Well, ok. I ordered it through Pegasus and marched through it. I wrote This Review.
"For a book with "Dreams" in the title, it was mostly a nightmare. None of the characters had much in the way of redeeming qualities except for the capacity to endure pain, of which there was a lot. Every character who is not almost immediately killed or raped is unlikeable. The American revolutionaries are slavers, the British loyalists liked to spank their prostitutes. The Europe-training doctors killed their patients with ineffective medicines and the surgeons killed their patients by experimenting on them. All in all, "City of Dreams" is not a place we'd want to visit.
It might have been worth touring this nightmare if there had been something like a plot or if it had been a reliable vehicle for learning history (after all, much of history involves a lot of pain.) However, the only plot-like structure is that the mixed-race child of a rape was so enraged at the casual racism of being rejected for marriage due to her heritage, that she engaged in a multigenerational revenge (despite a subsequent highly successful marriage) that did not actually accomplish much except the crippling of a completely innocent uncle. That is not a very interesting plot because there is no suspense or direction to the revenge.
As for history: in the afternotes we read that the author studied period medical notes and therefore we can trust the gory details. Otherwise we are left guessing as to what is is real and what is invented. Did colonists torture slaves? Probably yes. Did a privateer and pirate get captured by the British during a hopeless attempt to save Nathan Hale from hanging? Probably not. Was there really a "Women of Conmara" society of herbalists? We learn in the notes the answer is "no". What events and details can we trust? It's too much trouble to figure out.
So: we can't read this for history. We can't read it for character. We can't read it for plot. I read it because our book club chose it because it's cover blurb said it was a "perfect historical novel" ... and that is a lesson in itself."
This seemed to be the general conscensus of the book club - we did not especially like it, but wanted to try another book. Next month it'll be "The Hotel At The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet". Wish us luck!
