RavePloughsharesRosellen Brown’s prose shines. It is lucid, rhythmic and offers vivid descriptions of the city ... we see Brown’s ability to not only recreate late 19th century Chicago, but recreate it with beautiful sentences ... Unlike the 2004 book Devil in the White City by Eric Larson, which glorifies the craft and workmanship that went into the Columbian Exposition, this novel shows us the darker side, and in some ways, asks us to pick sides ... Questions arise about the luxuries of those who create and enjoy art while others suffer ... Like the hungry, those who yearn for justice in this world are rarely satisfied, the novel seems to tell us, but sometimes art can hold us off.
