I admit that I might be somewhat to blame for my personal dislike for Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City.  After all, I began reading it under the pretense that the book was a work of fiction loosely based on the story of a serial killer who used Chicago’s World Fair to lure unsuspecting women into his arms, and consequently, their deaths.  Had I known ahead of time that the book was purely a work of non-fiction, and that every conversation that occurred between characters was pulled directly from an existing source, I probably would have given the author a little more credit.  In all honesty, Larson does deserve some kudos for the assumedly thousands of hours of tedious and thorough research that went into this book, and the ability to organize it in a coherent way that was at its best interesting and mildly entertaining.  Furthermore, Larson perfectly captured the pre-fair dark city of Chicago, with its streets brimming with horse manure that formed a slimy wreaking sludge on days when it rained. [Read more...]