City of Light

by Lauren Belfer

Published 1999

This novel was a surprise, and continued to offer them throughout the read.

I'll admit I picked it up simply because it was about Buffalo, New York, my original home town. And I am also partial to historical fiction, and this story takes place in 1901, in a city full of elm trees, mansions, and burgeoning industry. Buffalo had a moment or two on the world stage as a powerful center of mills, steel, and commerce, and Belfer has set her story at its most prosperous moment.

The heroine of the story is a youngish woman, Louisa Barrett who is the head-mistress of a school for girls, in this novel called The Macaulay School, which would likely be recognized by many Buffalonians as The Buffalo Seminary. There is a romance (or two), a murder (or two), a secret (or two), and some fascinating glimpses of the real people and events that set Buffalo, particularly the turn-of-the-last century Buffalo, apart.

I was somewhat concerned when, on just page 19, I made this note: "Girl-boss alert!" I've not made a secret of  being less than enthusiastic about the female protagonist who simply does everything better than the male characters around her. Even Sherlock Holmes misses his guess sometimes, and has some personal quirks that make such an impossible hero bearable! In this case, Louisa, having been stranded with her father on an expedition to the mountains, learns how to converse with rough-and-tough mountain men on their own level, without the need "to simper and flirt like other girls."

But Belfer quickly redeems Louisa, who eventually becomes a fully rounded main character. Among the many others involved in what ends up being a very involved tale are her god-daughter, Grace; Grace's father, Tom; the Talbert family, a wealthy black family whose daughter attends Macaulay; Susannah Riley, an art teacher at the school (and one of the surprises); a newspaperman, an engineer, a Vice President, a former President - and many more. If I had a major complaint, it was the long and tangled web of characters in the book, though Belfer leaves the narration in the voice of Louisa, rendering the many people passing in and out of her days manageable.

The plot revolves around the new power plant being developed on the Niagara River. Harnessing the power of the falls, it becomes the center of a complex struggle between men and machines; power and nature; ambitions and restrictions. 

In one long section, we're treated to a comparison of the men, the "barons of industry," who are fat, obnoxious and smoke cigars, being contrasted against their female counterparts, who are witty, clever, and smoke cigarettes. During a visit the Macaulay girls pay to the inner workings of the new power plant, one curious girls wonders why the "wealthy men put up millions of dollars on a power plant on Niagara Falls," and is told the answer is "to turn a profit." Yet Tom's ambition is to try to extend the benefit of that profit to providing power for all - even the many poor who have flocked to the city for work.

There is a curious "do-gooder" character, a wealthy woman who has dedicated herself to improving the lot of others, yet on a face-to-face level she finds them difficult, and insists that the "deserving poor must be cajoled none too gently."

Throughout the story, Belfer offers the reader both this AND that - a contrasting point of view for each point offered. We see through the eyes of a wealthy and successful man, and then the eyes of a wealthy and powerful woman. There is selfishness and selflessness in both the drawing room and the kitchen. A family who appeals to Louisa's ability to keep a secret and save their daughter - and for whom we feel great sympathy - ends up turning their backs once they have what they need. At the same time a man who appeared to be a selfish cad turns out to be as good, decent, and worthy as it's possible to be and be believed. She insightfully contrasts the obligations and limitations, as well as the opportunity and endowments of the wealthy and privileged with the freedom and opportunity, as well as the possibility of going for the win of those who make it on their own. 

Every so often, Belfer surprises with an image that stays with the reader as it works on so many levels at once. In one passage, Louisa has gone to meet a man about whom she has suspicions. He collects butterflies, and apparently used this hobby to get close to a young woman in Louisa's care. The image of the butterflies, a collection, an admiration, of the creatures pinned and saved - particularly as it seems to mesh with the images already conjured of young women and girls adorned with ribbons and bows, flounces and colorful skirts. 

For a reader from Western New York, the book will have the added charm of offering so many visuals. The Roycroft Community in East Aurora figures in the story; Delaware Avenue and Park; the Three Sisters Islands and Goat Island near Niagara Falls; and the many streets and avenues of the beautiful city of Buffalo will all immediately come into the mind's eye. Belfer even works in a mention of something well-known to anyone who has lived or worked in the city: it's wonderful candy stores. While the scene works on its own as simply a place for an encounter, to a Buffalo native it will add an extra "flavor." 

Belfer sets up, as noted, mysteries, complexities, relationships, challenges - and each one of them pays off with a surprise or a resolution. And much as I resist the cliche, the last few chapters, as one reads to tie up all those story arcs, demand that you read without stopping.