1906: A Novel [Paperback]

 

 

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My taste does not usually run to popular fiction. The most recent novel I fell in love with was Patrick Susskind's masterpiece, Perfume. The last writer whose body of work enraptured me was Wallace Stegner. When people who share the same literary loves that I do started talking about this book, I decided to have a look. I was surprised from the beginning. The narrator, Annalisa Passarelli, is a feminist/socialist, an opera and theater critic who is involved in what appears to be a real-life corruption probe aimed at ending the rampant political corruption in San Francisco at the time. She writes in a style that is unusual and might be off-putting to some people at first, but I found it very engaging. She claims to have learned the technique from her heroine-in-letters, Nellie Bly. When I looked up Nellie Bly on the internet, I found that not only was she a remarkable pioneer in journalism -- the first American female journalist to gain nationwide acclaim -- but she pioneered the technique of offering first person observations of the stories she covered and constantly put herself into danger by clandestinely entering the world of her subjects. Annalisa employs all these techniques, and even, from my observations, emulated Nellie's style and rhythm. That quickly got my attention. I like writers who take risks: I loved the shifting points of view in Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, and felt that worked very well in 1906. I also truly enjoyed the vast array of characters that offered a sweeping view of old San Francisco from the mansions of Nob HIll to the sleazy and violent denizens of the Barbary Coast. One of the major reviewers stated that Mr. Dalessandro employed too many B-movie theatrics in some chapters, but I found myself believing that the fist fights and shoot outs and Shanghaiing were actually part of the fabric of San Francisco life, and if that's a guilty pleasure, then I succumbed. It may well have been, overall, a bit much, but I found myself truly enjoying one epic brawl between a stressed out alcoholic cop and corruption crusader, Christian Fallon, and a memorable bad guy named Shanghai Kelly. I usually hate romances in modern novels as they are so poorly done, but Annalisa Passarelli's narrative of her childhood infatuation with Hunter Fallon, the book's hero, an engineering genius turned cop and crusader, was very well done. Their relationship develops as they try to unravel the mystery of his father's rather shocking fate and the pair endure a series of horrific events, not the least of which is the earthquake and massive fire, which tests their courage and character to the maximum. It is storybook and Hollywood and yes, a bit cliched, but it works better here than in most any other effort of this ilk, and I bought it and loved it. What was most impressive was the historical detail and the very deft weaving of all those subplots and interesting characters to convey San Francisco as it must have been. My favorite true-life character was easily the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, whose antics made me laught out loud. Close behind him, literally and figuratively, was a fictional characer, Kaitlin Staley, a runaway teenage farm girl who ventures to the city to meet her hero and endures a roller coaster of a ride. By far the book's best section is the earthquake and fire, and the way that incompetent city officials and the city's military occupiers, many of them drunk, added to the misery and the destruction. I found myself wanting more of this, and wanting to know what happened in the aftermath as well. This book is not perfect: I found a typo and a grammatical error and a historical inaccuracy, but those are the copy editor's fault. As a freelance journalist and editor, that stuff distresses me and is becoming more and more common in books. The violence and confrontations was a bit more than I would have liked. But if your taste is big, bold, sweeping novels, you might really like this book. I finished it a week ago and have read another since, but 1906 lingers with me. That's a good sign and part of the surprise. I understand why readers are loving it. If you're going to write popular fiction and thrillers, you should bring some intelligence and complexity to the story. I felt this book succeeded and was well worth the read.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was so strong that I knocked Bay Area seismographs off their stands or registered off the scale. The shocks were felt from south of Los Angeles to central Oregon. Fires turned the city into an inferno for four days, and almost a hundred years later, the number of people killed remains unknown. With all this going on, it is hard to imagine a book in which the San Francisco earthquake is almost as an anticlimax, but here it is. "1906" is so busy with overwrought plot that the earthquake pales in comparison to the melodramatic goings-on.

I won't even go into the story. I was hoping for something like "Paradise Alley" or "Banished Children of Eve" which explored the effect of a large and tragic event on a range of characters, giving the reader insight into the event, the time period, and the way people reacted to both, all the while offering a whale of a good read. Alas, not here. An excellent opportunity was tossed aside and replaced with a lot of bad-movie clutter.

I did like was the treatment of the Enrico Caruso phenomenon. San Francisco had gone crazy for the great tenor, who was in town to sing Don Jose in "Carmen." People from miles away had crowded into San Francisco for a glimpse of the cheerful Italian who was probably the most famous man in the world at that time. This good-natured trouper with a voice blessed by God and his feet firmly on the ground uncomplainingly traveled to the remotest parts of the globe to perform, but of San Francisco he said, "Hell of a place. I never sing here again."

"1906" has "movie treatment" written all over it, and indeed, it seems to have been optioned by a film company already. With the centenary of the earthquake only two years away, I'm still waiting for the novel that will pin that moment in history.

Dallesandro's 1906 is an awesome book, as much for its epic sweep as for how tightly six years of solid research are integrated into a compelling story. It's not just about the earthquake. In the best tradition of fictionalized history, the interactions of a pastiche of real, combined, and invented characters tell us much we didn't know about the real events leading to the earthquake, as well as the botched attempts to save the City afterward.

Without departing from the fiction and the drama, the author makes a compelling argument that for almost a century a coverup has grossly understated the death toll, hidden the corruption that anticipated the fires but gutted the preventive measures, and presented incompetents and villains as courageous heroes. It may make you wonder if current fire precautions will be sufficient the next time the San Andreas or Hayward fault lets go.

The book is especially recommended to readers with a fondness for the uniqueness of San Francisco. You'll find yourself walking those streets, climbing those hills, envisioning extravagant Nob Hill hotels and mansions as well as long-gone (or at least long-replaced) SoMa tenements and Barbary Coast bawdyhouses. But it's the characters, presented in the full context of their cultural setting, that stay with you.

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5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting, page-turner
As a bookseller, it is great to have a book you can handsell with conviction knowing that your customers will return and thank you for the recommendation. Read more

Published on July 9 2004 by Glen Robbe

5.0 out of 5 stars LITERATURE AND FILM IS THRILLINGU;n
1906 is an important book, documentary and film. As a native San Francisco author I am very selective about fine literature and film.
1906 is both! Read more

Published on July 5 2004 by BONNY KROLL

5.0 out of 5 stars The drama and poetry of San Francisco history unfolds...
...in 1906, marrying scrupulous historical detail with the color and magnetism of Mr. Dalessandro's master storytelling skill. Read more

Published on Jun 17 2004 by Jill Nagle

4.0 out of 5 stars A character driven apocolpytic adventure
For someone who's spent years both living and writing about San Francisco, maybe I can't help but be impartial about this book, and Jame's previous book, Bohemian Heart. Read more

Published on Jun 16 2004 by Jason

5.0 out of 5 stars Put this in the Pantheon!
I have never been so sucked into a piece of fiction from the very first sentence as I was with Dalessandro's sprawling historical crime-opera! Read more

Published on Jun 16 2004 by jay bonansinga

5.0 out of 5 stars About Time
I am probably in a small minority of people who knew much of this story before I read it. I am 71 years old and my mother, her parents and many of their friends survived the... Read more

Published on Jun 10 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars What a waste!
First of all, I'm shocked at those other reviews. They must be 'plants' from the publisher because this was truly one of the worst books I've ever read. Read more

Published on Jun 4 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
San Francsico takes a fall in this fast-paced novel which recreates not only the material disaster of the San Francisco earthquake and fire, but the disaster waiting to happen in... Read more

Published on Jun 3 2004 by Denis Kelly

5.0 out of 5 stars Setting the Record Straight
I confess. I am a screenwriting student of "1906" author James Dalessandro. However, I am also a lawyer who values the rigorous examination of facts. Read more

Published on Jun 2 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars An Objective Opinion
I am a semi-reitred contractor in Sacramento, not a professional reviewer nor a friend of this author or his publisher or anyone. Read more

Published on May 31 2004

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