The novel opens in the summer of 1893, after the eccentric Aunt Euterpe invites Rosie, her siblings, and their parents to visit for the Chicago World’s Fair, an exposition celebrating the four-hundredth year since Christopher Columbus arrived in the land that would become the United States. It also draws irony from the absurd concept of its central event, the World’s Fair, which fancied itself a grandiose conception of American spirit and idealism, but which only represented the constant disruption and dynamism really taking place in America. Most of the novel’s comedic value comes from the clash of cultures and classes that plays out as the Beckett family traverses the countryside confused about their own motivations for anything. Along the way, they run into various notorious and famous figures. Set in 1893 Illinois, it concerns the humorous travels of teenager Rosie Beckett and her family as they journey from their farm to Chicago, where they hope to visit the World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair. Fair Weather is a 2001 historical fiction novel by Richard Peck.
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