- Paperback
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (1 Jan 2000)
- ISBN-10: 0061030821
- ISBN-13: 978-0061030826
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Dreamland: A Novel (P.S.)
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First Sentence
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I know a story. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's all about the complete madness of reality. It's also hilarious, terrifying and heart-achingly compassionate by turn. It's set, appropriately, in the chaotic and virtually lawless melting-pot of New York City in 1911: the only real rule is survival, no matter how and at no matter what cost to others. The brilliance of 'Dreamland' lies in the tension between the obvious accuracy of Baker's research (this a real, completely believable world,documented in fascinating detail) and the utter, extraordinary madness of the events and characters he describes. The grotesque and lunatic world of the vast 'funpark' of Dreamland works as a metaphor for the brutal jungle of New York; at times it's hard to work out which is the more insane. The characters- which range from mad dwarves to statesmen to con-men to Sigmund Freud (seriously!) are all quite fantastical yet utterly believable: despite their weirdness and ruthlessness, we completely identify with their desperation,their yearnings and ultimately, their humanity. As you read, you are aware of a rather scary momentum which eventually leads to a confrontation of all the key characters, the long- overdue beginnings of social reform in NYC; and a violent, apocalyptic (and of course quite crazy) climax in Dreamland. It's great; it leaves you breathless. Buy it. MIKE RAYNER
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Baker's Dreamland is an eerie and griping fantasy that is grounded in a thorough knowledge of the history of New York City.
Baker is a historian and his professional acumen helps him to tell a spell binding story about the City and its underworld in the beginning of the 1900's. Real people and real events, like Kid Twist and the Triangle Shirt Factory fire are woven together with products of Baker's fertile imagination - regal dwarfs, flamboyant gangsters and predatory garment district bosses. He has a connoisseur's appreciation of Coney Island and that, combined with a fine sense for the inglorious harshness of turn-of-the-century New York, gives the book a lot of appeal.
Dreamland is not a documentary by a long shot, but one can learn plenty by reading this book. One important lesson: Anyone who thinks that the New York of the 1970's and 80's was unusually violent is badly mistaken. The "Good Old Days" would have completely overwhelmed almost all of us modern types with their hardship, violence and injustice.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For some reason this book sat on my shelves for years before I got round to reading it. It is a hugely enjoyable piece of historical fiction with just enough sprinkling of fantasy. There is some superb description of life in the New York slums and sweatshops of the early years of the 20th century, of the Jewish, Irish and Italian gangs, of corrupt Tammany Hall politics and above all of the fleeting heyday of the amusement parks of Coney Island. It's a bit overblown and over-sentimental and (one suspects) sensationalised in places (for example in descriptions of an idyllic socialist workers summer camp on the Jersey pallisades and of a mass lesbian bath night frolic involving warders and inmates in Tombs prison). The thankfully brief interludes on Freud and Jung's US visit are an oddity (although often amusing). But all that's easily forgiven in the rush of irresistable story-telling. Baker admits to tinkering with history, but reading around a bit of the real history the astonishing thing is how much of it actually happened.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant
Oh, my word, what a novel! No spoilers here, just a heartfelt thank you to Kevin Baker for writing something so stunning that I couldn't put it down and was bereft when I got to... Read more
Published 22 months ago by V. Pope
Frustrating in so many ways
I wanted to love this book. It had everything that fascinates me; turn of the last century history, including the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the scenes of Coney Island so... Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2008 by Graceann Macleod
"It is a story about a great city and a little city and a land of...
Set at the turn of the twentieth century in New York City, Dreamland captures the dreams of its immigrant populations and the realities of life in the factories and tenements, the... Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2007 by Mary Whipple
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