UBC: The Ghost Map

[truepenny]

Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map. New York: Riverhead Books, 2006.

---

I'm not sure I actually should get to count this as an Unread Book, since I bought it on Sunday, started it Wednesday night and finished it this morning in the tub. However, since it is also an awesome book, I'm going to blog it anyway.

This is a cross-disciplinary study of a problem solved, in 1854, by cross-disciplinary thinking. It's also a wonderful snapshot of Victorian London, a meditation on the urbanization of our species, a jeremiad against belief-based reasoning (his specific target is the belief in "miasma"--that theory that disease was transmitted by smell--that led to the city of London choosing to dump its raw sewage directly into the Thames and thus did crusaders for public health cause the devastating cholera epidemics of the mid nineteenth century, but he makes the parallel with Intelligent Design explicit, too), and several other things. It's also beautifully written; the prose is both lucid and entertaining. (My favorite line: "It's true enough that the Victorians were grappling with heady issues like utilitarianism and class consciousness. But the finest minds of the era were also devoted to an equally pressing question: What are we going to do with all of this shit?") Because Johnson is a cross-disciplinarian, he understands how to use fiction as a primary source (an undertaking which has gotten the better of many otherwise excellent historians--and, of course, the reverse is, if possible, even more true), and thus won my undying devotion. Also, he has hit upon an elegant solution to the problem of writing a scholarly book for a popular audience. No footnotes or numbered endnotes to disrupt the flow of thought and words as you're reading, but if you want to know, the endnotes are there, labeled with page number and the relevant phrase. And he's got his bibliography back there, too.

I suspect it was somebody on LJ mentioning this book (oursin?) that stuck in my mind enough to make me pick it up. Whoever you are, your book karma has improved by one point. This is an excellent book, and--perhaps bizarrely for a book about a horrifying epidemic--it made me feel both happy and more optimistic than usual about our species.

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I read this one sometime ago, and I may even have reviewed it--or one of the cats did, since they do most of the book reviews I post on LJ.

Everything you say about this book is true, and I have to add that if you pick it up knowing next to nothing about 19th-century Britain/London, you will not only know lots more than you did, you will find yourself in an excellent position to go in a lot of different directions to know more when you're done. I know this because I forced it on a friend who is in that position, and she was running around for months afterwards, looking for More! More! More!, starting with the bibliography.

Also, I <3 the curate Whitehead.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. There are several books in that bibliography I want to hunt down.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I mentioned it a while back (got it for Christmas, sat up all night reading it). The cross-disciplinary nature was what fascinated me about it. I've seen a number of slightly disparaging reviews of it, by people who, I think, wanted another 'Longitude'-style pop-cultural history, but it's different and far more than that.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Then perhaps it was you--if so, thank you!

At the moment, I cannot think of a single disparaging thing to say about it. My book-love is fresh and giddy.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

How twisted is it that I hope I'll have a reason to read a book about shit and disease?

I mean, not that I can't read it without a reason. But if I get to write my Victorian Onyx Court book, it'll actually be high in the queue, rather than wandering somewhere at the bottom.

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

I'll be looking for it then :}

Truth is that In the past five years I find myself getting more and more fiction that gives you a good source of real history and/or science. I've read books that wrote their thrillers around different forensic sciences (If you want a macabre forensic science clue in, read Blood Memory by Greg Iles) and some science thrillers that I read more for the science information it gave me than the actual mystery.

I recently read a book that did an excellent job of painting in historical details about early Cologne, in 1260. The title is Death and the Devil, by Frank Schätzing and gives a birds eye view of life back then, political intrigue, superstitions, and some background in Germany's religious history. All in all, it was well written.

[almightychrissy.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is actually what made it stick for you, but I know that someone discussed the book at the World-Building (or Map Making or City Thingy or something) panel at Penguicon, which is where I heard about it. It's still on my Amazon wishlist, but this has inspired me to increase my motivation to actually get it.

[zodiacal-light.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds fascinating. It's going on my list of books to get from the library right now.

Not to be completely random, but is the text on this journal supposed to be so large, or is my computer having issues again?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

This journal is optimized for me to read it comfortably on a flat panel monitor. So, yes, it isn't you that's weird, it's me.

[zodiacal-light.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. I thought I'd managed to screw up my computer settings again.