Reviews for City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York

The average rating for City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-10 00:00:00 Diane Costa Loved this trilogy of the history of New York. Swerling is a great historical fiction writer.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-12-18 00:00:00 Bruce Dodds The third book in a New York series, I was glad City of God was better than the previous one. Continuing the story of the Turner and Devrey families, this one stuck more to the families and the theme of medicine that began with the first book. Even with the addition of outside characters and the social history issues of abolition, immigration, and religion, the book was a quick, fun read. And Swerling leaves the door open for more tales. The only thing that bothered me was the pidgin English used by her Chinese-speaking characters when we read their interior thoughts. I can see using such English when they are using it in dialogue with other characters (like the Irish or French dialects), but to use it with their interior thoughts, and to not do this with other characters whose first languages are not English was a bit demeaning. Her intentions mught have been to offer a greater sense of disconnect between the characters' two worlds, but I felt it was wrong.