So it took better than a month for me to finish this rambling, historical tale about New York and Coney Island at the advent of the 20th century.

When Baker wrote about Dreamland and Luna Park and Steeplechase, those wondrous marvels of Coney Island, I was entertained. I was less entertained by the passages focused on the political mechinations of Tammany Hall and the corrupt maneuverings of the city councilmen and the police.

I hated every chapter about Freud. Freud? Freud and Jung, to be precise and a fictionalized trip they take to America. Tedious.

Most of the characters were one-dimensional, distinguished only by their clothing or the food they could afford.

The ghost of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory looms throughout the book, a tease of something dramatic to come, only to be leveled in a few pages at the end as speculation into a character's afterward.

That this was a corrupt, violent, dangerous time, Baker leaves no doubt. The image of addicted babies on display at Coney Island where the public waited breathless for one of them to die, a highlight of the exhibit, or the image of an elephant tortuously caged and ultimately electrocuted for public consumption, both stand as reminders that these were not simpler times, but rather times ruled with simpler minds.

Brimming with character and life, this is an epic set in New York's fantastical and seedy Coney Island at the turn of the 20th century. Gangsters, whores, freaks, and the working woman's struggle -- I was utterly engrossed.

A very interesting historical novel set in New York City in the early twentieth century. We see the amusement parks of Coney Island, the gangs, the Jewish tenements, the garment sweatshops, and the Tammany Hall political machine through the eyes of both real and fictional characters involved, such as a dwarf who works on Coney Island, a young Jewish woman who tries to mobilize workers in the garment sweatshops to demand better conditions, and even Sigmund Freud during a visit to the city. It's meticulously researched and realistic and gives a fascinating look at conditions in the raw, corrupt, young city.

"I know a story."
And what a story this was! As I've just finished this work, I'm stuck on the ending - which I found infuriating yet incredibly satisfying. I absolutely enjoyed this glimpse into early 20th century New York City - especially with its look into the American sideshow. The addition of Freud and Jung's trip to America provided an outsider's take on gritty and wondrous NYC, as well as a brief psychology lesson (though I'm still investigating how fictionalized their account was). If your Yiddish or Bowery slang is rusty, be prepared to flip to the glossary in back.

It took a while to get connected and interested in the characters, but the wait was worth it. There is something about that time and those places. Hard lives, for sure, but there is such atmosphere and romance in the characters and their locations and how they deal with life's challenges.

This portrait of immigrant New York set in the slums of the Lower East Side and Coney Island during the early twentieth century is a fine example of what historical fiction should be. If you fancy sideshow history and old time New York slums read this book. The author is the Chief Historical Researcher at the New York Times if anyone gives a damn.

Just wanted to put in a quick recommendation for Kevin Baker's "Dream Land". I haven't read a historical novel that so solidly creates a tangible sensation of a long-gone time and place since Erik Larson's "Devil in the White City". There's actually sort of a little thematic crossover between the two (Coney Island v. the Chicago World's Fair), which might have contributed to the appeal for me. Really enjoyed it, though, burned through the whole thing in a couple of days.

I too wanted to like this book as I had really liked "Paradise Alley" by this author. I found this book confusing. It seemed to ramble around. So many characters to try to keep track of. I finished it, but was very disappointed in it.

I really wanted to like this book because it came so highly recommended but in the end, I found that I really disliked it even though I finished it.

This is a story of early 20th century New York City and the characters who populated this riveting, tumultuous, and extreme city. There are many characters, actually, and some are real and some are fictional. This is a kind of magic realism historical fiction that combines real events and fantasy in ways that are at once fascinating and bizarre.

That said, the story is rambling and gets less and less interesting. I only liked one character in the whole book and her story - the woman Essie and her work at the sweatshops and the struggle within to earn decent wages and be treated fairly. I think this story was amazing and would have liked to see Baker focus more on this than on other parts.

The story of the dwarf was uninteresting and I was definitely perplexed about why Freud was brought in as well. What did he have to do with the story? I still don't understand. I didn't have much interest in the politician, though when his story intersected with Essie's, I understood why.

The last chapter was a real comedown. Instead of taking responsibility for the ending, the author provides a series of possible scenarios about what might have happened. This is a cop-out and is terribly disappointing after reading such a long and complex story to not have a satisfying sense of conclusion.

The story was good. I think it would have been better if the Freud/Jung parts were left out. They were an unnecessary distraction and I found myself reading through those sections a quickly as possible so I could get back to the story.

This is a fascinating subject that doesn't require a love story tacked on. Oof, The characters were interesting but it was a weird mesh of events forcing them together. I liked them as portraits but not as a story that felt the need to connect them. Long live Coney Island!

I've had this book on my shelf for several years and just now got around to reading it. When the book first came out in 1999, I read a review of it in the Washington Post and put it on my wish list then. I eventually found a paperback copy and I'm sorry I didn't delve into this fascinating novel sooner. The novel takes place around 1910 in New York City and Coney Island. It's a long sprawling story of Coney Island freaks, New York gangs, prostitutes, politicians, cops, Jewish immigrants, sweatshop workers, and the other myriad social classes that inhabited New York at the time. The book goes into details of the brutality and cruelty of life in the slums and the day-to-day existence of the people. This includes cruelty to both people and animals - some of this is really hard to read. It tells of the horrible 14-hour-day drudgery of women working in sweatshops sewing shirtwaists, the awful living conditions of the common people being crammed into small tenements and renters buying shifts to sleep in a spare bed, and it details the life of the dwarfs and other side-show freaks who populated Coney Island. This is a must read if you are interested in New York City history and life during the early 1900s. High recommendation!

Entrance to Coney Island Dreamland circa 1908: