I was quickly drawn into the story of early 1900's New York's steamier side. I love all the intricacies of corrupt politics, gangs, hooligans, and stories of immigrants learning about a new land. The introduction of the Triangle Factory gave me an indication of where it would end up, and the use of one of the dwarves from a Coney Island sideshow gave the plot a reason to use that errant playground as a background. With a combo of real and non-real characters, the plot races along.

Unfortunately.

Really? After all those pages? The ending was inconclusive to say the least. I hate weak endings.

This book is so crazy good. I was absolutely swept up in the lives of these people, from the corrupt politicians of Tammany Hall, the gangsters and their whores, the factory workers on strike, the circus performers of Coney Island, and even the Great Head Doctors From Vienna (Freud and Jung). It all comes together brilliantly in a portrait of New York City life in 1910, the fires and the murders, the love and the loss, the courage and the desperation. By far the most entertaining and amazing historical fiction I've ever read!

Dreamland is a long book with a complicated plot. Parts of it go in circles, looping back around to come up again. But in the end, everything, or almost everything wraps up into one tight plot.

Except for the Great Head Doctors from Vienna – Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and a couple of others. They apparently did make a journey to America in the general time period, and the story has them wandering by, sightseeing, at a couple of the scenes of action of the main story. But primarily they are doing their own thing neither affect nor are affected by the main events of the story to any great extent.

It is a story of the early twentieth century. There are gangsters, Tammany politicians, sweatshop workers, whores, and Coney Island freaks. There are drinking and gambling in the most disgusting of Bowery bars, shows in the Coney Island amusement parks, murder, an opium den, abuse – physical and sexual – of young girls in garment factories, and several fires.

The story or at least part of it is narrated by a character called Trick the Dwarf who lived for a time in the Dreamland amusement park, one of at least three amusement parks on Coney Island. But the main characters are Esther Abromowitz and her boyfriend, Kid Twist. I liked the description of Esther’s early work experience, from being virtually sold to work in a cramped attic hand-sewing coats when she was still practically a child through several other equally demeaning sorts of sewing jobs to finally working at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. There is a long stretch about union activities during her time at the Triangle factory. After the worst of the drama between Kid Twist and Gyp the Blood (who is really Esther’s brother Lazar) is finished, Trick the Dwarf professes not to know what happened to Esther and Kid. But if they did not leave the city, and if Esther did not take up working professionally for the union, she was set up perfectly to return to the Triangle factory. If that happened, she was then in a perfect position to die in the famous fire that subsequently struck that establishment killing over a hundred people due in large part to the foolish policies of the owners.

The book was a little difficult to get into at first, but as the relationship between the characters became clearer, it got better.

By virtue of a tour of The Tenement Museum (highly recommended, by the way) on NYC’s lower east side, I came in contact with Kevin Baker’s historical novel (1910) of Coney Island. There were (I found out) three big amusement parks there--Luna Beach, Steeplechase, and Dreamland.)

Baker’s narrative starts off like a bullet and seldom lets up. He prefaces Book One with a list of “Dramatis Personae, like a Playbill, and it helps set the historical tone. We hear first from Trick the Dwarf, whose first words are I know a story. And does he ever. We’re transported from uptown to downtown in an instant, from Coney Island’s sand and water to rat-baiting in a Bowery cellar, and to an incident that will haunt every character in the story from then on.

And there are a lot of characters. As huge a cast, fictional and historical, as you’d ever want to meet. And every single one as fascinating as the city in which Baker sets us down. This world is not a melting pot, but a stew--lots of different ingredients, each with its own distinct texture and flavor--but all in the same pot, swimming in the same gravy. As you might expect in this time of Ellis Island, this is a world of immigrants--first or second generation. Jews, Italians, Germans, Irish, all striving for survival and/or dominance. Often violently.

It’s a mixed bag of pushcarts and automobiles, manure and petrochemicals, oppressive bosses and exploited workers, crooked politicians and ward bosses. It’s a crowded world that smells bad, one where even the virtuous need to watch their backs. But it’s also a world where affection and solidarity rule even in the worst circumstances.

We see a lot of our friend Trick the Dwarf. We see a lot of Tammany Hall boss Big Tim Sullivan. We see a lot of--really--Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung on their first journey to America. And there are many others, each drawn sharply and feelingly. But the central story is that of Esther (Esse) Abramoitz and her lover Josef Kolyika, a.k.a. Kid Twist, coming of age and following a circuitous path to they’re not sure where.

We move uptown, downtown, midtown through many different plot lines, but always, that incident in the beginning drives everything else, turns the book into a revenge drama of the first order, a hunter-hunted tale that keeps you going, going, going till there are no more pages left and you wish there were more.

Kevin Baker is great. I've read all of his books, except the one on baseball. I haven't been able to bring myself to read that one yet because I find baseball so boring. But I will probably get around to it eventually, which is a testament to my love of Kevin Baker.

Very interesting historical fiction which takes place in New York at the turn of the century and involving the new immigrants to the Lower East Side, Coney Island, factory workers, etc. Mostly Jewish but others. Crime and corruption, Tammany Hall, the carnival acts and gangsters are all included. Very very different from Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin but in the same general environment. Dreamland also has a very different, metafictional, I guess, ending.

This is a very complex book that opens with many seemingly unrelated characters. Thus it felt scattered and disorganized. I was about to throw in the towel about 1/3 of the way in... and suddenly all the pieces started to click and the interconnectedness of all the characters started coming together. I'm happy I stuck with it! One tip tho - this is better read in a few focused sessions. My reading time is so limited that by the same the author started really bringing it all together, I'd forgotten a bit of which backstory belonged to which character.

I love stories about old-time amusement parks.

The images in this book linger on....kaleidoscopic, heartbreaking; Times so full of struggle and misery all towards a better future in which we live now.

The picture painted by the author of Coney Island and Manhattan in the early 20th Century focuses on the cruel and grimy existence of the lower class, yet the novel is strangely captivating. For those who love a book with an assortment of characters to follow as well as nonstop plot development, this is a sure winner. Actually, let me add that it helps if rats don't bother you. Lots of rats.

Dreamland captures what it was like to be in the Guilded Age but not rich. He weaves the chracters within the setting of New York City and Coney Island just as a master would weave a tapestry. The combination of shirtwaist workers, gamblers, and gangsters makes this an enjoyable read. It can get a bit confusing but if you know anything about New York at this time life was always a bit confusing and harried.

I would do anything to be able to see the Coney Island of this era. On my way to work in the mornings, it's hard to believe that Dreamland, Luna Park, and Steeplechase used to be somewhere to my left. However, with this novel behind me, I can picture it all. The book is thoroughly historical, full of amazing dialogue/commentary, and has added yet another character to my "Female Protagonists to Emulate" list. Just brace yourself for a few gut-shots by the end.