“I really enjoyed reading this book! Mauro is a former magazine writer, so he definitely knows how to write comfortably for the public.
Twilight is the story of the 1939 New York World's Fair, or "World of Tomorrow." It had humble beginnings with two down-on-their-luck people coming up with the idea, and then taking it to those who not only supported the World's Fair concept, but ran with it and saw it to completion. The hero of the story is George Whalen, a great New York dandy who was compared to PT Barnum for his showmanship (he pretty much created New York City's famous ticker tape parades). Whalen, a spendthrift, fought hard to get the vision of World of Tomorrow to be executed, dealing with such greats as Fiorello LaGuardia and Robert Moses to push his passion through all sorts of barriers. It's a fascinating ride that Mauro takes us on.
At the heart of the story is how the World's Fair was promoting peace just as the world was on the brink of war. Germany was threatening, and then took over, huge swaths of Europe during the course of the Fair's development and execution, and a number of pavilions were closed or memories of countries which technically no longer existed by the time the second season opened. New York City was also at the brink of war, in a way. Bomb scares were too common, and passion against the Bund ran extremely high. In fact, a bomb went off during the second season of the Fair, killing two detectives, and maiming several others. One of those detectives, Detective Lynch, is a secondary story in this book.
Another secondary story is that of Albert Einstein, featured on the cover (and memorialized on the original title of the book). Einstein participated on the first day of the Fair, and later dedicated the Palestine Pavilion. Mauro also uses Einstein to as a foil of peace vs. war, with the peace-loving Einstein asking the FDR administration to begin researching atomic bombs in order to beat the Germans at the same task.
To be honest, the Lynch and Einstein stories only distracted from the book. Einstein's participation could have been limited to what he actually did at the Fair, and Lynch's story, weaved on occasion throughout, could have been limited to the chapter on the bomb.
Whalen comes out as the tragic hero in this tale, and it's a fascinating story.
This book is a definite recommendation to anyone who loves to learn about New York City history. ”
missed wrote this review Wednesday, June 16, 2010.
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