Review: Tim by Daniel A. Sheridan

Transporting readers back to a legendary snapshot from the long tale of America, Tim: The Story of Timothy H. O’Sullivan as a Young Apprentice at Mathew Brady’s Studio by Daniel A. Sheridan is a stunning story of youthful determination and a nascent technology that would change the world.

Young Tim is unexpectedly apprenticed to the legendary Matthew Brady at his daguerrotype studio on Broadway, and his life is forever changed overnight. Walking through the heart of historical New York is a dramatic and eye-opening shift from the young boy’s expected path – following his father and brother as a carpenter. Though he is initially hesitant, and nearly rejected before he can even start his first day, he quickly proves his value to the illustrious photographer, and becomes a trusted companion to the tireless artist.

The novel is peppered with tidbits of photographic lore and details of the technological processes of daguerreotypes, as well as famous character cameos from that period in New York. The inclusion of P.T. Barnum, and the proximity of his American Museum to Brady’s gallery, makes for an odd pairing of showmanship and artistic ambition, and a fascinating dynamic for Tim’s wandering feet to explore.

Miss Jenny Lind is another scintillating and entertaining burst of life, charming her way through the streets like a foreign goddess, though she might describe herself more humbly. Through a bit of subterfuge and clever observation, Tim proves instrumental in linking Brady and Lind – a photographer who needs a stellar subject and a star who wants her beauty and fame frozen in time.

Sheridan’s descriptive passages capture the same immersive beauty and vivacity of a photograph, and he regularly brings forgotten details of the old smoky metropolis to life. The leaps forward to 1985 are unexpected, but refreshing, and the introduction about the author’s own foray into the grainy truths of photography is a clever mirror to Tim’s own revelations more than a century earlier. Breaking the fourth wall in that way certainly endears readers to the author, and gives the novel intriguing context. It is also a chance for curious readers to learn a bit more about modern photography tools, in addition to the main plot’s regular history lessons.

From an editorial standpoint, there are some imperfections that could be easily polished away, including misplaced commas, excessive punctuation, and some slips in dialogue that feel anachronistic, or at least too idiomatic for the time period. Additionally, while the story starts quickly, the pace drags a bit for the first quarter of the book, until Tim is ensconced in Brady’s employ and the plot properly takes off.

Despite being fictionalized in part, Tim rings with authenticity that readers will relish, inspired as it was by the real Tim O’Sullivan’s early experiences, before becoming a Civil War photographer himself. Making readers lose themselves in a fictional history without the story veering into dry historical writing is a masterful skill, which Sheridan demonstrates in spades throughout this brilliant historical portrait.