Deeanne Gist uses the 1893 Chicago World Fair (also known as
the Columbian Exposition) to showcase a charming and deeply
satisfying love story set in a time when society was
changing at a breakneck pace. IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR brings
together a young inventor facing physical challenges with a
woman focused on her teaching career.
Gist's use of archival images to illustrate the settings of
several scenes is a very nice touch, bringing the reader
into the story in a way more common in books from the turn
of the century, which adds to the feeling one gets of being
swept to another time. Although she is upfront about a few
liberties taken with physical layout and the time line of
the fair's events, Deanne Gist has used intensive research
to create a fascinating milieu surrounding a simple and
enchanting love story. Cullen McNamara and Della Wentworth
are characters I shall remember for a very long time.
Deeanne Gist's device of dropping vowels and using italics
to
communicate Cullen's increasing difficulty in hearing took a
little getting used to, but the overall affect of letting
the reader experience his worsening condition made it worth
while. It only took a few chapters to get used to it.
I thoroughly enjoyed IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR, Deeanne Gist's
sweet yet substantial romance. I am now intrigued with the
time period and events surrounding the World's Fair and am
delighted that another book with the same setting has been
published (Fair Play, published May 2014.) I hope Deeanne
Gist keeps writing more books like IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR
(and Fair Play) perhaps surrounded by other historical
events. I think it is a niche that needs filling.
Gambling everything--including the family farm--Cullen
McNamara travels to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with his
most recent invention. But the noise in the fair's
Machinery Hall makes it impossible to communicate with
potential buyers. In an act of desperation, he hires Della
Wentworth, a teacher of the deaf, to tutor him in the art of
lip-reading.
The young teacher is reluctant to participate, and Cullen
has trouble keeping his mind on his lessons while intently
watching her lips. Like the newly invented Ferris wheel, he
is caught in a whirl between his girl back home, his dreams
as an inventor, and his unexpected attraction to his new
tutor. Can he keep his feet on the ground, or will he be
carried away?
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