Covers the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 as well as explores the history, cause, and other related topics of earthquakes and plate movement. Some of the side topics the author covers seem to be very far afield. ( )

Simon Winchester delivers another stellar non-fiction study of an historical event and its ramifications. As he did in "Krakatoa", Winchester delves deeply into the geological record to help the reader understand the mechanism that produced California's fault lines, including the San Andreas fault, and those fault lines' part in creating California's topography. Along the way, he provides a succinct history of San Francisco, from its origin as a squalid tent city at the beginning of the Gold Rush through its transformation into a sophisticated and sparkling urban center. Throw in local politics, crooked developers, and a little regional rivalry, and voila! A highly entertaining narrative of one of the most significant earthquakes in California's long history. Good stuff, and highly recommended. ( )

[Simon Winchester] is a marvelous writer and though this work is not the equal of [[The Meaning of Everything]] or of [[Krakratoa]] it has to be one of best ever written about an earthquake that ocurred before Winchester was born. He covers the earthquake from every angle and he does it in such a way that you feel like you were there to see it in person. He gives you the history of San Francisco, he gives you the science of earthquakes, he gives you the events of the day of the quake and he describes the panic of the people in the quake and the misery of the thousands left homeless. He tells about the government of San Francisco and the lack of any building codes and the disheveled fire department with its useless fire hoses because their was no water in the fire hydrants. Winchester gives you the complete story but he does it in such a way that you enjoy the building excitement and though you know the outcome you keeping wondering what else he is going to throw in the fire. The power behind Winchester's stories are the people which he describes convincingly and with enough character to either root for the good guys are turn thumbs down to the bad guys. And whether you want to or not you know a lot more about the science of earthquakes after reading this book. ( )

In a book that combines personal observations, travelogue and history, Winchester succeeds at being dull in all three. His is the only voice, and the quality of the insights from this globe-trotting correspondent underwhelm the reader. Even in catastrophe, Winchester cannot conjure any hint of human drama. What he does conjure is his own astonishment at the painfully mundane—driving east to west, Tennessee seems to go on for a long time; there are four families named Angel in the town of Paradise, KS; there is a seismograph in a general store in a small town in Oklahoma; both the fabulously wealthy and the wretched poor lived in San Francisco in the early 20th century; some people think that the earthquake (which was felt far away) began at 12 minutes after 5am, others insist it began 7 minutes after the hour. Wow.

“The only way one can make any attempt at rationally planning for earthquakes in places like this, where, generally speaking, earthquakes do not happen, is to look very closely at those places where they have, albeit very infrequently, taken place. By doing this, one has a faint hope of imagining what could take place at some infuriatingly unspecifiable time in the future: It is only by looking at what has occurred in years gone by that one can imagine what might yet occur.”

Blithering Idiot Barleywine
Mendocino Oktoberfest

As a native Californian who lived in San Francisco for many years, I really enjoyed reading this book. It contains lots of SF and California history in addition to the fascinating geologic and earthquake information. Highly recommended. ( )