Make Me a City

by Jonathan Carr

A propulsive debut of visionary scale, Make Me a City embroiders fact with fiction to tell the story of Chicago's 19th century, tracing its rise from frontier settlement to industrial colossus.

The tale begins with a game of chess—and on the outcome of that game hinges the destiny of a great city. From appalling injustice springs forth the story of Chicago, and the men and women whose resilience, avarice, and altruism combine to generate a moment of unprecedented civic energy.

A variety of irresistible voices deliver the many strands of this novel: those of Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable, the long-unheralded founder of Chicago; John Stephen Wright, bombastic speculator and booster; and Antje Hunter, the first woman to report for the Chicago Tribune. The stories of loggers, miners, engineers, and educators teem around them and each claim the narrative in turns, sharing their grief as well as their delight.

As the characters, and their ancestors, meet and part, as their possessions pass from hand to hand, the reader realizes that Jonathan Carr commands a grand picture, one that encompasses the heartaches of everyday lives as well as the overarching ideals of what a city and a society can and should be. Make Me a City introduces us to a novelist whose talent and ambition are already fully formed.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, London, Audiobook, Novels, Literary Fiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2019

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big-hearted, brawling, grand, intimate, inquisitive, and full of judgment - this is a novel that captures the dynamic of Chicago in its madcap first century of existence. Carr's novel, which is structured as a series of interlocking short stories, scratches an itch I have long had for good historical fiction set in Chicago's past. It's not quite E.L. Doctorow or Hillary Mantel, but what is? This wonderful re-mythologizing of how a prairie swamp became the city of the century is instantly one of my go-to recommendations for books about my city.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one strange book. It is a work of historical fiction and probably the most unusual book of that category that I have ever read. I am at something of a loss as to how to approach writing a review of this book. To start I should note that I am a lifelong resident of the Chicago area and an avid fan of the history of Chicago. When I saw this book being offered for review on NetGalley I had to apply for the opportunity to read it. I have given this book 3 stars because it is a satisfactory story and worth the time and effort to read but it lacks the spark to make it to 4 stars. This, of course, is my sole opinion and I can readily expect other readers to either agree or disagree as the book's quirkiness will strike people differently.

When I started to read the book I was greatly disappointed. It was difficult to read as the author ostensibly quoted from journal and diary sources for his information and these entries were written by people with marginal literacy skills. If that wasn't enough the author then skips around to stories about other characters whose life events occurred at different times. So there were leaps in time and story and characters. It began to feel as though this book was an anthology or collection of short stories about various minor characters whose lives were lived during various periods during the history of Chicago. It also became apparent that this book was not really a history of Chicago but about the people the author chose to depict that lived during the creation of this city. In that view the book became more acceptable to me. I have always found histories that report events from the perspective of the people that lived through the events, the frontline soldier for instance, to be highly interesting and informative. Such perspectives give the event a more human scale and appreciation. So when I viewed the story in that manner I was put in mind of Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" as this book seemed to create a similar tone. It was about obscure and forgotten characters from the history of Chicago and their struggles as this city was being built. Surprisingly, however, my belief that this was an anthology or collection of biographical sketches of forgotten Chicagoans was soon put to rest.

As the book progressed the stories of these various citizens were dovetailed, intersected, and merged with the stories of the other characters. With this occurrence the book took on another form entirely and became more of a novel with a mysterious flow whose course was unknown. Then more puzzling yet was the idea that this book was actually to be taken as an excerpt from an early 20th century work by a Professor Milton A. Winship from the University of Chicago. Whether or not Prof. Winship was a real person or a fiction I have as yet been unable to determine. So far I have found nothing to verify his existence so I assume he is fictional as is his book which was promoted as an alternative history. This professor espoused the belief that it was the historian's job to weave the collected facts of history into a more palatable form and that if this required the use of assumptions and intuition or creativity then so be it. After reading that I more clearly understood what the author may have been trying to achieve as the professor's book excerpts clearly paralleled the book. So was this book about the professor's book or was his book merely being used as a source by the author? That was part of what confused me and still does. All through the book the author notes the alleged sources from which the material used has been derived though without footnotes I am unable to verify the legitimacy of these sources. More fiction?

On the whole I enjoyed the book as it took me on an unexpected ride. I learned a bit about my city that I did not know and that is always a good thing. I also admired the author's imaginative telling of a story and weaving these disparate lives into a plot that spanned a century of Chicago history while at the same time giving meaningful reference to significant events in the history of this city. I probably should give the book 4 stars but I guess I am a purest about my hometown history and since the history was merely a setting for the author's story and not the centerpiece it will have to be three.

In closing I need to mention that this was a NetGalley ARC that was sent to me in exchange for an objective review.

[Amanda Barlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this having seen it as Times Book of the Month and wasn't disappointed. It is a fascinating depiction of the rise of Chicago, which is an interesting story by itself, but it is the journey of the characters through which it was so cleverly portrayed. Took a while to get used to the different voices, but very well worth it, and a great read. Really recommend it.

[Hugo Glass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an incredible book, I haven't seen one written in this style before. With each chapter the character changed and the medium changed, it starts off as a history book "the alternative history," before visiting a range of characters - an upcoming entrepreneur (and real estate gambler), Irish canal builders, an engineer, and others in a range of mediums - third person, diary entry, news article etc. It was this variety that made the book such a fascinating read. For someone looking for a history book of Chicago this is not the one, I thought it would include more key turning points. However, saying that I learnt a huge amount about Chicago from this book.

I am sure this book will offend some people, some key old (real) Chicago names were characterised (whether correctly or not) into nasty pieces of work. The treatment of the Irish and even the person that initially found the city, shows that there was a lot of misery and mistreatment behind the success of Chicago.
This book was one of those that became more interesting as you read it, and I can't applaud the author enough for the scale of his ambition. I hope there are more books written by Jonathan Carr.

[Joan Happel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carr’s entertaining and uniquely written novel relates the “history” of Chicago’s first hundred years. Using many plot devices to unfold the story to readers, the novels storyline comes to us through excerpts from an “alternative” history manuscript, journal entries, letters, and newspaper articles among other devices. There is an eclectic mix of characters and their descendants, both historic and fictional, some who travel through the narrative, while others appearing only briefly.

This sweeping portrayal of Chicago at its best and worst, its highs and lows, is exceptional. From prairie town to booming metropolis, Chicago and its residents come alive with the details and descriptions in Carr’s prose. He makes us feel the struggle and abject poverty of the immigrants as well as the greed and opulence of monied class.

This is a sweeping and compelling novel of what is takes to make a city. Whether you are from Chicago, have visited there, or just love an engaging and expansive work of historical fiction, be sure and pick this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the eARC.

[Scribe Publications]

Jonathan Carr’s brilliant novel could not be more relevant to today’s world. Make Me A City explores the nature of history itself — both the official record and the suppressed stories that lie beneath. Covering a century, from mid-western wilderness to the bustling modern city of Chicago, it has a correspondingly large cast, but incidents and characters are interwoven to create not just a satisfying narrative but a working model of how civilisation comes into being, for better or worse. This novel itself is a city, one that contains the myriad hopes, ambitions, disappointments and loves of its citizens, as they work like coral insects to build the structure in which they live and die.
Richard Francis, Author of The Old Spring and Crane Pond

Make Me A City is a multitude of novels all rolled into one — a wonderfully sprawling epic about Chicago’s founding fathers (and mothers), a searching exploration of colonialism in action, and a compelling collection of stories about people and places. But it is something else too, the one thing that is known to all of us, namely a single, tender map of the human heart. In Make Me A City Jonathan Carr draws on his considerable talent to tell the story of Chicago through the eyes of its many inhabitants, exploring life, death and what is left behind with admirable deftness and style. This is a bold, thrilling debut from a seriously good writer.
Francesca Rhydderch, Author o f The Rice Paper Diaries

Absolutely magnificent. Carr grasps the complexity of a city’s history, the individuals who shape it, those who gain and those who suffer. The prose is graceful and vibrant, the gradual unfolding of the interrelated lives of these people is superbly done. This is an elegant, richly enjoyable book.
Tricia Wastvedt, Author of The River

Make Me A City’s scope and scale is quite breathtaking. It digs deep into the history of Chicago to uncover hidden stories about the people who built it. Its clever way of dealing with competing historical narratives is very exciting. A real pleasure to read!
Gerard Woodward, Author of I’ll Go to Bed at Noon

Make Me A City is a thrillingly ambitious and ingeniously accomplished first novel. This is a stunning debut by a new and instantly important literary voice.
Robert Olen Butler, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

A wondrous, bold and playful first novel. Seductively fascinating characters, real and imagined, populate this fiction with their interweaving and intergenerational stories. But the hero’s journey belongs to the city itself … An exhilarating ride.
Linda Jaivin, The Saturday Paper

Carr’s intricately woven debut evokes the history of nineteenth-century Chicago while showcasing important but little-known historical figures and fictional people from different walks of life who contribute to its development. The chronologically arranged chapters vary in style, from straightforward narrative to spot-on pastiches of news articles and diaries to excerpts from a compiled ‘alternative history’ text whose contents are cleverly self-referential … Ambition, injustice, and opportunity all play roles as Chicago expands outward and upward. Over time, the disparate stories, which span the entire century, intersect in delightfully unexpected ways.
Sarah Johnson, Booklist

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts with a note about Pointe de Sable, who in 1785 moved to Echicagou to an inhospitable wilderness, where he developed a trade.

The story starts with Eulalie and Isack in 1812, who were to travel to Fort Dearborn due to possible attack of Potawatomie on Echicagou. The same year, she comes back home to St. Charles without Isack and is very sick.

Then the story moves to 1834 Echicagou, where John Wright at the age of 19 is already a notable merchant and storekeeper, and owner of notable number of land lots. He courts Miss Chappell, a 28 year old teacher. Her wise words attract him to her.

Here the story of Eulalie and Miss Chappell connect. When Miss Chappell meets Mrs. Eulalie, she doesn’t know what to make of her. Mrs. Eulalie practices Indian medicine and claims to be born in Echicagou, which to Miss Chappell’s estimate would have been a time inhabited only by Potawatomise.

The story jumps again to a different time and place and character, Ellis Chesbrough, who at the age of 17 is already an Assistant Engineer.

Although the characters are richly developed, there is not much to the story of the city itself. And that was the reason I reached for this book. At 30% through the story, it was all over the place, instead of being concentrated on Chicago. I gave up at this point.

@FB/BestHistoricalFiction

[Erin Cataldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense and overwhelming at times; but the scale, beauty, and depth of this novel is jaw dropping and makes it worth the effort. Make Me a City is a novel that shows the rapid growth of Chicago from 1800 to 1900 from a variety of different viewpoints and formats. From letters to chapbooks to interviews to essays and orations; the character building is immense. And what's crazy is most characters are just minor footnotes, there are a few who keep popping up over the decades along with their descendants, but the scope of the people that help tell the story of building the world's greatest city is mind-blowing. Most don't even know about the imprint their leaving behind or don't understand that their journey is one of the reasons that Chicago is the way it is. From a small mulatto man who was robbed off his homestead in 1800 to the digging of canals, the raising of streets, commandeering the railways, the building of skyscrapers, Marshall Fields, the Great Chicago Fire, and the World's Fair; this unconventional historical novel tells the story of a city through the eyes of those who came first, respected her, and were far from the top of the heap. It's marvelous and unique.

[Melissa Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make me a City is a sprawling, raucous, noisy novel set in the early years of Chicago. Told through the lens of the founding father Pointe du Sable and his descendants, “City” delves the depths of the striving, ambitious, often criminal but always energetic stories of the first inhabitants of the city on the prairie.

I loved the way story kept returning to the family of du Sable. In every generation, the history kept returning to the lie that formed the founding story, and its reverberations through the years.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Rissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Make me a city 1.5⭐️

Chicago intrigued me because thats my home but it fell flat.
The characters were richly developed (a bit too much at times) and the city was minuscule in comparison.
I wasnt a fan of the writing and found it difficult to get through. We bounce through so many timelines and so many people that it was hard to follow and even harder to enjoy.

Thank you so much to Henry and Colt Co via netgalley for sending me an ARC copy of Make me a city by Jonathan Carr. This will be released on March 19, 2019.
All opinions are my own.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review for the New York Times Book Review: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/bo...

What is the lure of the ersatz historical? What is the appeal of the fakely found? The frame for Jonathan Carr’s whopper of a debut novel purports to be an “extract from ‘Chicago: An Alternative History 1800-1900’ by Professor Milton Winship, University of Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1902.” This sprawling book’s chronological vignettes map a “leisurely journey” through the 19th century as pastiched from ostensible sources: newspaper articles, journal entries, letters, notes for an exhibition of photographs, even a review of the history book itself.

If “Make Me a City” really had been written in 1902, then it would be an extraordinarily forward-thinking and valuable corrective to the erasure of the contributions of women, immigrants and people of color to America’s “second city.” As it is, Carr’s ambitious and presumably well-intentioned tome comes across as pandering, self-satisfied and ultimately wrongheaded.

The “professor” commences his narrative with a partial biography of a man named Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable, who was “a mulatto”: “That fact, I believe, is why my fellow historians have attempted to gloss over the identity of the true founder of Chicago, instead conferring the title on a white man called John Kinzie, whose own parentage was of dubious worth, to say nothing of his character.”

Carr’s professor then quotes extensively from what he presents as de Sable’s own account, which contains “quirks of diction and spelling that I transcribe here as they were originally set down.” It begins: “This day comes truble to Pointe Sable. Happns like this. I ridin to the lake from Kaskaskia on mine hoss Ladie Strafford when I sees litle Wobonsee runnin my way. I pulls the hoss up sharp.” The unpersuasive dialect-heavy account that follows — providing the setup for de Sable to play chess with the drunken white interloper Kinzie for ownership of the city — approaches literary blackface.

When a book immediately elicits doubt over its authority and dexterity to represent its subjects, it’s hard for the reader to recover. This is not to say that authors can’t represent difference; they can and they should. It’s not even to say that a white British man like Carr can’t write from the point of view of a mixed-race man like de Sable. But writing across difference should be humanizing, and representing difference isn’t the same as demonstrating one’s own enlightenment. Alas, Carr writes with a cartoonish lack of nuance. Consider, for example, the canal-digging Irishman who declares, “Begorra, you know how it is with the Irish. … We’ll drink and dance until the knees collapse, and when the dapple of the next day’s dawn peeks into the sky we’ll be found horizontal somewhere.”

Carr’s title pays homage to “City on the Make,” Nelson Algren’s classic book-length essay portraying Chicago as a metropolis brimming with boosters, hustlers and corrupt politicians. Carr’s Chicago is populated with an equally kaleidoscopic cast, including the actual land speculator John Stephen Wright and the fictional Antje Hunter, presented as the first female reporter for The Chicago Daily Tribune. He depicts most of his characters in strokes so broad they fall simplistically into the slots of noble hero or irredeemable villain, as when a nefarious doctor declares, “Depraved female patients who attempt to beflum their doctor by flaunting the flesh are a pest,” or when a venal alderman is described twice by his peers (somewhat anachronistically) as a “psychopath.” These characters emerge less as people than as illustrations of points Carr is trying to score.

The Chicago fire of 1871, the Haymarket affair, the Columbian Exposition and the reversal of the Chicago River are all depicted. Pseudohistory can, when done well, re-enchant material made dull by frequent telling. Speculative histories can also afford a chance to consider courses that events might have taken, why the present arrives to us as it does and how our future might be different.

Carr’s book, with its rollicking whimsy and ham-fisted caricature, doesn’t successfully execute the promise of that strategy. It often takes commonplaces as profundities, as when the “great sanitary engineer” Ellis S. Chesbrough observes that “a stranger visiting Chicago would have to conclude that … the fortunes of a small elite had been bettered at the expense of the masses.” Here and throughout, the novel seeks to take retroactive credit for compassion and right-mindedness it hasn’t earned.

[Fran Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous story, with a cast of characters as deep and varied as the Chicago weather. History, invention, effort and chance play their parts while the writer challenges and informs us. Good work, Mr. Carr, and thank you for this tale.

[Memu Jophat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully creative and an exceptional novel

[SueKich · Rating 5 out of 5]

The roots of a rackety town.

To the outside world, Chicago epitomises America – a raucous, bustling city thrusting ever upwards, sinking sometimes to the very depths of squalor and depredation. Sinatra sang about “Chicago, that toddlin’ town”, others called it “the windy city”, skyscrapers sprang up and gangsters were mown down, ethnic divisions ran deep, corruption appeared endemic.

Jonathan Carr goes back still further than this. He provides an alternative view of Chicago’s history throughout the 19th century, transporting the reader back to its origins to show us the birth pangs of a city as well as exposing its very heart and soul. He does this by means of a series of inter-related stories which are immediately absorbing thanks to his tremendous skill at conveying his characters.

This is a simply stunning first novel and one that rarely puts a foot wrong - though Carr hardly needs to spell out for us that the seeds of Chicago’s character were sewn by its villainous so-called founder members (it is patently clear from early in the book that this is his message). Other than this, I found Make Me a City to be an excellent and immensely satisfying read for every one of its five hundred pages. Highly recommended.

[Jude Lawes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sheer scale of this book is incredible. This is not a straight forward book to read, with many characters and many voices, but it's worth it. Really enjoyed it, many congratulations to the author

[Chaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is mischaracterized. It is not a novel, but a collection of short stories/vignettes, all peripherally rather than fundamentally involved with the city of Chicago. The first story starts out with the very beginning of the town and a man named Kinzie, who buys a "mansion" from a man named Sable.

From there we jump some decades, to the story of a woman and a man named Wright, a short portion of whose relationship is depicted. The book moves from one vignette to another, often jumping decades, never portraying the characters or relationships in depth, but superficially, before moving on to other tales. This makes the stories themselves less than satisfying. No sooner does the reader become a bit involved and invested in the story of, say, Eulalie, than the author drops her narrative (at a very suspenseful moment) and changes the focus to an unrelated couple. Without a main character or even a few to become engaged in and root for, the reader loses interest.

In addition, the method of the narrative varies, presenting itself in various forms and formats: first in the guise of an historical account, moving on to snippets of supposed diaries, chapbooks, letters, personal accounts, etc. The result is far from a cohesive whole, more like a sampling of different kinds of novels in one book. The various techniques are crafted well, but the overall effect is to bring attention to the virtuosity of the author rather than to the depth of the characters or stories depicted. It did not make for a very coherent or interesting read, and as there is no protagonist, no one story, no thread of a narrative, not all that enjoyable a read.

In addition, those looking for an in-depth account of the city of Chicago will also be disappointed, as the stories within have only a passing relationship with the city; it is only coincidental that the story connects to that particular city. In fact, it could have been any generic city in America, so impersonal is the representation of place.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't expect a straight narrative from this tale of Chicago between 1800 and 1900. Carr has used a variety of voices and sources to pull together what is more a series of vignettes than a conventional novel. This makes for some confusion early on but is ultimately rewarding because it reflects the patchwork nature of a great city. Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable and his descendants figure prominently, as is appropriate. You might find one voice more compelling than another but don't count on it necessarily reappearing. I found this fascinating but understand why others might find it frustrating. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. I knew virtually nothing about Chicago before this book and found it very informative.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
"But if what survives of our legacy is a patchwork of threads, I believe the historian has a duty to try to stitch them together." ~the ficitonal Mr Winship, Professor of American History at University of Chicago, in Make Me A City by Jonathan Carr

As a family genealogy researcher, I have delved into many turn-of-the-century place histories in which people still living recollected earlier days. Make Me A City is patterned in part on these late 19th c. volumes. Central is a fictional history of Chicago's first hundred years, offering an alternative narrative of its founding families. Interjected are other fictional primary sources. The overarching narrative is the development of the city, but the stories of these characters drives the book.

Jonathan Carr offers a French-born mulatto trader as the first European to settle at Echicagou where the Illinois River meets Lake Michigan. Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable built his family an admirable home before an unscrupulous man determines to take it from him.

We follow Jean and his descendants through the century, along with the stories of men who built Chicago, the visionary engineers and the immigrant workers, the con men and the idealistic journalists.

The story keeps weaving back to Jean and those early days when all was set in motion--the disenfranchisement of people of color, the anti-immigrant prejudice, the powerlessness of women.

Toward the end of the book, Antje Van Voorhis Hunter, whose lineage traces back to Jean, travels to see a statue erected by Pullman to commemorate the Massacre at Fort Dearborn. Her grandmother survived that massacre and her version of history has been recorded by Prof. Winship.

The statue portrays a white woman and a baby on the ground with a scantily clad Native American raising a tomahawk overhead. Another Native American stands with his hand out to stop the massacre; this man is taller and wears buckskin trousers. The civilized Native heroically is stopping the violence. No soldiers appear in the scene.

Antje and her husband discuss the implications of the statue's version of history, "like using perfume to cover up a bad smell." The myth portrayed in the art has become an accepted and shared truth.

"If you take on somebody more powerful than yourself and play by the rules and beat them, they annul the result," Antje thinks, adding, "Then nothing has changed. "It's in our blood," Mr. Winship believes, referring back to the first violence committed against Jean.

I made a family tree to keep the families straight.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[James Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel has been on my radar for a while now after seeing it as Times Book of the Month. I was certainly not left disappointed. Through its many voices, Make Me a City takes the reader on a journey through Chicago’s 19th century. The style is unusual in that the novel is broken up into many shorter stories which are then linked together by certain reappearing characters and themes. I would argue that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but having said that all of the parts are unique and enjoyable in their own ways. Overall, I found this to be a thoroughly rewarding read and I would highly recommend it to fellow fans of historical fiction.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. Tons of information, which means it'll be hard to retain looking back. But I think it's worth a re-read. Plus the narrator is INSANELY good. If there really is just one narrator, he's a magician.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make Me A City by Jonathan Carr

Set in Chicago from 1800-1900 the story revolves around prominent, and founding people in Chicago. Jean Baptiste de Sable, Antje Hunter the First female reporter of the Chicago Tribune (News Paper) to name a few. Told in alternating voices, and different time (frames) we learn of their lives in the "Windy City".

The story moves at a slow pace, with a lot of narrative, and less dialog. There are a lot of characters, but as the story progressed it was a bit easier to follow. Although the story was a bit complex, I was interested enough in seeing how it all unfolds. I feel that those from Chicago and like a tale loosely based on real people and event may like it as well.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an original and ambitious novel, which weaves fiction and non-fiction into a chronicle of the first century of Chicago, from its (disputed) founding to its rise as a major city. With real and imagined characters and a variety of narrative forms – diaries, letters, newspaper articles – plus a framing device in the form of a book “Chicago: an alternative history 1800-1900” by a Professor Milton Winship, which lends an air of authenticity to the narrative, it’s wide-ranging in its scope but with all the many strands cleverly held together by objects that pass down through the generations – an old painting, a silver watch, a dented copper kettle – so that the disparate stories and characters become part of a coherent whole. A wide variety of characters are depicted, form the alleged founder, to the indigenous people, entrepreneurs, immigrants, gangsters and ordinary citizens. At times the characterisation verges on the stereotypical, but the narrative is propulsive enough to carry the reader along in what is an immersive and compelling work. An entertaining, informative and absorbing read.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my, what to say, where to begin. I have very mixed feelings with this book.

On one hand- Well, it took me a very long time to get into this book. I found the flow of it to be rather choppy and just too many characters to keep straight. I thought about making a flow chart for myself at one point, it was that confusing, as we'd meet a character and then see that name again many pages later and have to remember why that name sounded familiar- that got tedious. The mention of "excerpts" and "sources cited" and the idea that this was all "taken from a book written by a professor" was very disorienting for me, as this was still all a fictionalized history, and an alternative one at that (whatever that means- I'm still not clear, not knowing my history very well I felt like an idiot and at a huge disadvantage honestly- not a nice feeling while reading)- this was simply too much for my brain to handle on top of everything else and instead of adding to the story, truly muddled it for me. Which was it- the author's book or the professor's book or what? I just really didn't "get it." Who was "I" in the end? The professor? Some other person? The author? I didn't like having to work that hard to really understand what was going on and appreciate the novel.

On the other hand- this was a major feat of a book and actually rather interesting, in theory. Once I got somewhat more into the book and invested in it, I did appreciate the craft and literary feat behind this novel. It was interestingly done, that's for sure, and the stories woven together were well told, if a little confusing. I eventually came to enjoy the game of seeing when a character might pop up again and how they were related to other characters recently seen. The lives of the characters intersected in fun ways. I finally figured out the flow of the novel as a whole a little better, too, and that helped me anticipate things and look forward to reading a little more. It just took a lot of work to get to this point.

I would never have read this book if it weren't for my book club and I truly hope my book club will actually try to read this because I sure worked hard at it (I don't see this as their sort of book at all, however), but mostly because, in the end, I could appreciate the work behind the novel through the creatively and cleverly woven stories. I did find myself wondering, as poor as my historical knowledge is, what did actually happen and which characters were really real, so the book did incite my interest in learning more about Chicago history. I wanted a detailed author's note at the end and was frustrated not to get that, I wanted some clarification within all my hard work. Now I'm off to set this book against some real info...or WILL it be real or just SOMEone's perspective? That, I think, is the point.

[Faye Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me by complete surprise. Expecting a more detailed history of Chicago, when I read the first chapter, which is labelled as an "alternative history" I couldn't work out what was fiction and what wasn't- a story of a city founded by a game of chess seemed quite extraordinary! It becomes apparent further on the style of this author, and the true complex and appealing nature of this book. It tells a story of Chicago in an array of different voices, perspecitves and time frames weaving in both fictional and real characters from Chicago (the alternative history historian was fictional).
I have never seen a book of this like before and nearly for that alone I think this author deserves 5*s. The fact it was also a book that I couldn't read enough of, and also allowed me to learn some very interesting things about Chicago, makes this book a true 5*. The scale of this book, especially as this is Carr's first published book, is extraordinary.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The nearer I get to the end, the more shame I have and the less shame I feel. Every year we pile it up, don’t we, all of us excepting the angels? Maybe that’s why we don’t all go lunatic. And why some of us do.”

MAKE ME A CITY is an intriguing tome—marketed as a fictional and “alternate history” to the building of Chicago, the novel follows many disparate threads of remarkably different individuals over the course of one century. Beginning in 1800 “Echicagou” on the estate of Jean Baptiste Point de Sable—unrecognized and sadly victimized founder of the city—and later touching on the vivid lives of John Stephen Wright, Antje Hunter, Gus Swanson, and many others; the novel progresses through time, idling from one strand of the story to the next, offering readers an exhaustive collection of character portraits to feast upon. Each individual is distinctly crafted, each featuring his or her own fears and desires and fervent ambitions, all of which contribute to the city’s creation.

I enjoyed the novel’s odd collection of hosts and found the chapters about Antje, Gus, and Ms. Chappell the most engaging. Historical nuggets can be mined from the pages of the work—though fictional, there are many references to real players in our country’s history, and episodes portraying cultural nuances vividly.

And while the story’s strength lies in its curious cast, the breadth of the work was sometimes overwhelming. I had to turn back several times to recall key details from previous scenes—I think there are about 12 perspectives through the novel, with 5-6 major players—and was sometimes frustrated by this. Once the pieces began to come together, though, I couldn’t finish fast enough.

Recommended for historical fiction buffs, mindful readers (this is not an easy/light read, folks!), and fans of generation-spanning sagas. Thanks to @henryholtbooks for this copy! ✨ 3.5 stars, rounded up.

[AJ Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard Zinn meets Devil in the White City meets Micheal Chabon.

I wish I knew whether any of it is a true story, so it's frustrating that there is no author note either way. Even so, I want it all to be true.

[Rowena Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must confess to having little prior knowledge of how Chicago came about until I was recommended Jonathan Carr’s beautifully written debut novel, Make Me A City. The author cleverly draws the reader in through a rich and diverse mix of characters alongside various objects such as a watch and a kettle which appear again at different times throughout the book. The individuals’ stories link and interweave and through these different voices, the story of Chicago is told. This is definitely a book worth reading.

[Dree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a galley of this 2019 release, and I got overwhelmed and bogged down, and then had a little reading slump. I finally got to it, and I'm so glad I did.

In this novel Carr tells the story of the first hundred years of Chicago, framed around the supposed 1902 "Alternative History of Chicago" by one Milton Winshop and a variety of "primary sources". He starts with the mulatto first settler of Echicagou, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable--who, we know, really was the first settler of Chicago, but the idea being in 1902 this was "alternative".

Carr goes on to tell his story through a mix of people--Potowatomies, original settlers, immigrants, boosters, transplants from the East, laborers, engineers, aldermen, builders, men, women, children. We see some children grow up, immigrants find their calling, residents suffer and succeed. Some of the characters are real people, others are fictional representations. They occasionally interact--and honestly this can be a little confusing as vastly different characters come and go and you jump forward in time. But I love this kind of structure. It is sweeping, it is disjointed and choppy and you get a picture of so many different kinds of people. I kept reminding myself "THIS IS FICTION"--I also tend to be annoyed by books that use real people to tell fictional stories. I thought he did this well, but where were fictional words put into real peoples' mouths? I'm not sure, and as a historian it bugs me. But I could not stop myself from enjoying this book.

I did wish there was more on the Potowatomies, and I found some of the writing in dialect (of Point du Sable, and one of the Irish brothers) to be a bit much--but I don't often like writing that is made to seem in dialect, it always feels false to me. I also would have liked a character list.

I am amazed that this is a first novel. The complex structure is so well done, it doesn't seem like it. The author is also English--though well traveled and not young.

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking the first hundred years of Chicago's history as his starting point, Jonathan Carr has written a novel composed of inter-linked stories in the form of letters, news articles, excerpts from history books and biographies, as well as traditional story-telling. Make Me a City focuses on the ordinary laborer, the failed businessman, the dispossessed, and outsiders to tell the story of Chicago, from it's beginnings through to the early years of the twentieth century. The protagonist of one chapter might disappear, only to reappear in a story set a decade later, or to be a secondary character, or spoken about in a later chapter. It's an effective way to tell a sweeping story and to keep the novel from feeling too much like a collection of short stories.

And through every chapter, the city of Chicago is the real main character, rising out of the wilderness and based on cheating, evictions, grift and regular old corruption, this Chicago also features people doing their best, immigrants working to build new lives in an unfamiliar land, visionaries, and truth-tellers.

[Donna Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am always on the lookout for something different, and so I leapt at the chance to read this publication free and early. Thanks go to Net Galley and Henry Holt. It’s for sale now.

The story is set in and around Chicago, back when the city was first born. It tells a tale of shifting alliances and double crosses; yet in other ways it is an old story, one in which a Caucasian interloper cannot bear to see a Black man rise to a position of wealth and influence. It’s not an easy read.

Conceptually the story is strong, but the author tries to do too much at once. Shifting points of view; development of disparate characters; and an old time dialect that is challenging all by itself serve to render the story muddy and confusing. Too much is lost, and at the halfway point, I gave it up and commenced skimming.

Despite this, I believe Carr is a talented writer and I like his ideas. I would read his work again.