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Summary: How to write CHARACTERS
Review: I can see why there was a bidding war for the film rights of 1906. It's the CHARACTERS. They are so alive. As corny as it sounds, they do jump right off the page.
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Summary: vivid and engrossing
Review: I cant wait to see the movie - the characters and the sense of being in SF back then are incredibly well done - makes me see the city in a whole new light. But dont get too carried away, remember it is not all fact, but a blend of creative license and actual events/people. I found it hard for me not to take all of it for the complete and true telling of the story - so much so I have now begun to research it myself to learn more about what really happened (and I never cared much for history).
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Summary: An Entertaining & Educating Story
Review: I just finished this book for the second time. Mr. Dalessandro does an excellent job of painting "word pictures" and weaving the history and mystery of old San Francisco. He also does a great job of weaving the characters and their stories together. I've lived here for almost thiry years, and I learned more about the City, its families, its geology, and the City's political story by reading this book than from all of the mainstream media put together.
If you want to be entertained and educated at the same time, read this book.
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Summary: I loved this book
Review: I knew almost nothing about the San Francisco Earthquake before I read this book, and I was astonished by whatI read. I'm a 25 year old college student, and I loved the fact that the narrator, Annalisa Passarelli, was an activist and feminist a hundred years ago, who was willing to risk everything to combat the rampant corruption in San Francisco at the time. This novel follows the exploits of two main characters and several supporting characters. The two main ones are Annalisa, a reporter for the crusading newspaper called The Bulletin, and Hunter Fallon, a young police officer trying to bring scientific techniques to the San Francisco police department and solve the disappearance of his father. What they don't know at the time is that the San Andreas Fault is moving beneath them. The warning signs, as Annalisa says in the book's prologue, are everywhere: frantic horses and howling dogs, a fire chief, Dennis Sullivan, who is desperately trying to get the city to take precautions to stem off a major fire, and a corrupt City Hall that doesn't care about anything but filling its pocket's as the expense of everyone they can rob. 1906 is filled with amazing characters, many of them young people, which I loved. Another of my favorites was Kaitlin Staley, a Kansas farm girl who runs away from home because she is in love with the opera and Enrico Caruso and all the fashions and jewels that she is desperate to see at the opera house. I had never heard of Enrico Caruso before I read this book, I'm sorry to say. Now I want to know everything about him. What happens to Kaitlin as she goes in pursuit of Caruso is hair-raising and frightening: as the story wound through dozens of characters, I found myself asking "what's happening with Kaitlin? Did she survive Andre the Pimp and Tessie the Madam and Adam Rolf" and all the other people out to exploit her. How often do you find a book with two great young female characters, both of them strong and willful and independent, especially in those times? I was hooked from page one when Annalisa writes "It was a month ago that I finally managed to convince myself I was still alive." She then proceeds to describe the amazing destruction of San Francisco. "I write my story floating in a sea of ash. Ash that was once the city of San Francisco. Once someone's opera house, someone's mansion, someone's bakery. Someone's someone." I moved to San Francisco several years and knew very little about my new home: this book has given me a great understanding and appreciation of where I now live. But I think everyone would love this book: the description of the earthquake and fire, of the army shooting people they think are looting, soldiers blowing the city up with dynamite in an attempt to blow firebreaks is heartbreaking and unforgettable. It's a romance but a good one, not sappy like Titanic. I just loved this book. I would bet that 90% of the people who read it would agree. Just read a few pages and decide for yourself. Once I started, I could not put it down. Aweseome, fabulous, a book that young people like myself will absolutely love.
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Summary: SENSATIONAL
Review: I live in the midwest and travel to San Francisco on business periodically, where I discovered James Dalessandro's first novel, Bohemian Heart several years ago. It was one of the most intelligent, original, page-turning mysteries I had ever read. I bought a copy of 1906 on Union Square last week and read it on the airplane home, and was the last one off the airplane because I did not want to close the book. He outdid himself this time, something I did not expect. This is much more than a story about the great San Francisco earthquake and fire, though the long section on the earthquake, the chaos and heroism and human disaster is riveting. This is a poem to the city of San Francisco that was wiped off the earth: it is a romance, a cry of outrage, a political tome, a journey through what must have been the most fascinating and complex city in America at the turn of the century. What I loved about both of his novels was how lean and taut they are, how he never overwrites and never seems to waste words, and yet 1906 is filled with colorful details, complex plots and subplots, and some of the most fascinating and orginal characters in fiction. I laughed out loud, re-read several chapters as soon as I was done with them, and must have cried three or four times while reading the book, especially at the end. My best friend is now reading it and we are already arguing over who our favorite character is, what the best lines are, and what is the most shocking revelations about the disaster. I just hope Mr. Dalessandro does not wait ten years to write another San Francisco story. It is the best book I have read in a very long time.
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Summary: Exciting
Review: I was fortunate to have receive a pre-released copy as a gift. Wonderful, fascinating, interesting, exciting, entertaining and MORE! James Dalessandro has outdone himself with 1906. James writes with the reader in mind to put them right into the story. The movie is now what I'm waiting for.
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Summary: 1906 - History and Mystery Revealed
Review: If you love San Francisco as I do, you will love this book. Dalessandro's detailed descriptions of the City as it was back then are so vivid, I can picture the events unfolding on the same streets I myself have lived and worked on. The author has made history come alive with a cast of characters, both actual and fictional, that are so real you can smell them. I can just see the great John Barrymore stumbling about half drunk. It must have been truly magnificent to hear Caruso sing "Carmen" the night before the disaster. Until I read this book, I had no idea how big a part graft and corruption played in the destruction of San Francisco. It seems that the devastation and tragedy that followed the quake was as much a result of human stupidity and greed as it was an act of God. In addition to a great historical novel, Dalessandro has penned a terrific mystery that's as compelling as the characters themselves. I can't wait to see the movie. Two thumbs up all the way.
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Summary: The Great Quake of '06 Retold
Review: If you think you know the story of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, think again. This novel reveals the true story behind the sanitized version; it reveals the vicious corruption and deal making that damaged The City more than the quake itself. And it does so in a lively style that pays sly homage to muckraking journalist Nellie Bly.The book teems with vivid detail, providing a visceral experience... the sights, sounds, and smells of disaster, natural and man-made.
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Summary: Could not stop reading!
Review: It's not only a gripping page turner, but it is truly informative. I loved every minute, it's a must read!
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Summary: Best Summer Reading Yet!
Review: James Dalessandro has written a book that is absolutely impossible to put down. Your first temptation will be to race from one chapter to the next-resist the urge!
Slow down and enjoy the smallest details of character, plotting and deeply researched historical information. The terrifying moment when the earthquake strikes will keep your eyes drilled into the pages of this riveting book. The moments in between are filled with crime, corruption and compassion that will leave you breathless.
Simply put, 1906 is this year's best read-and next year's, too. -Melanie Morgan, Talk-Show Host, KSFO
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