Matthew Pearl

Reading The Technologists by Matthew Pearl is a great reminder why cross-genre novels are popular these days. The appeal of a novel that is more than a mystery, more than a thriller, and more than a work of historical fiction creates a fairly broad reader base. Not only that, but it creates a much more satisfyingly intricate and robust story. The Technologists is definitely that. With its commentary of class and gender distinctions, presentation of historical fact merged with intriguing show more fiction, and a killer mystery, the complexity of the scientific sections is offset by its sympathetic characters and thought-provoking descriptions of Bostonian societal norms, creating a novel that will attract a wide swath of readers and more importantly, keep their interest.

With a novel written about the first students at MIT and titled The Technologists, one knows immediately upon picking it up that it is going to be heavily laden with scientific discussions and events. Science and technology in any novel can be tricky to write, as a reader needs to be able to understand the science mentioned and, in the case of science fiction, needs to be able to believe the possibilities of such technology. Thankfully, Mr. Pearl is up to the challenge. Most of the scientific descriptions involve issues that are considered common knowledge today, or at least are mentioned in most high school chemistry, geography, and physics classes. For those discussions that may be a little more complicated, Mr. Pearl uses the characters to explain the science in a fashion that is informative without being condescending. In addition, for a reader who may be struggling with some of the science behind the action, the nods to scientific discoveries that are common knowledge today but were in their infancy at the time in the novel, e.g. food science, bacteriology, robotics, create light-hearted moments of superiority. The Technologists allows the reader to remember just how far the world of science has come in a relatively short time span.

What does come as a surprise when reading The Technologists is the antagonism between Harvard and MIT. This is one area in which Mr. Pearl tried not to stray from fact as much as possible, and it is fascinating to discover how patronizing and smug the Harvard students and faculty were towards the fledgling college. For a city, nay a country, that prides itself on being equal opportunity for all, even though it struggles in the execution, the divide between the haves – those able to afford college – and the have-nots – those forced to work for a living – was almost insurmountable. Although modern readers may expect such a divide due to money and the overall cost of receiving any sort of post-secondary education, the astonishment in The Technologists comes at the attitudes. Those not considered part of “society” were considered inferior and therefore not acceptable material for any college or university, and heaven help the poor soul who attempted to rise above their position. It is a shocking and disturbing display of the fundamental attitudinal differences between the “one percenters” and the rest of society. It also creates an unprecedented amount of empathy for the poor students at MIT who faced ridicule, lack of actual diplomas, and uncertain futures to pave the way for a new type of education.

The overall story of The Technologists is full of the most subtle twists and turns. Just when a reader thinks the story is going in one direction, the plot twists into a new one. This allows the resolution of the mystery to remain shrouded, providing a surprising and satisfying ending to the story. Mr. Pearl ladens his plot twists with well-described details and thoughtful insight into his characters. The fact that a majority of the students involved were either real or are based on actual students allows Mr. Pearl to create fairly three-dimensional characters that do much to enhance the overall story. Through the requisite descriptions and scientific discussions, Mr. Pearl is able to maintain decent pacing, as there are only a few moments where the story bogs down in the details. Thankfully, he writes himself out of such danger traps to create a story that is fairly fast-paced with a fine balance between attention to detail and action.

The Technologists is a fun romp through Boston after the Civil War at a time where science was advancing in unprecedented leaps and bounds. Not only is it a thrilling mystery, it also provides readers with a fascinating look at the issues facing the creation of one of the most respected colleges today. While much of the action is fictional, Mr. Pearl’s notes provide an excellent breakdown of the fictional liberties he took versus the historical details he kept pure and unadulterated. Even though the blend of fact and fiction is not necessarily seamless due to the nature of the fictional pieces, the accurate factual events create a more robust and believable story. The end result is a creative, engaging, and informative historical technological mystery.

Acknowledgments: Thank you to LibraryThing's Early Reader Program for my review copy! show less

The Short of It:

Mysterious and thrilling. The Technologists is the best kind of historical thriller. Learn a little, enjoy a lot.

The Rest of It:

Boston, 1868. The story opens with a catastrophe that no one can explain. Ships, coming in from the harbor are suddenly unable to navigate with the instruments they have. As the instrumentation goes haywire, vessels of all shapes and sizes crash into the harbor one by one. A sight that is hard to imagine, but even worse to witness firsthand. What show more caused this? Who caused this? Will it happen again?

This mysterious event piques the curiosity of many. Including the students of The Institute who live and breathe science and know that there must be a scientific explanation for what’s occurred. Except, society as a whole has not accepted science as an answer and in fact, would do almost anything to discredit it. Especially the Harvard boys who believe it’s just a bunch of hooey.

This creates quite a challenge for the students of the Institute, led by Marcus Mansfield and the group called The Technologists. They band together, with the assistance of the Institute’s only female student, Ellen Swallow to solve the mystery of what happened in that harbor on that fateful day, and the other disasters that follow in its wake.

I have a tiny crush on Matthew Pearl. He doesn’t know it, but that’s okay. His name might be familiar to you. A few years back he released The Last Dickens which I reviewed here. I don’t know if it is his writing, the fact that he chooses Boston in the late 1800′s as a setting (love), or what, but whatever he is doing, I am liking. The other thing to note, is that his books tend to cross many genres and they never seem to bore me. That’s always a plus. For example, I love mysterious elements but I am not a fan of mystery as a genre. Somehow, he manages to present the mysterious elements within historical fact which is endlessly fascinating to me.

This book pulls you in quickly and has just the right amount of science to make it interesting. At times, I felt the book a tad too long. In between the excitement of the disasters themselves, there is a great deal of experimentation and let’s be honest here, I couldn’t wait for the next disaster to hit and got a little cranky in-between the events when things didn’t happen right away. However, the practice of science is not a speedy task. There are notes to be taken, results to be reviewed, etc. Had it been written any other way, I’m sure I would have found fault with it. So in the end, these experimental “asides” did not keep me from enjoying the novel.

Overall, the characters are realistically drawn and the events, thrilling. To think that science was at one time compared to black magic is almost too difficult to believe, but Pearl truly gives the reader a glimpse of how it was for that first graduating class at MIT and many of the characters are based on actual students.

If you like to learn something while being entertained, you will undoubtedly enjoy this one.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter show less

(audio) This literary thriller is told from the PoV of a struggling Cambridge writer who serendipitously moves into an apartment in a home shared by his literary idol. The disastrous results, as David Trent gets to know the monster in the house, Silas Hale, causes the reader to juggle which of the two egocentric men is worse. The winter spent in a freezing cold garret, doing thankless household chores for a man who despises him and won't turn up the home's only thermostat, causes the breakup show more of Trent's engagement (the women in this novel are brimming with personality and good sense, unlike the men) and his despair, until he is notified that his first novel has been awarded a notable literary prize that had also been given to Silas Hale in his youth. Seemingly, Trent's idol changes his spots at the news (but still no heat!) and life is briefly a dream until a devastating reversal of fortune. Trent's response and his subsequent actions are almost unbelievable, but the author's pronouncements on the egos and mental state of successful writers leave the reader in wonderment at the tone deafness and utter blindness of the Cambridge literary scene. show less

Rating: one ill-tempered star (p54)

I gave up on this boring, clanking, juddering steampunk-lite edifice of rusty cogs and leaking pipes when I read one character from MIT's first graduating class saying to another that their technological age had an engine but no engineer.

Ugh.

I started the book with serious interest, based on some good reviews of people whose taste I trust, and on my great desire to see technology applied to problem-solving in extreme situations (the reason I read show more thrillers). I was wincing from the first scene, where a naked "charity scholar" swims in Boston's Charles River, then is dragooned by his buddies to crank up a rowing scull, and then there is engineered (bad pun, sorry) a confrontation with one of the men's acquaintance from Harvard. It was both too much information, and too little characterization. The utterances of the parties to this watery contretemps simply made no difference to me, I felt they were there to further some Point the author wanted to make.

Anyway. Mr. Pearl and I are not a good fit. I've tried his Dante book, and foundered about 60pp in, then I read his Dickens book to about the same place. We do not seem to be made for each other. As his books are tremendously successful commercially, he won't miss my money, and as his critical reception is rapturous, he won't miss my praise.

I will miss the interesting ideas all of his works to date have served rather unappealingly. Who loses? Me. Which makes me really grumpy. show less