With characters depicted in precise detail and wide panorama—a kept-woman’s parlor, a contentious interracial baseball game on the Fourth of July, and the tragic true events of the Omaha Race Riot of 1919—Kings of Broken Things reveals the folly of human nature in an era of astonishing ambition.
During the waning days of World War I, three lost souls find themselves adrift in Omaha, Nebraska, at a time of unprecedented nationalism, xenophobia, and political corruption. Adolescent European refugee Karel Miihlstein’s life is transformed after neighborhood boys discover his prodigious natural talent for baseball. Jake Strauss, a young man with a violent past and desperate for a second chance, is drawn into a criminal underworld. Evie Chambers, a kept woman, is trying to make ends meet and looking every which way to escape her cheerless existence.
As wounded soldiers return from the front and black migrant workers move north in search of economic opportunity, the immigrant wards of Omaha become a tinderbox of racial resentment stoked by unscrupulous politicians. Punctuated by an unspeakable act of mob violence, the fates of Karel, Jake, and Evie will become inexorably entangled with the schemes of a ruthless political boss whose will to power knows no bounds.
Written in the tradition of Don DeLillo and Colum McCann, with a great debt to Ralph Ellison, Theodore Wheeler’s debut novel Kings of Broken Things is a panoramic view of a city on the brink of implosion during the course of this summer of strife.
Great read. Would I recommend this book to other … Great read. Would I recommend this book to other people? Yes I would including friends. I absolutely think this is great book. All opinions are my own and they are not influenced by anyone but myself. […]
Utterly Fascinating! I admit at first I wasn’t sure what to think about this novel, wasn’t sure if I would like it and whether or not I would finish it. I’m SO GLAD I didn’t give up on it because it gets better and better with each new vignette, and held me fast right up through the epilogue. For my family, friends and others who have lived in Omaha for any length of time – or still do, I highly recommend this story of historical fiction. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the city during this period of time, but…
A DARK AND GRIPPING HISTORICAL FICTION! I took my time with this monthâs Kindle First books. I was not fond of or fascinated by any particular author or book. I had an âinside lookâ at four of the books on offer, and decided to pass them up, and narrowed down to two, The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space, and Speed by Scott Parazynski and Kings of Broken Things by Theodore Wheeler. I have a great fascination for memoir and would have settled for the former had not my fear of height and speed came in the way. And that leaves…