The fictional Chester Ludlow was the primary engineer on this project and whom the tale revolves around. Ludlow is an charismatic man and the people backing this project see this quality in him. Knowing that they need to raise more money for the project, they send Chester on the road with a show that details the amazing cable. Chester's likeable personality wins over more backers and they set out to lay the cable.
Meanwhile, Chester's wife, Frannie, bereft over the death of their child begins experimenting in spiritism - or the art of speaking with the dead. While Frannie is never able to reach her daughter, she becomes adept at helping other people reach out - and if not talk to the dead, feel at peace with the death of a loved one.
Chester's first attempt at laying a cable across the ocean ends in failure with a broken cable. But several years later they try again and again.
This book was interesting to me on a couple of levels:
1) The pure audacity of laying a cable across the ocean floor - that someone would conceive of it back then and think they could do it amazes me. Especially when we know today that the floor of the ocean is miles and miles below us. These people were true pioneers in the telecommunications industry.
2) The story of Frannie, Chester's wife is intriguing to me. In the mid-1800s séances and spirit guides were all the rage. People were constantly trying to contact the dead back then. Quacks were abundant in the industry (for obvious reasons) but everybody believed the next guy who came into town professing they could contact the dead, could really do it. I've always been interested in this side-show aspect of our ancestors.
Rating: 9 / 10
ISBN: 9780312300824
Publisher: Picador
Edition: 1st Edition