City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan

Summary (from the publisher): Rich with unforgettable characters and history, intricately plotted and utterly absorbing, "City of Dreams" is a stirring saga of early Manhattan and the beginnings of medical science told by a master storyteller. In 1661, Lucas Turner and his sister, Sally, stagger off a small wooden ship after eleven weeks at sea to make a fresh start in the rough and rowdy Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam.

Lucas, a barber surgeon, and Sally, an apothecary, are both gifted healers and bound to each other by blood and necessity. Yet as their new lives unfold, lust, betrayal, and murder will make them deadly enemies. In their struggle to survive in the New World, both make choices that will burden their descendants -- dedicated physicians and surgeons, pirates and whoremasters -- with a legacy of secrets and retribution. That heritage sets cousin against cousin, physician against surgeon, and ultimately, patriot against Tory.

In a city where slaves are burned alive on Wall Street, where James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams walk The Broad Way arguing America's destiny, and where one of the greatest hospitals in the world is born in former shipwrights' workshops by the East River, the fortunes of the two families are inextricably entwined. Their pride and ambition, their loves and hates, and their willingness to live by their own rules will shape the future of medicine, and the becoming of the dream that is New York.  

 

Review: City of Dreams opens in 1661, when Lucas Turner and his sister Sally arrive in the Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam. Lucas begins earning a living as a barber surgeon, supplied by Sally's apothecary skills. The novel follows the descendants of Lucas and Sally through its conclusion in 1798. As the family evolves, so does the city, and slowly so does the medical profession that many of the family feel drawn towards.

 

Swerling's approach of following a family over 137 years was a unique way of displaying both continuities and changes both within the Turner family and the city they call home. The only downside to this swift passage through time is that just when the reader becomes deeply intrigued and caught up in the life story of one member of the family, the novel would jump forward in time by several decades, by which point the earlier characters have died or are elderly and no longer the focus of the plot. In fact, the seven parts of this book could each have been lengthened into standalone novels, which would have allowed for more full exploration of each character's lives and historical context. Furthermore, a irreparable parting between siblings Lucas and Sally ripples through the subsequent generations, with each generation concerned with revenge and retribution against distant familiar members for both real and perceived slights. This preoccupation with revenge and getting even seemed over the top and merely done to add to plot tension than for any other reason. Yet given the time period, the struggle to survive and the family's drama and professional intrigues would likely have been tension enough without plots for revenge.

 

The narrative choice to move through time placed emphasis more on the family and the city's history as a whole rather than a specific individual. Early concerns about Native American violence and the tussle between Dutch and British ownership are gradually replaced by concerns with taxation and eventually the Revolutionary War. It was interesting seeing the city evolve and develop through the lens of the Turner family. Little tidbits of history are dispersed throughout, such as "in 1699, when the old wooden palisade came down, the plan had been to make Wall Street into a wide boulevard. It turned out the governor of the time had bought the parade ground to the north, divided it into building lots, and made a fortune selling them off. As a result Wall Street was what it had always been, a thirty-six-foot-wide trench" (146). Additionally, historical figures like Paul Revere and George Washington are referenced by members of the family.

 

One dominant theme throughout each time period covered in this novel is the practice of medicine. Swerling has certainly done her homework on the history of medical practice and the novel includes various graphic and detailed medical procedures. For instance, within pages of the novel opening, Lucas Turner must surgically remove kidney stones from a man's bladder, which is described in excruciating detail. Each generation of the family has someone who is called to the field of medicine and/or 'simpling' or the skillful use of herbs and natural remedies to aid in healing. There is a lot of tension and focus given to the forward momentum of medical practice; the Turners seek to innovate and best serve their patients rather than perpetuate quack procedures that may even harm their patients. However, while largely skilled doctors, this doesn't mean their attempts to heal and perform surgeries are always successful. In particular, the concepts of vaccination, abortion, blood transfusions, and the limits of surgical intervention are explored throughout the course of the book.

 

Swerling does a credible job at creating characters who were complex and flawed humans. Even while we see Lucas Turner healing and practicing a more ethical, successful medical practice, he is still prejudiced against Native Americans: "An excellent place to practice such surgery. And this was a squaw brat, so it didn't matter if she lived or died" (44). Later, he treats his sister so poorly that their relationship is permanently destroyed. Each generation finds similar patterns of flawed characters, contributing a mix of bad and good deeds to the city. Furthermore, Swerling is unafraid of unhappy endings for her characters, many of which face grisly or less than ideal fates.

 

Although I do wish I could have followed the stories of certain individuals to their conclusions, I enjoyed this work of historical fiction with its focus on medicine and tracing one family through the ages. Swerling has created a well researched story of early New York with an intriguing storyline that carried the reader through over one hundred years of one family's story.

 

Stars: 4