He took care of his family and he loved above all his Indian daughter.

While being a bigamist in the literal sense, Dirk was a decent man. Van Dyck took Pale Feather with him on a trip to New Amsterdam to show her where the “white people” lived when she was about 10 or 12 years old. The girl’s mother died, and her father, Dirk, only showed up for days or weeks at a time, with huge gaps in between. While he had a wife and children in New Amsterdam, he also had a relationship with an Indian woman upriver and they had a child together, a girl named Pale Feather. He was engaged in the trading of furs and many other commodities, taking frequent boat trips up the Hudson River. A Dutch settler named Dirk van Dyck lived in New Amsterdam on the very southern tip of Manhattan Island. The story is so clear, so credible, and real historical events and people are woven into the fabric of the plot seamlessly. I had to keep reminding myself that the book was fiction. Both books have the same end-objective, and both accomplish the feat in similar ways, and both overwhelmed me with richness in imagery and depth of context. Rutherfurd’s novel also tells the history of New York, seen through the eyes of one family and a number of other families that weave in and out of their lives, starting in the year 1664 and going all the way to 2009. I loved that book, and when I was done I wanted to travel to New York and wander around the city in awe.

Wrapped into a story of eminently readable mystery and fantasy, it is basically a history of New York City. New York is a massive, epic novel, some 860 pages long with fairly small print not a book you can read quickly on a plane ride or in an evening.Ī few years ago I read the novel Forever by Pete Hamill. I am almost overwhelmed with the number of thoughts bouncing through my head as I think about it now that I am done. Seldom, very seldom, when I am done with a book I am compelled to go back through it, conduct my own background research, or thumb through the book for specific passages. It draws you in and makes you a part of it.

“New York: The Novel” is not just a book – it’s an experience.

Book review new york edward rutherfurd