Review of the Month: What in the Dickens?


I read nonfiction for the most part, but every once in a while I yearn for a good yarn.

Last month I picked up the book, “The Last Dickens” by Matthew Pearl. It’s a “literary mystery,” and I learned a lot from it. Pearl specializes in historic biography, meaning the writing is luscious, and the plot is deeply researched. His characters are well-developed in the style of Charles Dickens!

The book is about the last five years or so of Charles Dickens’ life, but the reader also learns what daily life was like in the U.S. shortly after the Civil War. Pearl also explores the back-story of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood and how different the life trajectories were for the poor versus the better-educated middle and upper classes in the U.S and London.

Oddly enough, there is a tantalizing story line about the British opium trade in India and China as well. Put it all together and it’s creepy. The parallels with what is happening today in rural Ohio and our cities with opioid addiction, a strained economy and a changing job market are uncanny. Big egos, plotters and suspicion abound.


The book does not provide any answers about today’s dilemmas, but it will leave you with a richer understanding of the expression, “What goes around comes around.” 


The issues of hope and hopelessness; being born in poverty; having a life ravaged by drug addiction; and the business interests that control drug distribution have not changed much in the last 150 years. America survived the 1870s, and America will survive its challenges today relying always on the ingenuity of its people.

But we simply have to do better!

One thought on “Review of the Month: What in the Dickens?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *