Pompeii ~ Robert Harris

My first memory of a huge volcanic eruption was Mount St. Helens in 1980. Though I didn't know anyone affected by it, I remember feeling badly for the 57 lives lost. Clearly we've come a long way with our knowledge of volcanoes and their impact on human mortality since 79AD, when Pompeii blew it's top annihilating not one, but two towns, Herculaneum and Pompeii, as no lives were lost when Eyjafjallajökull erupted on Iceland in the spring of 2010.



I really enjoy historical fictions that no only entertain but teach. I had some knowledge of volcanoes prior to reading this, so the new information was less about the eruption and the devastation than how aquaducts work and how any malfunction might signify something of great import. That is how confident the Romans were about their water works. One improper function was quickly identified and solutions attempted. The brilliance of these engineers still amazes, not because we should think them 'primitive' but because nearly two thousand years later we are still trying to get this water business thing right. We have much to learn.

Harris's ease with words and narrative made this novel such an enjoyable read. The characters were so believable that I felt I was there, a fly on the wall, witnessing these important moments between the different classes and the prejudices held between towns. The addition of Pliny and his witnessing of the eruption only added to the atmosphere of the day.

What worked best for me, in a book where most things well anyway, was the main characters walk from safety to Pompeii to save a mate. The description of the heat and the dust-like ash chocking, slowly asphyxiating already stressed lungs; each exhausting step knee deep in ash that simply kept coming and the snaking waves of lava flowing ever more quickly until the end. The fear, the anxiety, the urgency and the final moments of lost hope are so well written that the final chapter, the weakest part of the book, seemed to undo all that intensity. However, this will not dissuade me from taking up another Harris novel.

Review originally posted on the now defunct Paternoster Row Legacy blog.