The Technologists
Release date: 2012 / 496 pages
Synopsis(from Amazon): Boston, 1868. The Civil War may be over but a new war has begun, one between the past and the present, tradition and technology. On a former marshy wasteland, the daring Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising, its mission to harness science for the benefit of all and to open the doors of opportunity to everyone of merit. But in Boston Harbor a fiery cataclysm throws commerce into chaos, as ships’ instruments spin inexplicably out of control. Soon after, another mysterious catastrophe devastates the heart of the city. Is it sabotage by scientific means or Nature revolting against man’s attempt to control it?
Review: Serendipity: Reading Matthew Pearl’s latest novel on Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday! When TLC contacted me about reading and reviewing The Technologists, I agreed based on my past experience with Pearl’s The Last Dickens. Pearl’s genre is difficult to define, and not usually what I am drawn to in my leisure, but a delight nevertheless.
I spent 15 years teaching Great Expectations and never, ever tired of the story, the characters, the pay-by-the-word syntax. I truly looked forward to introducing Pip, Joe and Miss Havisham to a fresh crop of 9th graders every year. But outside the classroom I prefer clean prose and morally ambiguous characters. However, Pearl’s novels are refreshing throwbacks to a time when deliciously circuitous plotlines did not overshadow quirky, memorable characters and finely detailed settings. Here is a sample of Pearl’s writing style:
Its proud lines inteermittently visible through the early morning fog, the Light of the East might have been the most carefree ship that ever floated into Boston. Some of the sailors, their bearded faces browned and peeling from too much sun, cracked the last rations of walnuts in their fists or under their boot heels, singing some ancient song about a girl left behind. After wild March winds, stormy seas, dangerous ports, backbreaking work, and all the extremes of experience, they’d be handed a good pay at port, then freed to lose it to the city’s myriad pleasures.
Pearl resurrects nineteenth-century Boston and encompasses a host of characters in a story that is part-mystery, part-history and part-adventure. The primary characters are the first graduating class of MIT, a young upstart college whose focus on technology frightens the laboring masses and intimidates the hulking Harvard across the river. The young Technologists are intent on discovering the cause of a series of mysterious tragedies that have befallen the city and killed many residents. The students are sure their newfound knowledge and desire to use technology to benefit others will allow them to unearth the mystery.
Along the way, readers are delighted to get to know the characters and gratified to read in the Afterword that they are based on actual students from MIT’s inaugural class. The goodnatured jibes at Harvard are all the more enjoyable knowing that Pearl himself is a graduate and professor of this esteemed university.
So, while I usually do not recommend novels that are primarily plot-based to book clubs, this is most likely an exception to that rule since the other literary elements are so strong as well.
Interested in winning a copy? Simply leave me a comment and I’ll choose a winner soon!
Monday, February 13th: Book Chatter
Tuesday, February 14th: Unabridged Chick
Thursday, February 16th: The House of Crime and Mystery
Monday, February 20th: Book Club Classics
Wednesday, February 22nd: A Library of My Own
Friday, February 24th: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Monday, February 27th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife
Tuesday, February 28th: Jen’s Book Thoughts
Wednesday, February 29th: Man of La Book
Thursday, March 1st: Book Addict Katie
Monday, March 5th: Calico Critic
Wednesday, March 7th: Annette’s Book Spot
Monday, March 12th: S. Krishna’s Books
Wednesday, March 14th: Wordsmithonia
Thank you for this offer.
My son read The Dante Club by the same author and found it great and challenging. He’s a very good reader so I found that an interesting comment coming from him. I’d love to share this book with him!
Thanks for the post about it.
I found this quite interesting. I love a book that has a little history behind it.
This book seem to have that. Would love to read it. Thank you
The Technologists sounds really interesting, I’ll have to check it out. Thank you for the chance to win a copy.
Sounds like a great history study for my homeschoolers
Would love to win a copy of The Technologists. Sounds like a great book. Thanks
My friend and I are reading “A Tale of Two Cities” right now and send our journal entries back and forth. We’d love to read “The Technologists.”
Thanks.
Thanks for this fascinating giveaway.
Thanks for this giveaway
I’ve never read this author but I would like to. This sounds good! Thank you for the chance tow in a copy of The Technologists.
This book sounds very interesting to me. I would love to read it. Thanks for this chance.
A plot based on history is always interesting, (truth truly being stranger than fiction). I’d love to win a copy of this!
I have never heard of this author, but I am definitely intrigued. I haven’t read a suspense novel in awhile. Please enter me! =)
lilianxcheng AT gmail.com
This book sounds so interesting and I love the Boston setting. I have wanted to read any of Pearl’s books for a while, too. Thank you for hosting this giveaway!
Aimala127(at)gmail(dot)com
I just recently heard of this book and would love to read it!
Pingback: Matthew Pearl, author of The Technologists, on tour February/March 2012 | TLC Book Tours
Serendipity is definitely the right word!
Glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks for being on the tour.
Hope it’s not too late to enter. Just came across your blog through the TLC tour for Late for Tea at the Deer Palace. Would love a copy of The Technologists. I’ve been seeing it reviewed all over the place. Thanks!
You just missed the give-away, Laurie — but I’m so glad you found my blog!! Stop by again soon… Another great give-away tomorrow!
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