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Review title: one of the better books this year
Product review: it's always a pleasure to jump into a book that decides to take on so much. In this case, the laying of the transatlantic cable, the Civil War, the sewage plight of London, the spiritualist fad, and then more personally, grief over the death of a child, failed marriages, falls from a height, and more. There is a wealth of plot and an even greater wealth of character and Griesemer succeeds in handling it all with ease and aplomb. The history and technological details are interesting in their own right, but they never overshadow the characters and their own stories. Griesemer takes his time in this work and therefore everything that happens to these characters, everything that serves to make us laugh or moves us or surprises us is earned. In such a large, sprawling work it would have been easy to have entire sections weaker than others, but that is not the case. The book holds at a high level from beginning to end. One of the best reads I've had this year.
