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Date Posted: 16:21:59 06/03/05 Fri
Author: Syl
Subject: City of Dreams

This one was sent in by Angie B. Sounds like my kind of book!


TITLE: City of Dreams

AUTHOR: Beverly Swerling

GENRE: Historical fiction



The setting of this novel is early Manhattan, when it was called Nieuw Amsterdam by the Dutch settlers. Our story follows the stories of a family from these beginnings through the Revolution and their feud that splits the family in two.

It is 1661 and Lucas Turner and his sister Sally have just arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam from Holland. Lucas is a barber, a profession with a blade that during this time sometimes translated in the use of the blade for surgery, a very controversial treatment at a time when blood letting and treatment of the humors was considered mainstream. Lucas starts his clinic in a corner of Nieuw Amsterdam near the Wall, a tall wooden wall surrounding the city to protect it from Indian attacks.

Lucas is overly protective of his sister, who is an apothecary and runs their household. Sally ventures out of the Wall without telling Lucas, once with disastrous results as she is raped by an Indian. Lucas about this time is introduced to Jacob Van der Vries, a new immigrant and a physician who shuns the ideas of surgeons but has an eye for Sally. They compete for the governor’s approval and sanction. Add to this mix an affair between Lucas and a married woman, Marit, with an abusive husband. All things come to a head when Lucas, trying to figure out what to do about Sally being dishonored and now pregnant by an Indian, is offered money by Jacob Van der Vries, whom he and Sally both despise, to marry Sally at the same time that he is trying to find money for Marit’s increasingly abusive husband, who put a price on leaving her. Lucas finally accepts the money and Sally never forgives him for essentially selling her.

The subsequent generations carry their legacies, both of hate and of medicine, as Lucas’ grandson, Christopher, becomes an accomplished surgeon with theories of transfusion and Sally’s daughter with Jacob, Bess, becomes a skilled apothecary with a deep hate for Lucas’ posterity. Bess’ father and son-in-law are both physicians and also are very critical of the surgeons.

What has happened to Sally’s Indian baby was a very tightly guarded secret that isn’t discovered for over 50 years, but when it does and the implications it has to the families is realized, any progress the two families have made in healing old rifts is completely torn apart. This affects most directly one of Lucas’ descendants, Jennet, whose life takes a very unexpected turn toward a man named Solomon DaSilva and the lifestyle he introduces her to.

By the time we reach the Revolutionary War, the two families are fighting on different sides of the battlefront, Patriot versus Tory, surgeon versus physician, both vying for control of the city hospital, later to become Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

This book is completely engrossing. The New York history is very interesting, but the early surgery descriptions are both fascinating and horrifying. Swerling writes some terrific characters. Jennet in particular is such a strong character that it is hard to decide whether to hate her or feel sorry for her. The book can be very graphic in language, surgery, and sexual content. Sometimes the story goes toward a head-on collision that you don’t want to see but can’t look away.

It is broken into several different sections, focusing on different generations. When one ends it will drive you crazy because you want to know more, but the next generation’s story is just as good.

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Replies:

[> Wow, I'll bet this book's a fat one. It sounds good. I'll have to keep it in mind for my "have to have" list. Thanks! -- beccabee, 16:30:17 06/03/05 Fri


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[> This looks like a great book for my DH for Fathers Day. He is fascinated by New York (and to us ignorant non-americans, Manhattan is New York). I am assuming Wall street runs along this Wall, does it? -- Margy, 10:49:08 06/04/05 Sat


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[> [> Yes, Wall Street now is where it was 400 yrs ago when it ran along the wooden wall of the city. There is also mention of Broad Way, another major street in the city, which of course now is Broadway. I don't know much about NYC landmarks, but apparently many are mentioned in the book that have been there since the early colony days. -- AngieB, 11:56:58 06/05/05 Sun


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[> I read this book recently and really enjoyed it, as well as her second book "Shadowbrook" which has characters related to those in this book. -- astrokath, 18:57:12 06/04/05 Sat


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[> [> I'm glad you mentioned this Kath! I have looked at Shadowbrook a few times and would have been disappointed to find out that it followed this book after I had bought it! -- Marg B, 23:52:01 06/04/05 Sat


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