Dreamland

With key characters named Trick the Dwarf, Kid Twist, Gyp the Blood and the Mad Carlotta, it is tough not to become enthralled by this book. The author does an outstanding job of placing you in New York at the turn of the last century and the sights, sounds, and smells of lower Manhattan, Coney Island, and the Bowery make this book come to life. Several key chapters are so compelling, I read them over and over to ensure I got every last nuance. The introduction of historical fact as part of the story is an interesting device that worked well and led me to do further reading on early theme parks, gangland life in New York, and the origins of the labor movement. This is one of the better works of fiction I have read lately and I am not the least bit disturbed that a film adaptation is already in the works.

It is not often that a reader can be entertained and informed at the same time. Dreamland performs both tasks magnificently. Set in the early 20th century, Dreamland presents the underside of New York City. Baker's plot flows nicely, and the setting is extensively researched. The reader will visit places where men bet on brutal battles between rats and a dog, and laborers struggle to survive in horrific working conditions. Baker develops his characters brilliantly, providing a context for their current plight. While I will not disclose the ending, I do compliment Baker on leaving many questions unresolved. Life doesn't always work out like a nice, neat John Grisham novel. I highly recommend this book- I think you'll love it.

But, this book was great. Dreamland kept me in the story,in the era,from beginning to end. Even though it was interrupted by Dr.Sigmund Freud from time-to-time. This is one of those "can't put it down" books. But, you must. To savor the life and times of Esse, Gyp the Blood, Kid Twist, and,lest we forget the greatest storyteller...Trick the Dwarf. Kevin Baker puts these , and a large company of characters, some fictional, and some real onto the seedy canvas which was Turn of the Century New York City. It dosen't matter where you live , this is the kind of book that not only entertains, but teaches us about the living and working conditions during the early part of the 20th Century. Maybe too vividly. Even so...it is a MUST read.

After I had read "The American Century" and found that Kevin Baker was responsible for the bulk of the research on that fine book, I wanted to read his new work of historical fiction, "Dreamland." I'm glad I did. Not since I read Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" a few years ago, have I enjoyed a novel as much as this one. Baker is able to bring the reader nearly to tears as he details the travails of young women trying to make it from day to day in New York, either as workers in one of the sweatshops on the lower east side or, unfortunately as one of the prostitutes every night putting her life in jeapordy in the Tenderloin or on the other mean streets of that heartless, corrupt, and sad, very sad city. The section detailing the days spent in jail by the striking women is especially chilling. The inclusion of Freud and Jung is compelling not so much for the interpretation of their work, but rather for the hint of progress that would be made in the years to come in the field of psychoanalysis. Other critics have harped on their inclusion in this work, but I found their conversations stimulating. How they end up in Dreamland at the end of the book with the other colorful and larger than life characters in this inspired work-Kid Twist, Gyp The Blood, the Mad Carlotta, Esther, Trick the Dwarf, Tim Sullivan-is deliciously presented. I thought that the inclusion of Frances Perkins as the sole upper class liberal fighting vainly with limited success to stem the tide of worker abuse allowed the author to speak through her character and graphically describe the carnage enveloping the poor young ladies of that era. No wonder FDR made her his only Secretary of Labor. I thought it ironic that a scant thirty years after the time of this novel, this same age group of women, imprisoned in 1912 for having the gall to ask for a 54 hour work-week, formed the nucleus of the manufacturing force that produced all the armament that saved our world from tyranny and made it safe for democracy during World War II. It is never fair to give away the ending of a book, and I won't. But, trust me, you'll love it!

I usually get bored with long books, and often feel that the author could have told the story in half as many pages. However, this book had me from the beginning and I had no trouble staying interested until the end, even though it weighs in at about 700 pages. Kevin Baker's secret is that he is so familiar with the historicl setting that he is able to write in such detail that you literally feel tranported to turn-of-the-century New York. The reader gets to know the characters and care about them, even the more eccentric ones. The story about the harshness of life is at times sad, funny, endearing, and even frightening. All 700 pages are worth the read.