Last Train to Paradise

July 8, 2002
A good idea—to have a novelist tell the story of Henry Morrison Flagler, the 19th-century mogul credited with developing Florida as a vacation paradise—goes sadly astray here. Readers hoping to learn about the man will be disappointed, as will those looking for a good yarn about the engineering marvel that is this tale's centerpiece—Flagler's creation, in the early 20th century, of a rail line that traversed 153 miles of open ocean to link mainland Florida with Key West. The narrative bumps along, frequently veering off into tantalizing detours that lead nowhere. Standiford presents pages about the power of hurricanes to destroy property and savage the human body, an emphasis that is the book's undoing: readers are led to believe that storm damage in 1935 was the sole reason for the railroad's abandonment. This prompts Standiford to argue that Flagler's undertaking was a "folly" from the start, as his contemporaries claimed, and that his story constitutes a classic "tragedy." In fact, the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was undone as much, if not more, by a force Standiford never mentions: the internal combustion engine. After the hurricane of 1935, investors and the government considered rebuilding the FEC, but decided instead on a highway. The book's conclusion references Shelley's cautionary poem "Ozymandias," a gloss on the impermanence of man's works. The warning might apply to this unsatisfying book. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Sept.)Forecast:An author tour will concentrate on Florida, where this book should sell well.

June 15, 2002
It sounds like fiction and Standiford is a celebrated novelist but this is the story of building a train from the Florida mainland to Key West the seemingly impossible dream of millionaire Henry Flagler that lasted until a 1935 hurricane wiped out the tracks.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2002
Henry Flagler, millionaire and cofounder of Standard Oil, was the man who conceived and built a 153-mile railroad from Miami to Key West, much of it over water. The railroad stood for 22 years, until it was destroyed by a hurricane on Labor Day weekend in 1935. (See Willie Drye's " Storm of the Century," reviewed on p.1914 ). Standiford, a crime novelist, begins with a brief account of Flagler's early life, then describes Flagler's career building railroads and his conception and creation of the city of Miami. Standiford tracks Flagler's extraordinary vision, effort, perseverance, and sacrifices in his effort to construct the railroad.\b \b0 The greater sacrifice, of course, was suffered by hundreds of laborers, most of them southern blacks, plagued by hoards of mosquitoes, dehydration, influenza, rattlesnakes, and three hurricanes that killed many of them. With an eight-page black-and-white photo insert, this book is a remarkable account of one man's dream that ended in disaster. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)