Just Finished Reading: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl (2012) [472pp]

Boston, 1868. It was the end of years of trial and hard work, but the end was coming. Soon the very first graduating class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would be awarded their degrees and go out into the world – and change it forever. If, that is, they ever graduated. Instead of studying for their final exams the cream of the group had other things very much on their minds. Within the space of a few weeks a strange magnetic phenomena had disrupted every compass in the city of Boston causing mayhem in the port area. If that wasn’t enough to damage the city’s reputation a strange chemical had been released in the business district which had melted glass for blocks in every direction. What, everyone wondered, could happen next? With the police at a complete loss they had no option to call in the experts – from the nearby Harvard College – to investigate further. Stung at the implied rebuke the graduating students of MIT pooled their knowledge, expertise and (somewhat meagre) resources to solve the mystery, save the city and save their beloved college from disgrace and dissolution.

This is one of those few occasions when I can describe a book – even an almost 500 page book – in two words: dumpster fire. But I can hardly leave it at that. I was actually looking forward to reading an historical novel with an odd angle on things. It was certain to be different from the usual fictionalisation of actual historical events of a work of historical crime fiction. I didn’t quite expect this though! I’m in two minds about the origins of both the dumpster and the subsequent conflagration. Part of the reason was, I think, the author chasing too many plot rabbits (hound like) rather than picking a few to chase and hopefully catch – spoiler alert: most of the rabbits escaped. The other probable cause was the failure to adequately edit this rambling, and all too often incoherent, work or indeed the possibility that it wasn’t edited at all – which is a distinct possibility. I’ll put some plot flesh on the rabbits to show what I mean: The first graduating class from MIT, a long running rivalry with Harvard, issues around scholarship of poor but deserving candidates, clashes of class, religion, gender and (in passing) race, two romances (one with a rival), flashbacks to the Civil War and especially incarceration in a Confederate prison, opposition to the very idea of female students, opposition to technological or scientific progress from both religious and political dimensions, a plot to ruin MIT to allow patents to be owned by industrialists for expected massive profit, generational conflict….. and so on. I also think that there were multiple references to ‘kitchen sinks’ at least it felt like that. As far as I could tell there were at least 10 or more plot lines running concurrently – and that’s without taking into account the major plotline (if it actually deserves the name) of the attacks on Boston by someone with a seemingly towering knowledge of cutting edge technology, physics, chemistry and mechanics. I did wonder, more than once, why I continued reading. Part of it I think was just how absurd the whole thing was and that part of me was simply impressed that the whole thing hadn’t already collapsed in front of my eyes. Part of me also wondered just how the author was going to get his (admittedly often well drawn) characters out of this increasingly ridiculous situation. Needless to say I was NOT impressed by this work of historical ‘fiction’. SO not recommended – unless you LIKE watching dumpster fires in the hope that something interesting will happen to it prior to the fire service arriving and putting it out of its misery.