Andrew Green was ‘the father of Greater New York’, a founder of Central Park and the Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History among other things. But he didn’t come from money, and he was shot and killed aged 83. So how did he get to this point? Who killed him and why? And what was his great mistake?
The Great Mistake is a humane and very readable novel of one remarkable life. You might wonder how you’d relate to Andrew Green, but his wish to live life and his decisions on what to do without in order to achieve his goals are very resonant. “… after…the pyrotechnic accompaniments others put on to celebrate his achievements, he still went to bed with some version of the same concerns he had always had. Who he was. Who he should be. Things he could have said or done”.
His intense and long relationship with a politician, Samuel, influences much, as does the death of his mother (a hard-working woman who always longed for time outside in green space, and didn’t get it). He is repelled by his work as a young man on a post-slavery plantation in Trinidad, both while doing it and after, and this also affects his ambitions. The role of reading and books in helping to form a life recurs throughout, as do questions over who has access to books and who does not.
Historic New York sprang up around me as I read. “He watched labourers returning home with dinner kettles. Ragpickers bothering apple ladies. Horses set to collapse under the products of commerce they had carried, back and forth, all day long. New York didn’t set out to charm you. It was like God that way”.
As well as learning about Andrew, we follow police Inspector McClusky who is investigating his murder, and we are introduced to yet another side of life in New York. The Great Mistake is a satisfying read in many ways, as a life story, as a crime story, as an exploration of what’s important, and as a song for New York. So enjoyable.
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