Rating: 
Summary: Psychological mumbo-jumbo but good historical flavor
Review: Carr does a great job as an historian - you really feel the flavor of NYC. The historical distractions (Delmonico's &c.) that some reviewers here have complained about were, I thought, the best reason for reading this.The plot was predictible. The characters, even the narrator and title character, were flat and difficult to empathize with. Dialogue was also flat. The worst part of the book was the psychological mumbo-jumbo. At first, I thought he was making fun of psych, as if to say, "look how optimistic these poor saps were about psych's predictive and diagnostic abilities. Between then and now, we'll really go over the top!" But, it was not tongue-in-cheek. I still enjoyed it and plowed ahead faster than I usually do.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is deadly dull.
Review: The Alienist is simply a revision of his earlier novel - The Angel of Darkness. Once again, we learn about the early days of detection and criminology. The characters are almost all the same and exceptionally wooden in their dialogue. They are so earnest and so clever you ache to hurt them. To spice up his revision Carr adds luckless, pathetic, supposedly endearing prostitutes and thieves. They are no more than regurgitations of characters from thousands of other mysteries. I was so bored, I couldn't finish it. I happened to see someone purchase it and I felt ashamed that I didn't warn him.
Rating:
Summary: It took sooooo long to tell this story!
Review: On the whole, I found Carr's writing very likable. However, the wearisome dialogues and the time it took to get this story going was unbelievable...kind of like those dreams in which a person runs but gets nowhere. Finally and fortunately, after about 450 pages (!), the pace began to increase and the story unfolded into an exciting, satisfying conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of filler and fluff...not as good as The Alienist
Review: As my brief line says, this book was full of paragraphs to skip over, repeated themes and overexplanation. It felt like a follow-up book that wasn't well planned or executed. I was glad when I finished it.
Rating: 
Summary: I normally don't like historical novels....
Review: ... but Caleb Carr's The Alienist is, simply put, one of the most entertaining, provocative books I've read. There are plenty of reviews discussing the murders and the style... What shines here is Carr's ability to take us to the first true American investigation into a new type of criminal: a serial killer. The average person in the late '90's is so well versed in modern investigative methods, to the point of being bored. This novel takes those readers back to the late EIGHTEEN-90's, for a glimpse of a renegade investigation fighting time and all powers that be, with 'experimental' methods such as fingerprinting and profiling. Add to this unique viewpoint a few well-written characters, a historian's accurate depiction of 19th Century New York, and a thankfully intelligent narrator (Kay Scarpetta be damned, I say...), and you've got a damn fine read. Caleb Carr, you've done a fine job, and I salute you.
Rating:
Summary: I learned so much!
Review: One day while shopping I decided I wanted to buy a book simply by looking at the cover. So the first cover that sparked my interest was The Alienist. I did not even know the book was a best seller until I read the summary and scanned a few pages in the book. I decided the book would be my next project. I am the type of person who loves to learn in a way that I do not even know I am learning. The author has a brilliant way of making you feel like you are right there with the characters eating in one of their fancy restaurants or running across town on one of their late night jaunts. As a chemistry major in college right now, I found the talk of forensic science fascinating. I liked the book so much I ran out and bought The Angel of Darkness. I hope it turns out to be just as appealing. I know the cover was.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked it, read "Time and Again"
Review: Like most readers of "The Alienist" I too enjoyed the evocation of New York 100 years ago. Carr has the ability to convey what it was like in another time and convince you you're there. As a novelist, though, Carr makes a very good historian. I was disappointed in how much I felt like I was pushing myself to keep reading (much like Doctorow's "The Waterworks"), and not being carried along by the plot. From the time period in which this book is set to the thesis that people were no nicer to each other in the 1890s than they are now (a point hammered home several times too many for my needs) to geographical locations -- like the reservoir -- I was reminded on almost every page of "Time and Again." (The since-demolished reservoir appears in Finney's book as well). And Carr didn't come across well in the comparison. Maybe it's just my bias: I'd rather read a work of history by a writer (e.g., James Burke's "Connections" or Evan Connel! l's "Son of the Morning Star") than a novel written by a historian. Too many of those guys write in the style of 1) In this chapter I shall make the following six points, 2) An enumeration of the points, 3) Here is a recap of the six points I just made. And the story, if any, just sits there. "Time and Again" isn't great literature but Finney knew how to keep a story moving (once the first 60 pages of exposition were out of the way, granted). There were too many scenes in "The Alienist" of people sitting in a room talking. And talking. All right already...This is the type of story that needs to be moved along.
Rating:
Summary: Make sure you plan enough time for the last 100 pages.
Review: Suggested to me by a Ph.D. in Literature, this novel truly is offensively good. Carr's command of the language of the day and ability to create a page turner in our modern MTV attention-span deficient generation leads me to believe either readers do not watch the idiot box, or Carr is that good. My opinion supports the latter. This novel spent, according to the jacket, six months on the best seller list and it deserved every minute. Parts of the book keep this story out of high school classrooms. Nevertheless, I would rather see this story read by a serious reader then argued by a school board. Bravo Mr. Carr.
Rating:
Summary: Good read which is disturbing to the bitter end...
Review: There were many things in Caleb Carr's novel which made this book a good read but his sympathetic approach to the killer and his sadistic interpretation of the alienist take it one step further than I was expecting to go. By the end you wonder if the Alienist is worst than the killer and you actually cannot see a distinction between the two.
Rating:
Summary: 596 pages of book.550 pages of great reading..
Review: This book kept my intrest on the first 550 pages,but was totally dissapointed with the ending..It lacked the luster that the whole book built you up for..Seemed to me that Carr just got tired of writting and jotted down the first ending he came up with,without even giving it the thought that the rest of the book had..Yet,because this book is so gripping and intresting,in its first 550 pages,it should not be past over by anyone who likes crime/thriller books....
| 
