I have to admit, I did not finish this book. I loved it at first - the New York history, the crazy story - but it began to jump around so much and I found myself interested in only a few characters that got buried beneath so many other characters. A much better and magical book that I would recommend over Dreamland is  Winter's Tale by  Mark Helprin.

Not as good as Paradise Alley, but very good especially if you're interested in the very particular worlds and colorful past of New York City's lower East side, Brooklyn communities, and of course, Coney Island.

Well written deep characters with life size flaws and dreams, the ending lacked closure. it had a nice build up but fell flat with a small climax. He shouldn't have tried to squeeze in the Triangle Fire, or made that a bigger moment. I could have read another 200 pages if he'd have put that in there. I would recommend it just for the description of Coney island in its heyday.

turn of the century new york city (it's "wild west period") as told from the perspective of two jewish gangsters, a female sweatshop worker in the triangle shirtwaist factory, a jewish prostitute and a midget who works in various coney island freak shows. my favorite non-harry potter novel that i have read in the past few years. fucking fantastic, and so much yiddish.