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- Verified Buyer
After the Civil War during the years 1870-1890, the US had a reputation of extreme corruption. Historians have sometimes called it “The Age of Conservatism,” a euphemism probably chosen to avoid offending patriots. But by almost any standard it was the most free-wheeling, venal, crime-ridden period in the nation’s history. It has attracted the eye of the novelist Allan Levine. He sets some of the worst excesses in dramatic motion in New York City.The organization known as “Tammany Hall” was thriving. It was a time when the petty crime of thieves, pickpockets, scoundrels, thugs, hooligans of all sorts filled New York’s streets and saloons. Some men still wore old bedraggled uniforms from the Civil War years; horses pulled wagons and carriages, the streets filled with a stench of manure and refuse. It was a time of universal buying and selling of favors. The scandal known as “Credit Mobilier” broke into the open.The novel starts with a rush: on a hot humid day in August 1871, a boy leads a man to an unclaimed trunk at a transportation depot then disappears. A stench comes from inside the trunk. When it is finally opened a woman is found inside, dead, about 27-28 years old, beautiful and with long hair.One of its great attractions of “Evil of the Age” is that it is fast-paced, full of surprises and action. Very well-researched, historical reconstruction never slows the pace of the novel; narrative speed leads the reader on to new events, to vivid, raw, unexpected life. There are gang wars and a violent clash between Irish Catholics and Protestants, Nativists and Know-Nothings. Victor Fowler is the Boss of New York City, Tammany’s “Grand Sachem.” Tom St. Clair, an investigative reporter visits Fowler to learn more about the murder that opens the book. Tom has many new assignments, he works for the newspaper “Fox’s Weekly” (a name looking ahead to the current TV channel?), he investigates and writes articles on the many accidents and problems in the city. Soon he is sent to visit the business of “Madame Philippe,” owner of one of the most widely known lucrative brothels in the city.These are just a few of the events and plot lines suggested in the opening pages of the novel. The narrative is excellent at setting up plots on short notice, usually vivid, some of them sordid, some not. If petty crime is widespread in New York, major crime organized from the top down is even more widespread. The plot lines cry out to be followed, for the reader to continue.This is an agile evocation of a time that retains all its liveliness, with its conflicts, color, sensuousness, above all the excesses. The novel is “fiction” that uses both the imagination and a sense of raw life-- its possibilities, surprises, real suspense about what will happen next. Perhaps the author chose the 19th century, and what is called the “distant past,” as a dare or challenge to display his talents. He makes it every bit as alive, as full-blooded as the present, and even more so.
