Thunderstruck is the non-fiction account of two figures who each captured the imagination of the western world at the beginning of the 20th century. Guglielmo Marconi was one of the driving forces behind the invention of wireless telegraphy. Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was an American doctor of homeopathic medicine, who in 1910, killed his wife. Larson tells the tales of these two fascinating men with the same engrossing style which he brought to Devil and the White City. The reader easily forgets that he is reading a work of non-fiction.
I happen to enjoy reading about the history of science and technology, but Larson's account of Marconi's development of transatlantic wireless telegraphy is accessible, and engrossing. One can't help but draw parallels between the the technological developments of the early 1900's and the early 2000's. The excitement and wonder with which the world embraced wireless is palpable.
I highly recommend Thunderstruck.
Still on the Bedside Table:
- W. Sommerset Maughm's Of Human Bondage
- Alan Furst's The Foreign Correspondant
- Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
- Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
2 comments:
Have you really not read Slaughterhouse? Or are you re-reading it.
Read it for the first time.
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