After more than 600 pages, I should have something more to say than, “Eh.” But in response to this book of historical fiction — beginning with a Brit seeing the Paris revolution of 1848 and ending in a varied group of characters mining during the California gold rush of the same year — I have little else to add.

With the size and scope of the work, you’d think I would. The author arranges for the characters to bump into most of the important people of the day: Charles Darwin, Count de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, John Jacob Astor, John Fremont and more. And the characters also dip their feet into so many issues or philosophies of the times, including republicanism, the opium trade, the creation of Utopian communities, the rise of Mormonism, the speeding up of society thanks to technology, the gold fever, and etc. and etc.

In the end, it’s more like the characters are witnesses to all of the history going on around them, but they don’t actually DO much themselves. They’re just along for the ride, rather flimsy foils for the real character, which is the time period itself. The cover quote calls it “a joyful, wild gallop through a joyful, wild time to be an American,” and I would agree. But perhaps the author gave the horse a little bit too much freedom, not reigning the story into a smooth, compelling plotline. Certainly entertaining in places, the novel sludges to a boring stop in others, and it seems the real action didn’t begin until halfway through the book!

I made it through to the end and found the experience not unpleasant, so there’s that. But I also wouldn’t recommend the lengthy tome to friends. I’d recommend it to a good editor, who would cut 200 pages.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars – Vacation reading