Review: Pompeii

Pompeii by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was excellent. Pompeii and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius is something we've all heard about. I thought I had heard quite a bit about it, and I also went to visit Pompeii several years ago, and yet it wasn't until reading this book that I felt I got a real sense of what it must have been like to go through this ordeal. I've heard it said that A Tale of Two Cities does a better job than any history book of conveying what it was like to go through the French Revolution, and I suspect this is its equivalent for Pompeii and its inhabitants.

I also enjoyed the angle, and how the observations started from the changes in the water supply and aqueducts.

The (love) story in itself was a tad simplistic, but there were many other reasons to enjoy this book. The story was almost just an excuse to tell all the rest.

Also (SPOILER AHEAD) it seemed to be a bit of a stretch how Attilius manages to be on Mt. Vesuvius when the eruption starts, passes through Herculaneum and then Misenum, and the gets to Pompeii for the final pyroclastic surge (and obviously survives).

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