David Grann's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is a meticulously researched and fluidly written account of the Osage Indian murders in the 1920s, though it lacks the unique personality and depth of his previous work, 'The Lost City of Z'. The book is praised for its confident and engaging narrative but is noted for missing the soulful and cerebral quality that made his last book stand out.
David Grann's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' delves into the tragic history of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma during the 1920s, where numerous members were brutally murdered by whites seeking the oil beneath their land. The book is commended for its impeccable research and fluid narrative, making it a compelling read. However, it is noted that while the book is confident and engaging, it lacks the distinctive personality and depth that characterized Grann's previous work, 'The Lost City of Z'. That book was praised for its unique blend of soulful storytelling and cerebral exploration, qualities that are somewhat absent in this new work. Overall, 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is a well-crafted piece of nonfiction that sheds light on a dark chapter in American history, but it does not quite reach the heights of Grann's earlier masterpiece.
Quick quotes
If you taught the artificial brains of supercomputers at IBM Research to write nonfiction prose, and if they got very good at it, they might compose a book like David Grann’s “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.
This is not entirely a complaint. Grann’s new book, about how dozens of members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s were shot, poisoned or blown to bits by rapacious whites who coveted the oil under their land, is close to impeccable.
That was a book with a personality. It seemed to be written by someone who was, as Charles Lamb said of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an archangel a little damaged. There was some strange junk in its cupboards.