Saturday, August 28, 2004
Black Point
Some books are written to tell a great story, others are written to share a specific idea. The story in the latter case is merely a vehicle to showcase the information the author wishes to share. In the case of Black Point, Mr. Burke wanted to share his love and knowledge of Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the Pullman labor dispute. To carry these nuggets of knowledge, he wrote a tale of a modern day lawyer who through some unexplained method is transported back in time to 1895. There he meets and falls for a woman who happened o be involved in the Pullman strike and, before then, happened to be a guide at the 1893 fair. All in all, it's not a bad book. It's certainly good waiting room material. The characters are likable and while the story is not compelling, it did manage to keep my interest. The weakest points of the book were typical time travel clichés: the traveler not only manages to meet famous people, but he also is fortunate to be befriended by people who are a bit "ahead of their time" in their thinking. I think an actual time traveler would probably be stuck amongst historic nobodies who would avoid him because he was so weird. But for the "lake" people who live or vacation around Geneva Lake, I'm sure such shortcomings will be readily forgiven.
Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial
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