I have garnished an appreciation for ‘natural disaster’ stories – mostly via motion pictures or tv adaptations since I was a young child. I credit this to being surrounded by natural disasters in a region of the United States frequently plagued by everything you can think of save earthquakes, such as the one at the center of what went wrong in San Francisco in ‘1906’! I’ve survived my fair share of tornadoes, hurricanes, severe lightning storms and have been downwind of impressive forest fires which blocked out sunlight and daylight in equal measure. Nature has a way of imparting it’s fury on us at times where I tend to think we’ve missed a lesson somewhere about minding our actions and being more respectful towards the environment we’re meant to be stewards.
The heart of the story within in ‘1906’ is not entirely centred on the quake itself, but the back-story of what was happening in the city – at the corruption and the actions of others who set into motion a spiraling vortex of destructive damages that would lead to the greatest cost of the event itself. I wanted to give the author a chance to explain his approach to lending a literary voice to this event and to the circumstances surrounding it; as to best introduce the inspiration behind the novel and the story which has led to changing hearts and minds about what truly was the truth about the losses lost that fateful year.
Lend your heart and mind to the truer story behind the fictional account and I hope you might become inspired to read ‘1906’ as much as I was myself. Some stories simply need to be told in order for History to acknowledge the truth that was simply hidden from sight – generation to generation – after faded memories erased it from being remembered.
Every disaster has a backstory, none more thrilling than this one. Set during the great San Francisco earthquake and fire, this page-turning tale of political corruption, vendettas, romance, rescue—and murder—is based on recently uncovered facts that forever change our understanding of what really happened. Told by a feisty young reporter, Annalisa Passarelli, the novel paints a vivid picture of the Victorian-era city, from the mansions of Nob Hill to the underbelly of the Barbary Coast to the arrival of tenor Enrico Caruso and the Metropolitan Opera. Central to the story is the ongoing battle—fought even as the city burns—that pits incompetent and unscrupulous politicians against a coalition of honest police officers, newspaper editors, citizens, and a lone federal prosecutor.
With the appeal and texture of The Alienist, Carter Beats the Devil, and the novels of E. L. Doctrow, James Dalessandro weaves unforgettable characters and actual events into a compelling epic.
The topic I pitched to Mr Dalessandro about his novel ‘1906’:
How did you take the scale of the disaster and purport it through the dramatic narrative arc which became the embodiment of the story behind ‘1906’? What did you instinctively want to focus on in order to provide a grounding of depth but also the humanistic response to the tragedy and it’s aftermath? Did anything surprise you whilst you were researching the back-story for the novel?
I have been a devotee of historical fiction since age 12 when I began reading Leon Uris – Battle Cry, Exodus, Mila 18. I discovered historical detail and human struggle missing from my classes and textbooks. I was transported, an eager party to the events unfolding in the pages.
All epic historical fiction needs a narrative arc, a dramatic spine anchored in an ever-evolving human struggle. Ordinary person, extraordinary events. The Civil War needs Rhett and Scarlett; California’s ascendance as the last beacon of the American dream requires Steinbeck’s Adam Trask and Tom Joad.
In my new home of San Francisco, I had a window seat on the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and the equally appalling 3 ½ year prison sentence of their killer, Dan White, of the infamous “Twinkie Defense.”
I set out to write my first novel, Bohemian Heart by updating the Noir detective thriller to contemporary San Francisco, where it was born in the Remington of Dashiell Hammett. I co-mingled a P.I. yarn with my outrage over the “official story” surrounding the assassinations of Moscone and Milk. The reviews and reader response were marvelous, the sales far less so. Read More
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