The Architect of New York, a new novel by the Spanish writer Javier Moro, purports to be a memoir by Guastavino’s son Rafaelito ... It’s an appealing premise, an opportunity to explore the immigrant journey of a father and son who made such a vivid mark on their adopted city and country. It is also a chance to tease out the separate identities of the two men, who have often been conflated ... Moro conducted impressive research for the novel ... But despite this rich source material, the book feels as though it never underwent the marvelous alchemy, catalyzed by imagination, that transforms research into literature. Instead, the narrative often reads like a dutiful biography — long on historical facts but short on nuanced exploration of its subjects’ inner lives. We learn far more about the interiors of grand buildings than of the human beings who designed them. The novel is most successful in presenting the elder Guastavino through the eyes of the younger, whose attitude toward his philandering father evolves from veneration to resentment to competitiveness before returning, after Rafael’s death, to veneration. Far less satisfying is Rafaelito’s sketchy account of his own messy private life ... Though we do get intriguing peeks into the Guastavinos’ psyches, too often we seem to be passing them by from a distance.

The Architect of New York is a work of historical fiction, with Moro pulling from real letters. Without sufficient context, however, one might easily assume they were reading a memoir: The sheer amount of technical detail, first-person narration and hyperfocus on two central figures makes for a book that is essentially a literary equivalent to the docudrama, where just enough fictional license is added to turn a series of facts into a vibrant, personable story. Readers with a passion for urban development and history have lots to look forward to in The Architect of New York, an unabashed and ultimately heartwarming love letter to builders, painters, architects, engineers and entrepreneurs across the globe.

Very lightly fictionalized life of a Spanish-born architect who had his greatest success in the U.S ... Rafael Jr. was intimately involved in his father’s work even before he left school at 15 to apprentice in the business, and his descriptions of Guastavino’s contributions to the Boston Public Library, the Grand Central Oyster Bar, Manhattan’s City Hall subway station, Boston’s Christian Science mother church, and other iconic buildings are the most engaging parts of the book ... Potentially of some interest to architecture buffs, not so much to fiction readers.