Domenico Fusco Fusco itibaren Gempolrejo, Tunjungan, Blora Regency, Central Java, Endonezya itibaren Gempolrejo, Tunjungan, Blora Regency, Central Java, Endonezya

So funny! I do not remember the last time I laughed out loud at a book so many times.

It's hard to say just what this book was - there was history, there was true crime, and there was engineering -- all coming together in Chicago right before the turn of the century with a manufactured mini-city at the nexus. In a way, the fair became a character unto itself. There were the men behind the fair, struggling to pull this monumental acheivement off against a backdrop of financial disaster (banks were failing and several people committed suicide), political disaser (the mayor of chicago was assassinated), and natural disaster (a tornadic thunderstorm). There was the serial killer. Who seduced and then murdered women and nearly managed to pull it off until an insurance company went after him for insurance fraud. I also liked Larson's storytelling drawing suspense out until dropping reveals on you - like the name of the engineer who came up with an attraction to trump the Eiffel Tower at the Paris expo (Ferris), or the name of the student architect who scoffed at the baroque and greek revival architecture of the fair (Frank Lloyd Wright). There was the influence of the fair on US popular culture (the white cities became "thine alabaster cities" in America the Beautiful as well as the fabled Emerald City in Wizard of Oz. One of the builders was Walt Disney's father. I'd heard many stories about the 1939 New York World's Fair and how it shaped American Culture. Learning about this one was fascinating as well.