Rating: 
Summary: A fairly engaging, but flawed novel
Review: I decided to read this novel while waiting for other books I reserved at the library to become available. While I enjoyed the novel overall, I found it a bit too slow and a bit too long. One hundred pages could have easily been edited out with little negative effect. Economy is not Belfer's strength. And the central mysteries are a bit clumsy and uninteresting, to be frank. A nice period work, though. And I found the central character interesting. Worth the time. A workmanlike effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Vivid portrait of an incestuous power elite
Review: Lauren Belfer's debut is not without its flaws, some of them quite distracting. The murder mystery -- the red thread running through Belfer's tapestry -- has narrative potential, however, its promise is dissipated by a resolution that feels deeply contrived. If submitted for a tv soap opera, its patness would probably bring the script doctors. In the words of Dana Carvey's Church Lady, "My, how convenient!" Belfer has a genuine gift for creating vivid and believable characters, but in _City of Light_, this talent is employed unevenly. Franklin Fiske, Susannah Riley and Mary Talbert, key figures, only intermittently spring to life; too often, in too many scenes, they feel more like narrative devices than people's whose pasts intrigue or whose fates engage you. Belfer's considerable abilities are on full display, however, in the novel's finest creation, the narrator Louisa Barrett. Barrett, gifted, or rather given the society in which she lived, cursed with an exceptional mind and passionate spirit, has lived a cautious existence, imprisoning her gift behind the mask of an passive and unthreatening spinster-teacher. She is a wonderful creation and the heart of the book. _City of Light_ rises above the inconsistencies and implausibilities of plot entirely on her considerable shoulders. Guided by her voice, the reader experiences the other great accomplishment of this book: Belfer's vivid, unsparing portrait of an incestous regional power elite. In _City of Light_, Belfer has given readers one of the shrewdest and most trenchant depictions of the injuries of class and the subterranean currents of parochialism and municipal politics to be found in recent popular fiction. In terms of its scale and ambition, this aspect of Belfer's book is comparable to Jonathan Franzen's remarkable _Twenty-seventh City_. Belfer's achievements quite simply outrank her misteps.
Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: I rarely stray from novels like The Triumph and the Glory, the Aubrey/Maturin books by O'Brian, and Clancy stuff, because I know what I like and who gives it to me with consistency. But I heard this was a good one so I ordered a copy. City of Light begins with promise and then slowly fades into average fiction in a lightly entertaining manner. It was OK. No better. No worse.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, engrossing and entertaining
Review: This is a really enjoyable page-turning summer read. The author's sense of place makes the reader feel they are really in Buffalo at the turn of the century. My only complaint ws that I felt the "mystery" behind Grace was a little far-fetched, but that is minor compared to the general enjoyment of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah, it's good. Buy it.
Review: Well I have to confess I had been reluctant to commit myself to an opinion of this novel. I was enjoying so much of it but felt it could have used just a little more work. That is actually the most disappointing thing about the novel, the fact that it clearly took a tremendous amount of research and personal effort and succeeds in so many areas. Those obvious strengths just make the weaknesses stick out, as if to say "What business does a glaring weakness have in such an otherwise great book?" I kept asking myself, "Who wrote these passages here? Did the author go away for a while? Did the publisher put undue pressure on her? Was she just sick of this thing and wanting to get it over with?" I'm not sure of the answer to those questions, but I have come to offer the recommendation that you buy the book anyway. It really is an enjoyable treat in many many ways. There is so much going on here to plunge into. For example, the startling parallels between the age in question and our own. The moments where the novel is an enjoyable comedy of manners. The amazing research and authenticity. Some timeless revelations regarding the civic experience in the United States. The 3 largest weaknesses: 1) Glaring anachronisms (i.e. terms like "Direct Marketing"). 2) Forced and unnatural plot points (the murder resolution and the black socialite's "best friend" status). 3) Undeveloped characters (why did one of them blurt out a totally unfounded marriage proposal, with so little to go on? Were marriage proposals a compulsive habit of this guy?).Despite these trivial items, this was a very good book, a lot of fun, "educational" (uh oh!), and better than 90% of the junk on the marketplace right now. Buy it, if only for the Grover Cleveland sub-plot. What a trip!
Rating: 
Summary: Trollys didn't go that fast!
Review: I have not yet read this book, but as a native born Buffalonian I intend to do so. I have however read the reviews on this page and would like to comment on the dispute about the trollys between Buffalo & Niagara Falls. As a kid in the 1940s I was a great fan of the cities trollys. I rode all over Buffalo on them just for the pleasure of it, trying out every line in the city. The distance between downtown Buffalo and downtown Niagara Falls is approximately 20 miles. A trolly would have had to travel non-stop between Buffalo & the Falls at a speed of 40 miles per hour to make it in 30 minutes. That would have been an tremendous speed in those days. The trollys I rode in the '40s generally travelled at less then 20 mph. Allowing for stops in both cities and Kenmore & the Tonawandas on the way I do not see how the trip could have been made in 30 minutes. From the northern boundry of Buffalo to the southern boundry of Niagara Falls it could have been done in that time frame, but what would have been the point? These areas were largley uninhabited in 1901 - lots of open fields, few houses, no public buildings. I will have to read the book to see what the author says first hand on the matter of the speed of trollys at the turn of the century.
Rating: 
Summary: Your basic TV mini-series, only not as good
Review: This isn't a novel -- it's a teleplay. I thought it was supposed to be a mystery, but Belfer drops clues into her text like water balloons. Gosh, do you suppose Grace could be...? And the much-vaunted "sweeping" historical detail is written in a wooden tone that would be familiar to any seventh-grade teacher grading her or his umpteenth book report, and then just injected, "plot interruptus," into the narrative, as if all people stopped their lives to comment on the design philosophy of Frederick Olmsted Law. (As these interludes are so very boring, perhaps they intentionally appear where the television commercials are intended to be.) The characters, if you can call them that, are types (no doubt to make casting easier), from the Uriah Heep-like corporate spy to the hyperdignified African-American matriarch (call Oprah!). Really, one wonders what they're teaching at MFA programs these days. If you must read this book, wait for the inevitable paperback, take it to the cottage, spill wine on it, get it sandy and/or wet while you snooze on the beach, and then leave it on the porch for the next renter.
Rating:
Summary: Interurban railroad between Niagara Falls and Buffalo
Review: Some discussion has been generated(!) by how easily one could travel between Niagara Falls and Buffalo at the turn of the century. Many years ago I was doing research related to Love Canal (the industrial history of NF is very rich indeed) and came across many maps covering the route of the interurban railroad that was built in the late 19th century (well before 1901) connecting NF and Buffalo -- it was called something like the "Buffalo, Tonawanda and Niagara Falls" line if my memory serves correctly. The right-of-way of the interurban line was later subsumed into the right-of-way of the highway between Buff-NF and (at least around NF) has "disappeared" from the visual landscape. But in 1901 travel along the line would have been very easy and swift. One other comment. Before people get too carried away with thinking that NF-Buff was the heart and soul of the electric power biz at the turn of the century they should realize that California comprised the real center of long distance three-phase AC power transmission: Sacramento received AC power over a 22-mille long line in 1895; Fresno had a 35-mile long system operation in 1896; Los Angeles got 33,000 volt power over an 83-mile long line in 1899; and San Francisco got power over a 200+ mile system in 1901 -- yeah, the NF-Buff connection was important but hardly unprecedented in scale.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: Marvelous characters and superb writing highlight this wonderful novel. One of the best historical novels in years, the attention to detail and research give this book life. The depiction of society, big business, and social attitudes of the time is simply superb. A grand trip to a bygone era, expertly executed, and unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: "City" an engrossing read
Review: City of Light was a thoroughly engrossing novel that always had me wanting more. Shocks and surprises come with each chapter, and the intrigue goes much deeper than I ever would have thought . . . which is why I enjoyed it so much. Lauren Belfer stays one or two steps ahead of the reader, and leaves you gasping in some places. Highly recommended!
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