Heyday: A Novel

I never got the book I ordered.

This novel is educational, exciting and well-written. Kurt Andersen is a talented author who has certainly done his research, and beautifully combines history with fiction. Read this book!

It's 1848 and young Englishman Benjamin Knowles feels drawn to the spirit of freedom, especially as he believes it to be epitomized in America. He takes a side trip to France to meet a like-minded friend, and their accidental incursion into the revolutionary happenings there ends tragically. Ben escapes back to England and then departs for America, unaware that a wrathful killer from France is bent on revenge. In New York, Ben strikes up a friendship with three enterprising Americans; Timothy Skaggs, a journalist/ daguerreotypist/ brash man-about-town; Duff Lucking, a fireman with a damaged soul; and Polly, Duff's lovely sister, who is a forward-thinking woman whose part-time work as a prostitute allows her to live as she wishes. Benjamin acknowledges that with the addition of himself to their circle, the foursome resemble a new version of the Four Musketeers. Ben falls for the charming Polly, but soon enough, and for individual reasons, all of them decide to leave New York and travel west. Polly and her companion Priscilla Christmas (a name right out of Dickens!) leave first, to find a new community among the many new "Utopias" scattered across the Midwest. The men follow them, until the four are once again reunited and making for the gold recently discovered in California. All along the journey, they are trailed by the murderous Frenchman. This book is a marvel of invention. 600+ pages of a thoroughly engaging narrative. The characters are compelling, flawed and sympathetic, and the plot is rich with period detail that never feels forced, but rather rises organically from events. There are cameos from the famous faces of the time, like Charles Darwin and Walt Whitman, but none intrude like `look at me' moments that could distract from our main characters.

Novelist Kurt Andersen has hit the jackpot with "Heyday." This big book (over 600 pages) turns the page of history back to that pivotal year of 1848. Steam was replacing sail in shipping; telegraph wires were buzzing; Womens' Rights activitist were meeting at Seneca Falls, New York and the California Gold Rush was pushing the new nation westward to the Pacific Ocean. Charles Darwin was challenging traditional biblical beliefs regarding creation; France and other European nations were embroiled in mass revolts in which the poor cried for justice and the Victorian world was moving into the modern industrial world as seen in the huge factories of Manchester and Birmingham. America was a big adolescent as ethnic groups fought loved and were learning to co-exist in the land of the free and home of the brave! Giants were walking the American and world stage. In the USA there was Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. Edgar Poe was a popular lecturer and author. Elizabeth Cady Stanton a champion for Womens' Rights while Frederick Douglass demanded the slaves be freed. Such men as John Charles Fremont were opening up California to statehood through their pioneering efforts. In Europe it was the time of Marx and Engles. Great English authors such as Charles Dickens were in their prime. The novel alludes to a stage work of "Dombey and Son" evincing the interest on this side of the Atlantic in Mr. Dickens works. Andersen has read thousands of articles, books and newspapers to take the reader back to this crucial time. He has also written a popular, exciting adventure story featuring murders, prostitutes, army deserters, 49ers, theatrical folk and a vast assemblage of the average citizen of that colorful era. You will learn such arcana from the time as the use of condoms; the effects of cholera epidemics; fashion of the day; how to pan for gold; what Paris, London, New York and San Francisco were like at the time, the rise of Mormonism...the list of what interesting facts you will learn is mind boggling The fast paced tale begins with the wealthy English aristocrat Benjamin Knowles emigrating to America. He falls in love with a prostitute/actress the beguiling Polly Lucking. We meet her insane pyromaniacal murdering brother Duff Lucking who was a deserter in the Mexican War. We also become acquainted with Timothy Skittles an author of cheap novels, photographer and man about New York town. These three have their lives entwined as together they set out for a new life in the West. Little do they know that Benjamin and his friends are being pursued by an evil French police officer named Drumont who seeks to murder Benjamin whom he blames for his brother's death in a Paris riot. Andersen writes best about 1848 life in New York while the part dealing with the California gold rush is a bit slower. Nevertheless this novel is reminiscent of an updated Dickens novel in its character potrayals, mystery and colorful descriptions. It is a fine book which will

Mr. Anderson has written an outsized epic that overflows with life and possibilities. Stretching from the Revolution of 1848 in Paris to the California gold rush, "Heyday" places the reader in a "there you are" mode, living and breathing the life of a 150 years ago. Ben Knowles is an Englishman who mets a series of flawed characters upon his landing in New York -- as an outsider, he is the perfect observer for all things new in America (new to the reader). It is an adventure epic (perfect for film one day) which educatures the reader along the way. "Heyday" is a long read (at 600+ pages) but a rewarding one for chilly spring nights.

Wow! What can I say, 600 and some pages and I finished it in three days! When I first picked this book up I figured I'd be reading it for months. This is a hard book to sum up as there is a lot going on, but I'll try. Its 1848 and humanity is about to be reborn into a new world. There is revolution in Europe; Inventions of all kinds appear daily railroads, steam boats, telegraph, and Photography; Modern culture is taking shape on Broadway and in newspapers, and traveling spectacles; the economy is awash with money and life is all sex, drugs and rock & roll (ok there was no rock roll). At this same time the Bear flag rebellion has taken place and California is now part of the United States, and wouldn't you know it, gold is discovered a few months later! In the midst of all this we are introduced to Benjamin Knowles, a young aristocrat from England who, enchanted with the promise of a strange new wickedness in the United States, travels to America. He finds this promise in New York City in the form of Timothy Skaggs a hard drinking newspaper man, and Duff Lucking a photographer and sometimes arsonist/firefighter, and Duffs sister, Polly, an actress and prostitute. Benjamin immediately falls for Polly and their tumultuous relationship propels the entire group west to California. This is a large, raucous book, a true epic. The author has a satiric bent that is not spared on anyone or any convention of the time period. And as someone who is a student of history of the west, Andersen has done his research, this is a true historical novel in that it is true to the time period. I know I am not doing justice to this sweeping novel, but I'd say it is one of the more important fictional novels I have read in the past decade, and it is also a fun read!