I recently read Winchester's
A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906,
which I had purchased at the SF airport on my way back to Seattle. Having A) started my Winchester appreciation with the phenomenal
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary,
B) lived in San Francisco for 5 years, including experience the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, and C) still living in earthquake country and having a somewhat unhealthy interest in them, I was sure to like the book, right? Not quite. It seems that since his success with
The Professor and the Madman,
The Map That Changed the World,
and then
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883,
Winchester'd gotten a little too chatty and fascinated with his own part of the story. The trend started with
Krakatoa but got worse with
The Crack in the Edge of the World. There are many fascinating things in the book, but he kept taking long diversions to talk of his experiences rather than the history or science. Let's just say, this is one more example where a good editor should have stood up against an author's ego. Sigh.
