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Title: Kings of Broken Things
Author: Theodore Wheeler
Narrator: Christopher Lane
Format: Unabridged
Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
Language: English
Release date: 08-01-17
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 22 votes
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Publisher's Summary:
With characters depicted in precise detail and wide panorama - a kept-woman's parlor, a contentious interracial baseball game on the Fourth of July, and the tragic true events of the Omaha Race Riot of 1919 - Kings of Broken Things reveals the folly of human nature in an era of astonishing ambition.
During the waning days of World War I, three lost souls find themselves adrift in Omaha, Nebraska, at a time of unprecedented nationalism, xenophobia, and political corruption. Adolescent European refugee Karel Miihlstein's life is transformed after neighborhood boys discover his prodigious natural talent for baseball. Jake Strauss, a young man with a violent past and desperate for a second chance, is drawn into a criminal underworld. Evie Chambers, a kept woman, is trying to make ends meet and looking every which way to escape her cheerless existence.
As wounded soldiers return from the front and black migrant workers move north in search of economic opportunity, the immigrant wards of Omaha become a tinderbox of racial resentment stoked by unscrupulous politicians. Punctuated by an unspeakable act of mob violence, the fates of Karel, Jake, and Evie will become inexorably entangled with the schemes of a ruthless political boss whose will to power knows no bounds.
Written in the tradition of Don DeLillo and Colum McCann, with a great debt to Ralph Ellison, Theodore Wheeler's debut novel Kings of Broken Things is a panoramic view of a city on the brink of implosion during the course of this summer of strife.
Members Reviews:
Utterly Fascinating!
I admit at first I wasn't sure what to think about this novel, wasn't sure if I would like it and whether or not I would finish it. I'm SO GLAD I didn't give up on it because it gets better and better with each new vignette, and held me fast right up through the epilogue. For my family, friends and others who have lived in Omaha for any length of time - or still do, I highly recommend this story of historical fiction. It doesn't paint a pretty picture of the city during this period of time, but many of us are aware that Omaha was at one time a city that had its dark side, and some of that is revealed in this novel. And for those of us who have lived there, it is fascinating to recognise names of streets, buildings and places that are familiar today that existed in the time setting of this story. Bottom line: I highly recommend this book.
Great Book!
What an unexpectedly interesting book. This isn't what I usually choose to read but I wanted to try something different this month. This was a great choice for my Kindle First Pick for July. Although the book is a work of fiction, in the Author's Note Wheeler writes ".... the scenes depicted are a fictional approximation of what life was like in Omaha during the last years of World War 1 and how the Omaha Race Root of 1919 was experienced." I must confess I didn't even know that Omaha had race riots.
This is an amazing accomplishment for the first time novelist, Theodore Wheeler. I was transported to a time and place that was unknown to me. The characters are extremely well written. There wasn't a false word that made me think this isn't real. This is a time of immigration, political corruption, open prostitution and the doughboys coming home from the war to find their jobs are no longer available.
