The Temple of Music: A Novel

By Jonathan Lowy

Book Overview

America is starkly divided between the haves and the have-nots. A Republican president seeks reelection in the afterglow of a war many view as unnecessary and imperialisttic. He is bankrolled by millionaires, with every step of his career orchestrated by a political mastermind. Religious extremists crusade against the nation's moral collapse. Terrorists plot the assassination of leaders around the world. And a lonely, disturbed revolutionary stalks the President. . . . It all happened. One hundred years ago. It all comes to life inThe Temple of Music. A vivid, gripping historical novel of the Gilded Age,The Temple of Musicre-creates the larger-than-life characters and tempestuous events that rocked turn-of-the-century America. From battlefields to political backrooms, from romance to murder,The Temple of Musictells the tales of robber barons, immigrants, yellow journalists, and anarchists, all centering on one of the most fascinating, mysterious, but little-explored events in American history: the assassination of President William McKinley by the disturbed anarchist Leon Czolgosz. The Temple of Musicbrings to life the intrigues and passions, the hatreds and loves of a rich cast of real-life characters, including Emma Goldman, the passionate anarchist who forsakes her personal life to fight for workers' rights and free love; her imprisoned lover, the failed assassin Alexander Berkman; corrupt kingmaker "Dollar" Mark Hanna, whose fund-raising and strategizing foreshadowed how modern presidential campaigns would be run; William Jennings Bryan, the populist orator and chief political rival of McKinley; flamboyant newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst; self-appointed morality czar Anthony Comstock; steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; and Carnegie's iron-fisted manager, Henry Clay Frick. At the center of this tableau is William McKinley, the president, and Leon Czolgosz, his assassin. McKinley rises to the presidency almost by accident, floating on the money and political clout of Mark Hanna. Sober and unimaginative, McKinley's personal life is marked by drama and tragedy, the unstable wife he loves, and enemies he cannot imagine-chief among them, Leon Czolgosz, a lonely immigrant and factory worker who plots the most spectacular protest in an age of spectacular protests-McKinley's assassination at the 1901 Buffalo World's Fair. Sweeping in scope,The Temple of Musicis a rare literary achievement that intertwines history and fiction into an indelible tapestry of America at the dawn of the twentieth century. Praise for Jonathan Lowy'sElvis and Nixon "Imaginative and often hilarious . . . Pop culture and recent history are hog-tied and transmogrified to smashing effect in Lowy's imaginative and often hilarious first novel. He moves among several storylines effortlessly, concocting a darkly comic melodrama the likes of which we haven't seen since The Manchurian Candidate."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "[A] high-flying first novel . . . darkly funny."-New York Times Book Review "A snappy blend of fact and fiction."-Time "Inventive, irreverent, and surreal."-Houston Chronicle "[A] darkly humorous look at America under siege . . . A notable debut."-Dallas Morning News "A dizzying blend of fact and fiction . . . A daring debut."-Arizona Republic "There are a few words that fully describe Lowy'sElvis and Nixon-bizarre, confusing, and enlightening, but also hard to put down."-Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609608193
• ISBN13: 9780609608197
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.2" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Death Lurking near Niagra Falls.

This well-done combination with real life characters at an historic place and time is sometimes choppy as we flipflop from the stalker and the stalkee. It is a novel based on real people during the World's Fair in 1901 at Buffalo, New York. The Temple of Music is the beautiful centerpiece of the Exposition where Pres. William McKinley is set to give a speech. The times are good for the rich but not so good for the poor immigrants and low wage workers. At 5 p.m. on September 6, two bullets were fired close up and could be heard out on the Midway. Peopled with such illuminaries of that Gilded Age as the yellow tabloid publisher Hearst and Andrew Carnegie's iron-fisted manager Henry Clay Frick, it shows the dangers and adverse publicity our early presidents were subjected to in life and death. McKinley lasted a week before he died, on September 13, 1901, in late afternoon. In a month, the assassin Leon Czolgosz was executed in the electric chair, his brain extracted and examined after his death, and he was thrown into a pit and doused with acid. This is fiction. Surely we were more humane and life went on with others being charged as accessories but nothing could be proved.

Something different

The sights and sounds of the Gilded Age are vividly brought to life in this novel. It is so eloquent that you can just picture every scene. The contrast between the rich (which was almost sinfully gaudy) and the poor (so dark and gloomy and hopeless) come to life. It brings all the characters through the years to their meeting point at the Buffalo World"s Fair where anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley. This book is absolutely riveting and probably different from anything you've read lately. It's really worth your time.

A Hearty, Historical Broth

The last two decades of the 19th century are two of the most colorful and momentous decades of our history, a fascinating era, but one often overlooked by good writers of historical fiction. Lowy's book is a welcome and long overdue addition to the genre. For anyone familiar with this chapter of American history there is no suspense; the plot moves steadily toward its inevitable conclusion: the assassination of McKinley by an anarchist. But along the way, the author's attention to detail brings to life the sights, smells, and sounds of an era that seems so distant, yet-in some notable respects-uncomfortably close to our own. It's a book of contrasts, starkly drawn. Lowy brings into sharp relief the fabulous, almost obscene, wealth of the robber barons and juxtaposes it against the grinding poverty and hardships that accompanied America's industrial revolution. That alone makes for a good read, but it's the vivid, and oddly sympathetic treatment that he gives his characters that make it compelling. Working with classic ingredients like `Dollar' Mark Hanna, William Randolph Hearst, Ambrose Bierce, and Emma Goldman, Lowy has worked up a hearty, historical broth that should please the reader. My compliments to the chef.