Make Me a City

December 15, 2018
The rise of Chicago in the 19th century provides the frame for a trove of colorful stories and characters in this entertaining debut novel.The first chapter begins with a wink, a label describing it as an "Extract from Chicago: An Alternative History 1800-1900." That conceit also prepares for the book's variety of textual "sources," including a journal, letters, a chapbook, newspaper clips, an interview, and, in a meta wink, a book review of the alternative history. They give a period feel, add colorful voices via dialect and accents, and allow Carr some narrative maneuvers. The story traces the building of the city from muddy streets to bubble-frame houses, sewage systems, and skyscrapers while following several characters across generations. One is the city's first settler, whose father was a white Frenchman and mother, "a free-born slave"; his great-granddaughter will become a journalist and take on powerful politicians, putting her life at risk in a chilling scene. Another is a dreamer and booster of Chicago who begins with land speculation, goes bankrupt twice, and plays a crucial role in making the city a railroad hub. He is also foiled in a romance that will echo across years. Elsewhere a teen nearly killed while trying to break up a logjam delaying timber shipments to the growing city will become a building inspector and target of the same corrupt politicians the journalist pursues. A few historical figures have cameos, although Ellis Chesbrough, the engineer who designed Chicago's sewer system, gets a sizable role linked to the fictional players. Melodrama mars a few scenes, and the frequent shifts in voice and style may test some readers' patience. For the most part, Carr has a sure touch, and in many extended anecdotes, his narrative skills show exceptional detail, pacing, and tension.A solid storyteller enlivens a rich patch of American history.

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March 1, 2019

DEBUT What is the history of a city if not an amalgamation of myths, stories, and archival documents? Carr's debut novel is an impressive literary experiment blending epistolary narratives, fragmented journal entries, and historical book chapters into a sprawling chronicle about the founding and development of Chicago in the 19th century. The story begins with Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (of African descent) establishing a settlement in 1785 and then proceeds chronologically, focusing on the key figures in Chicago's accelerated growth. Because chapters rotate between literary forms and time periods, readers may find the narrative structure challenging to follow. However, Carr effectively weaves the stories of his sprawling cast of minor and major figures to underscore the city's myriad threads of development: economic, political, and social. With minimal dialog, he melds the historical construction of the railroad and canals with a population struggling to define its political and social stratification during the Civil War. VERDICT An ambitious literary debut that occupies a liminal space between alternative history and experimental literature.--Joshua Finnell, Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2019
Carr's intricately woven debut evokes the history of nineteenth-century Chicago while showcasing important but little-known historical figures and fictional people from different walks of life who contribute to its development. The chronologically arranged chapters vary in style, from straightforward narrative to spot-on pastiches of news articles and diaries to excerpts from a compiled alternative history text whose contents are cleverly self-referential. In 1800, Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable, a trader of part-African descent and the marshy land's first nonindigenous resident, plays a fateful chess game. Other significant characters include schoolteacher Eliza Chappell Porter, developer John Stephen Wright, and engineer Ellis Chesbrough. Their and their descendants' lives are full of incident, including the Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Great Chicago Fire. While their personalities are colorfully rendered, the depictions of Native Americans aren't terribly nuanced. More eclectic than Micheneresque, the novel nonetheless offers a strong sense of place. Ambition, injustice, and opportunity all play roles as Chicago expands outward and upward. Over time, the disparate stories, which span the entire century, intersect in delightfully unexpected ways.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)