Evanston: Jackson Park; STALIN’S GHOST
Evanston: Jackson Park; STALIN’S GHOST
Last Saturday we drove to Jackson Park on Chicago’s south side, which was the site of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, more accurately known as The World’s Columbian Exhibition because it was originally intended to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage.
Carol and I both read Eric Larsen’s excellent nonfiction book, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, a couple of years ago. The fair buildings were known as ‘The White City’. The ‘devil’ was a serial killer who murdered young women during the fair.
The fair buildings were not intended to be permanent, and the only one still standing is what was the Palace of Fine Arts and is now, after its plaster facade was replaced in the 1920ties with 27,000 tons of limestone, the Museum of Science and Industry.
South of the museum, much of the park is nearly wilderness. On what is known as Wooded Island, where the Japanese Pavilion stood during the fair, can be found Osaka Garden, shown in the photos above.
There were several huge family reunions/picnics being held on the edges of the park, each with an identifying banner so people wouldn’t end up attending the wrong one.
A mile long, quarter mile wide swath of green running west from Jackson Park was the fair’s Midway Plaisance, location then, to mention but a few, of South Sea Islanders, Laplanders, snake charmers, A Street In Cairo, Blarney Castle, Ballon Ascension, Dahomey Village, a replica Eiffel Tower, and the first Ferris Wheel.
Most of these cost $0.25, but the Ferris Wheel cost $0.50 and the Ballon Ascension $2.00. This was in addition to the $0.50 adult general admission to the fair.
As we drove back north on Lake Shore Boulevard, the tops of buildings in downtown Chicago were lost in thick haze.
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Somewhere online I saw a review of Martin Cruz Smith’s latest novel, STALIN’S GHOST, and bought it.
I read his GORKY PARK when it came out in the early1980ties and liked it, as well as the movie, starring Sean Connery, but had then pretty much forgotten about him.
STALIN’S GHOST turns out to be the sixth novel about the same Moscow police detective, Arkady Renko, who featured in GORKY PARK. The time has moved forward to the 1990ties after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Stalin’s ghost is sighted in a subway station and Renko is assigned to investigate.
Renko is an interesting character, the son of one of Stalin’s generals; and Martin Cruz Smith is a fine writer. A good plot, which is not a ghost story; great atmosphere and descriptions of life in Russia.
When I finished STALIN’S GHOST, I ordered several more of Smith’s books, including GORKY PARK which I’d like to read again.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007