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Holyoke: The Belle Skinner Legacy
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 1, 2008
As a proud resident of the Paper City, I wanted to like this book, and I truly tried. Unfortunately, Jack Dunn made that impossible. The book reads like an obituary, an ode to a city once great, but dead. I quickly tired of the derogatory references to boarded up buildings, Puerto Rican boys, and general lawlessness. Dunn went so far as to suggest that it's unsafe to park in front of the library. Give me a break! Like any urban community, Holyoke has its problems, probably more so than most, but to hear it from Dunn, you'd think he was writing about war-torn Bosnia.
To add insult to injury, this book had numerous historical inaccuracies, most egregious among them regarding the ownership of the canal system. Dunn states that the City assumed the operations of the Holyoke Water Power Company in 1902, which is simply not true.
Probably just as annoying was Dunn's proclivity to inject inappropriate political commentary into the story. He managed to sneak in lines such as "Kerry had been the clear winner in voter exit polls", "the greedy oil barons of today, who monopolize energy for immoral profits, stealing from us common folk", and, in a sophomoric attempt to explain the Great Depression, "in 1929 crooked stockbrokers removed large sums of money from the market. Then, it crashed." None of this has any place in a historical novel about Holyoke.
While I've got the hatchet out, I may as well say that the book was horribly written. There were spelling mistakes and run on sentences, and the platonic romance between John - or should I say Jack Dunn - and Maggie was as embarrassing as it was unnecessary. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't read this book. If you want to learn about Holyoke, go down to the Holyoke Room at the library. Trust me, you're car will be there when you get out.
To add insult to injury, this book had numerous historical inaccuracies, most egregious among them regarding the ownership of the canal system. Dunn states that the City assumed the operations of the Holyoke Water Power Company in 1902, which is simply not true.
Probably just as annoying was Dunn's proclivity to inject inappropriate political commentary into the story. He managed to sneak in lines such as "Kerry had been the clear winner in voter exit polls", "the greedy oil barons of today, who monopolize energy for immoral profits, stealing from us common folk", and, in a sophomoric attempt to explain the Great Depression, "in 1929 crooked stockbrokers removed large sums of money from the market. Then, it crashed." None of this has any place in a historical novel about Holyoke.
While I've got the hatchet out, I may as well say that the book was horribly written. There were spelling mistakes and run on sentences, and the platonic romance between John - or should I say Jack Dunn - and Maggie was as embarrassing as it was unnecessary. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't read this book. If you want to learn about Holyoke, go down to the Holyoke Room at the library. Trust me, you're car will be there when you get out.
Displaying 1 of 1 review