perhaps best lifetime historical novel (66 yr old
As a child I learned to read and my fathers kenneth roberts collection was on our shelf. His novels transported me to places that were startling yet realistic. As natives
of Maine since before the revolution, Mr Roberts novels anchored us in place and time.
When I found "city of dreams" in 2016, the sturm and drang of contemporary
politics receded and I was able to travel in time to a place I had lived in personally
and walked and read its history in its libraries. The fantastic ability of this author
to conjure these scenarios that ooze authenticity. I am writing in retrospect as I
read this book four years ago but as we are about to enter a plague time the world
over, Tyler Anbinders elucidation of the young immigrant barber/doctors ability
to save the life of peter stuyvesant by performing surgery that was unimagined in
most of his contemporarys knowledge base. The protagonist was also skilled in the
art of creating vaccinations to prevent smallpox. This is the wrinkle that has stayed in my mind these years as we enter a period where survival of the species may depend on these skills. I will reread in the next few weeks. What a book CAWentworth