PositiveThe Christian Science Monitor... breaks from the pack. Snow weaves a rich biography of a place ... Snow echoes Disney’s attention to detail in this lush history of how the theme park came to be. He zooms in on particulars that 21st-century consumers might take for granted ... For Disneyland diehards who want to go under the hood of an Autopia car, this is a meticulous chronicle of artistic devotion. But for the merely Disney-curious and those who (like myself) haven’t visited Disneyland, it may, at times, be a bumpy ride ... Snow gives dozens of Disney employees and various contractors their due, often describing their pre-Disney careers and their temperaments, their engineering or artistic triumphs. Sometimes this resembles interminable introductions at a crowded party – a wash of names that leaves a reader wanting both greater emotional connection and a corporate pyramid chart...But in a few cases, it seems a worthwhile endeavor to recognize unsung contributors ... In our search for art that emboldens us to forge a better, inclusive future, it may be most important to avoid slippery, saccharine nostalgia for the past. And for all his reverence for Disney, Snow understands this too.
