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For me this was both a very satisfying book and yet annoying at times. First, I guess, the bad parts:
1.) I spent the first 1/4 - 1/3 of the book trying to figure out who all these people were and why I should care. Especially some of the minutia of their lives.
2.) The eBook version was seriously hindered by the lack of insitu footnotes. Having them all at the end and not linked was a real pain.
The Good:
1.) I had fairly recently learned about the explosion and it's magnitude, via a CBC documentary, but it lacked the level of detail about exactly WHAT happened. And very little of the why.
2.) I had no idea of the level of antipathy between the two countries at the time. This book helped set the perspective.
3.) I really didn't realize that Americans actually thought they could annex us. That was never in the cards from this side!
4.) Once I got past that first section, and got into the actual events, I was completely and totally compelled to read. I couldn't put it down! Worth just on that level.
5.) This did an excellent job of identifying all the factors that led to the terrible event. No one factor was sufficient to have caused the result. As with most such disasters, it takes a whole string of events and failures to lead to catastrophe. That being said, I agree that the Imo has a larger part of the blame than he was ultimately charged with.
I'm really glad I nominated this book, and that we selected it. I know far more now about this terrible event, and the sheer scale of it. And I better understand why Nova Scotians compete to send their tree to Boston every year.
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