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American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, The Birth Of Hollywood & The Crime Of The Century (2008)

by Howard Blum(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0307346943 (ISBN13: 9780307346940)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown Publishing Group (NY)

review 1: I'm rounding up from 2.5 stars. I thought the history about the anarchists and unions in the early part of the 20th century was interesting. The character of D.W. Griffith was the least interesting to me, and I felt that story line (about the development of the motion picture indipustry) was weak. Billy Burns was egotistic it was hard to admire him. It's always fascinating to me how criminals were caught in the days before Internet databases and modern telecommunications so I enjoyed the recounting of the hunt for the terrorists who bombed the Times building in Los Angeles.
review 2: This is a rare case of me enjoying the audio book more than I believe I would have enjoyed the written tome. While I adore historical non-fiction of this sort (i.e. Charlatan, Th... moree Devil in the White City), one of the habits that frustrates me is when the author fills in all of the empty spaces with actions that cannot possible be known. For example, at one point, Clarence Darrow leans back in his chair and looks up into the heavens and his mental state and the action are described clearly. It just comes across as an over-use of the imagination in a historical account. In text this may have frustrated me enough (alongside the extensive use of simile- so many similes), but as an audio book it lent itself to the rhythm of the story-telling. less

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