Heyday

Editor's Pick for January 9, 2007

Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal -- Library Journal, 1/9/2007

Andersen, Kurt. Heyday. Random. Mar. 2007. ISBN 0-375-50473-7 [ISBN 0-375-50473-0]. $25.95. F

In this utterly engaging novel, the author of Turn of the Century brings 19th-century America vividly to life, but first he takes us to revolutionary Paris. There, as a bystander, young English gentleman Benjamin Knowles inadvertently causes the death of a policeman. The policeman's enraged older brother swears vengeance and follows Ben to England. But Ben has already given in to a childhood dream and headed to America, where he is charmed by the boisterous young republic. He's also charmed by Polly Lucking, an actress and prostitute he spots across a crowded room, and he meets her after he's fallen in with a radical, wise-cracking journalist named Skaggs. Polly's brother, Duff, is a troubled veteran of the campaign against Mexico—a good Catholic boy, he ended up fighting on the other side—and a stealthy arsonist. Ben and Polly fall in love, but after a misunderstanding Polly heads west with her protégé, Priscilla, and the three men track her down—all the way to Gold Rush California. Meanwhile, Ben's would-be assassin tiptoes behind. While this is a long book, it moves quickly, with historical detail that's involving but never a drag on the action; the characters are beautifully drawn. A terrific book; highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/06.]