The Anarchist

Smolens's plodding sixth novel revolves around the assassination of President McKinley. Among the ensemble cast is assassin Leon Czolgosz; Buffalo police captain Lloyd Savin; Pinkerton agent Jake Norris; and various informants, the most important of whom is Hyde, the only person who knows what Czolgosz looks like and thus is in high demand by both the police and the grimy assortment of anarchists and thugs who hope to exploit the shooting for their own purposes. Czolgosz remains a bit of a cipher: he's enamored, sometimes to the point of delusion, of Emma Goldman, but his motives for wanting to assassinate the president are murky; sometimes he wants to “secure his place in history,” and sometimes the killing is his duty. Though other characters fare better—Hyde is particularly well drawn—Smolens never fully sells the era, leaning too heavily on cut-and-dried class and ethnic tensions (the white establishment oppressing the immigrant anarchists), while the surprisingly reserved narrative feels very at odds with the inherent tension of the assassination plot. The prose is competent, even rather nice at times, but the narrative's slowness is crippling. (Dec.)