"New York" and "Paris" - Edward Rutherfurd

Waktu lihat judul dan premis "New York", I was instantly interested. (I mean, come on!) So I reserved the book from the library, and when the book arrived, I went to pick it up.... I didn't realize how MASSIVE the book is! It's over 1000 pages x_x and I was instantly scared but excited at the same time.


And I enjoyed the book!

I really liked how the book went back several decades to early New York (even when it was not called by that name yet.) So we kind of see in glimpses the background of the city, and how it became what it is right now. It covers a time period of around over 400 years, revolving around several families. This is what captured me first. How the story stayed within the same family over the generations. Jadi nggak asal pindah-pindah dan ganti-ganti karakter, but we had a bit of idea of their backgrounds etc.

I love the involvement of non-fictional characters and buildings in the book! George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the Chrysler (?) building, and of course the 9-11. I love how these real characters interacted with the fictional ones. Memang jadi terasa mengada-ada, but it's a book of fiction anyway! :)

I love the subtle way it ends. It's kind of happy, but also it circles back to where the book started.
I was quite glad when I finished the book :D

But I'm not ready to stop reading just yet :') So I found its sister (or brother?), "Paris". Written in similar style, it's only over 700 pages long. I liked it too, but not as much as I like New York :) Still, it brought us to the famous Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and we meet Monsieur Eiffel himself; the Revolution, arts (particularly painting), and other Parisian icons.

I still enjoy the generational characters in this boook (even though I mixed up the name a lot! Not that they are similar or anything like that...); but I just didn't relate to the book as I did with New York.
I also preferred New York's ending than Paris'. Maybe because New York ends in my time, and Paris ended at an earlier time. Also, because New York's 'national' language is English and Paris' is French but it is written in English, I think it made the experience not as authentic. Maybe.

Both books were really spectacular works nevertheless! Imagine the research process. Long. Imagine the time it took to write 700-1000 pages of words! Ages.

I might go and read some of Rutherfurd's other books and find out about other cities of the world, because 'traveling' through time and space is always fun!


Cheers to that!
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