Caleb Carr - The Alienist

[claritylit]

This book was a bestseller ten years ago, and it's taken me this long to read it. Given all the hype, I should have expected a bit of disappointment; it's rare that a book can possibly live up to that, especially ten years later!

Official book description: The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter

Comments

[sp23]

I own that book and have read it two or three times, and just think it's a great book. The Angel of Darkness is good, too, but not as good in my opinion as The Alienist.

[claritylit]

I realize that when I talk about books for myself, I mostly talk about negatives. I thought today about why that is, and I think it's partly because I tend to forget these things and give a crappy author another try, before remembering and dropping the book in disgust

[sp23]

I think the reason I liked the first book so much was because, as you say, it was fascinating reading a book about the beginning of psychotherapy in connection with tracking a criminal. Plus, Teddy Roosevelt! *g*

And I did like the Angel of Darkness, it's just that I really, really liked The Alienist. *g*