Thunderstruck

ThunderstruckErik Larson; Three Rivers Press 2007

Thunderstruck is a fun read, and satisfying in it’s interconnectedness in a way that The Devil in the White City (the other book by Larson which I’ve read) is not.  While the timeline of the two parallel stories is not always in sync, the eventual cross over between the two seemingly unconnected narratives provides a climactic culmination of the stories. The portrait of Marconi as professionally driven but intellectually ignorant and socially obtuse reminded me of our modern startup-bros; he was almost proto-Zuckerberg-ian in his disdain for a world less convinced of the greatness of his ideas than he was.  However, like in The Devil in the White City, the vivid historical accuracy of the Cripen murder story precludes the sort of conclusive closure one craves and expects from such a literary narrative.