredited former spy for the colonies who's now just drinking and womanizing in Philly, and Joan Maycott, a woman patriot who moves out to the frontier with hopes for a good future and a great American novel.
Maycott's pretty modern-seeming, but given the frontier period, it's not so hard to buy that a woman could have as much clout as she does for the time. Her character is interesting, and so is her part of the story, but the Ethan Saunders side, much more of a mystery, appealed to me more. Saunders is looking first into the disappearance of his ex-fiance's husband, and then gets embroiled in a greater financial plot, with Alexander Hamilton and some other real figures of the day in there, too.
The writing is solid, particularly for the Saunders side (his behavior when drunk and how it's rationalized is particularly amusing), and the characters are very vivid. Both the leads are very easy to empathize with, along with most of the supporting cast, one way or another. Also, the plot drives along nicely, although the alternating chapters between narrators format means that sometimes you do get a bit thrown. It's pretty easy to get through, though.
The minuses are mostly those of pacing and some stylistic points. The pacing, in particular, has the whole ending come pretty fast, and then nothing after to wrap things up except a quick epilogue. I'd have liked a bit more there.
Anyway, it was a very enjoyable read, both for the mystery and the characters, along with the history lesson. This one's worth a shot, I'd say, for adventure and for history buffs.
Next up: A Conspiracy of Paper. Might as well stay with the guy.
Book #36: The Whiskey Rebels
Author: David Liss
Provenance: Received from the Librarything Early Reviewers program
Getting a historical financial crisis to seem large and important to one's readers can't be an easy task. People have a hard time following all the economic bits even when it concerns them now. So it's much to David Liss's credit that he pulls it off so well in the Whiskey Rebels. In fact, to place a story in that time period, soon after the Constitution of the US was ratified, is a big task, since so many people are familiar with it, and would probably think they know what to expect.
Whatever I expected, it wasn't this story, as well as it was carried out; it was a very pleasant surprise. Liss tells his tale mostly in the early 1790s in Pennsylvania, at the urbane eastern end in Philadelphia and the wild frontier around Pittsburgh (weird to think about, that). We've got two first person narrators here, with somewhat different writing styles for the pair: Ethan Saunders, a discredited former spy for the colonies who's now just drinking and womanizing in Philly, and Joan Maycott, a woman patriot who moves out to the frontier with hopes for a good future and a great American novel.
Maycott's pretty modern-seeming, but given the frontier period, it's not so hard to buy that a woman could have as much clout as she does for the time. Her character is interesting, and so is her part of the story, but the Ethan Saunders side, much more of a mystery, appealed to me more. Saunders is looking first into the disappearance of his ex-fiance's husband, and then gets embroiled in a greater financial plot, with Alexander Hamilton and some other real figures of the day in there, too.
The writing is solid, particularly for the Saunders side (his behavior when drunk and how it's rationalized is particularly amusing), and the characters are very vivid. Both the leads are very easy to empathize with, along with most of the supporting cast, one way or another. Also, the plot drives along nicely, although the alternating chapters between narrators format means that sometimes you do get a bit thrown. It's pretty easy to get through, though.
The minuses are mostly those of pacing and some stylistic points. The pacing, in particular, has the whole ending come pretty fast, and then nothing after to wrap things up except a quick epilogue. I'd have liked a bit more there.
Anyway, it was a very enjoyable read, both for the mystery and the characters, along with the history lesson. This one's worth a shot, I'd say, for adventure and for history buffs.
Next up: A Conspiracy of Paper. Might as well stay with the guy.
