Great book. Highly recommended for an interesting historical story in old NYC -- poverty, prostitution, gangs, immigration, assimilation, industrial revolution, labor organizations, race relations, politics, corruption -- there's something for everyone.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. This is a historical novel set in the early 1900's in lower Manhattan and Coney Island. This book involves gangsters and sideshow freaks and actual historical figures. The book follows a number of different characters as they cross paths with each other.

An engaging novel about a particular time and place, and the people who made it so.

This book was hard to read. It was huge which is usually ok with me but it just seemed to go on and on and on. I didn't really like any of the characters and then worst of all the last chapter felt like an add-on by the editor. The entire style of the book vanished and it became some kind of musing about what might or might not have happened to some of the characters. Ridiculous. Either tie up all the loose ends or don't. I don't recommend this book to anyone.

I guess Dec 4 isn't the date I finished this book as much as it is the date I completely gave up on this book.
I can count on one hand the number of books I have voluntarily not finished in my lifetime. Some of those I still have and intend to try again later. That is a short-list that a book doesn't want to be on, but this one not only is on it, but has to be close to one of the worst and will be immediately going to Goodwill (is it really goodwill to give such a terrible book?)

There really isn't much to say about this mess. I actually made it 257 pages into this book hoping it would get better and with every intention that I was not going to give up, especially after reading so much. But as I look at this book lying next to me I just would never forgive myself if I wasted that much more time trying to finish this.

The back touts this as historical fiction and knowing that there actually was a Dreamland in NY I guess I was kind of hoping for a "Devil in the White City" type of book... a nice mix of facts and fiction which would put this into the 5 star category. Instead, after 257 pages the only historical fact type things I can find in here is that there actually was a Dreamland, which isn't really referenced all that much... other than that this really is a result of a Dreamland of other sorts... a completely fictional, and nonsensical one.
Clearly his writing style is not for me. Good thing there are so many good books in the world!

Fascinating account of New York and Coney Island circa 1909-1911, a period when many influences were growing, such as the labor movement, along with the exuberance and immaturity of a new country, which shoved so many cultures together so ambitiously in such a short period of time. It could only have happened how it did - with gangsters, Trammany Hall society, graft, prostitution, ridiculously bad working conditions, and unrestrained demonstrations of wealth and self-satisfied projects such as Dreamland with a million incandescent lightbulbs beckoning newly transplanted immigrants to the new country. An amusement park that also hosted "Little City", full of dwarfs and midgets, and incubators for the public to see tiny babies struggling for life.

I was a little put off by the knowledge that some of the events were off by a few years, but the author acknowledges this in the end, saying that he used some license, but his true aim was to get human nature right at that time in history, and he's done that very well. A worthwhile read!

I read this book some years back because I had read another of the author's books, Sometimes You See It Coming, and enjoyed it. This one was written well enough, but I didn't enjoy it near as much, maybe because the story wasn't that interesting to me. I get sick of all of man's political corruption.

As I remember it, this book was a well researched and inventive narrative with the arc of the story a popular criminal trial of the period (early twentieth century), with much of the action taking place at Dreamland amusement park in Coney Island. The criminal trial being about Tammany Hall police corruption. Many of the characters and events in Dreamland are purported to be based on real, historical accounts and people.

I enjoyed this book, although at 639 pages, it felt a bit too long. It's historical fiction, set in lower Manhattan and Coney Island circa 1910 complete with gangsters and sideshow freaks and actual historical figures. The narrator follows a number of different characters as they cross paths with each other, and the story has a fantastic quality to it, which I always appreciate.

My favorite passage:
"She crept on into the apartment, where everyone else was asleep, her pallet lying already prepared for her in the kitchen. She did not lie down, though, but pulled out her battered copy of Dickens--bought secondhand from a pushcart peddler for ten cents--and tried to read for at least a little while by the oily glow of the kerosene lamp.
She was dead tired, but she always tried to do something--anything--before she went to bed. Something every night, so that it would not be one more day with nothing accomplished, nothing earned except for someone else."

I picked up this book because I love stories of early 1900s especially in New York. Being a native New Yorker, I am somewhat nostalgic towards Coney Island in the face of all the constant attempts at revival and renovation. This book opened my eyes to a Coney Island unlike any I've ever imagined - a world where the concept of being "P.C" didn't exist, where an "amusement" park included a "Midget" Town and where people born with deformities and other unfortunate situations were looked at like "circus" attractions. It also gave very personal insight into the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire which is just an incredibly sad moment in New York City's history.

There really is so much to say about this book (and I have so little time!). It's not a book for the light reader as it interweaves multiple character narratives (including Freud!) and it probably is a good idea to have a good general sense of what was going on in New York and the world at the time. However, I assure you that if you give it time and patience, it will be unlike any other historical novel you've ever read.

(Ya know, I feel so passionate about this book that I might add more to my review later when I have more time.) :)

very interesting. People who read this should then watch Rick Burn's documentary on Coney Island...eerily, everything in the film appears in this book. I sometimes felt that Baker tried to cram as much history as possible into the story, which seemed a bit much. I'm still not entirely sure why he included Freud and Jung, and if their story was really relevent to the rest of the book. On the other hand, Esther's story was fantastically compelling. If you've an interest in NYC history and enjoy carnies, gangsters, unionizers, corrupt politicians and midgets, this is the book for you.

What's not to like about a book with whores, gangsters, and dwarves?
An interesting look at life in New York during the turn of the century, but difficult to get through the carney, yiddish, and street jargon. Keep a list of characters on hand as well.

I don't know why, but I liked this book a lot. I guess it's a perfect fit for someone who likes Coney Island. I found myself constantly looking up information about the history of Coney Island and New York. I had to confirm that indeed there was an elephant hotel, and other interesting tid-bits about its usually shady past.