Book Review: ‘The Octopus: A Story of California’
Running Extra
I earlier mentioned in the All About Trains Apr. 12, 2024 post “Who’s Your Favorite Railroad Writer?,” that the last book I read in the fiction-genre space was Frank Norris’ The Octopus: A Story of California. This was years ago — in the 1990s, in fact.
Since it’s been that long ago, full disclosure: my recall here may be a little out of focus, if you will.
As best I can recall, though, The Octopus had chiefly to do with a territorial dispute between area settlers and a railroad. I may be going out on a limb here, and it’s my opinion, but from what I remember reading, there appeared to be striking similarities between this story and what transpired related to the Mussel Slough Tragedy* in real life.
In the fiction version, the depicted railroad (whose name I cannot recollect), acquired and retained rights to specific parcels of land thanks to land grants afforded it. The railroad had the authority to sell such parcels of land-grant acreage to interested-area homesteaders, at whatever price point, in fact, it saw fit. Much in the way of dispute ensued, disagreement that ultimately escalated to physical altercation, reaching a level of intensity so as to make the situation unresolvable and the differences between sides seemingly irreconcilable, the end result being shed blood.
For me, at first, book reading-wise, it was slow-going. However, as I got deeper and deeper into it, my interest in it crescendoed, so much so that by the time I reached the book’s end, in looking back, I was so glad I read it. What I had read was hardcopy in “soft-cover” form.
Published in the year 1901, The Octopus: A Story of California, by Frank Norris, as I earlier mentioned, in the fiction genre is my favorite book.
* “Mussel Slough Tragedy,” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussel_Slough_Tragedy
Updated: Jan. 11, 2025 at 12:31 p.m. PST.
Image credits: Arnold Genthe via Wikimedia Commons (upper); Keith Winkler via Wikipedia (lower)
All material copyrighted 2025, Alan Kandel. All Rights Reserved.