Title: Only if you're going to Buffalo
Product review: If you're planning a visit to Buffalo -- a visit that I would recommend to anyone who's interested in late 19th and early 20th century architecture -- you'll find that this book provides a great deal of local historical color. Otherwise, however, it's basically a primer on how NOT to write a historical novel. Here's what you don't want to do: First, create a preposterous, sprawling plot that serves mostly to introduce a dizzying array of actual historical figures, albeit obscure ones to anyone outside of Buffalo. Then include a lot of wooden dialogue spoken by two-dimensional characters, and be sure to sprinkle your text with anachronisms (who had "brunch" in 1901?). And make sure your narrator spends a lot of time on historical exposition that makes no sense, given that she's supposedly addressing a more or less contemporary audience. I could go on, but you get the idea. It's a shame -- there's some interesting raw material here, and it could have been a good novel.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
