Book review--City of Light

Sometimes when a book is really good, it's hard to come up with much more to say about it than, "it's really good." But I'll try.

The book in question is Lauren Belfer's City of Light. It's set in Buffalo in 1901 during the time of the Pan Am Expo and the early days of hydroelectricity (from Niagara Falls). There are many actual historic figures in the book, including presidents and very rich people of the day.

The story is told from the perspective of the headmistress of the all-girls' school, and her personal story is slowly revealed throughout the novel. Her character, as all the other characters, are interesting, complex, and well-developed. The plot weaves social commentary (on environmentalism, business, racism, class distinctions, gender discrimination, etc.) with historical fact and the stories of the created characters. (If you want more plot summary, check Amazon or a similar website--I hate knowing what books are about before I read them so I don't divulge much in my reviews!)

Our entire book club really enjoyed this book and had a great discussion about it, which I believe is testimony to its multi-faceted nature--some history, some mystery, a tad bit of romance, etc. We had a lot to talk about concerning the issues that faced the characters and how things had changed or stayed the same.

Some people felt it was a bit long (my copy was 500 pages, the large print one from the library was 800, and the others were somewhere in between) and had too complex a set of characters--if you're prone to think that, you might want to take notes on the characters. Everyone except one person did finish it, though, and I really liked being able to sink my teeth into it.

One more thing--the actual writing style is pretty similar to the Victorian writing style, so if you like classics, this might be your book.