I remember reading a review of this 1999 book in The New York Times, thinking that it sounded good, and that I would like to read it. What can I say? Better late than never. Last spring I had to write a story about Coney Island, and our instructor Kim mentioned the book. It was also last year when I read Paradise Alley, and learned it was the second book of Baker's The City of Fire Trilogy. Dreamland was the first.
Dreamland, named for a great Coney Island amusement park, is a jam-packed story of factory workers, gangsters, labor organizers, prostitutes, carnival folk, and politicians in New York City at the turn of the 20th Century.
I was fascinated with Esther "Esse" Abramowitz a sewing machine operator and union organizer. Her story includes her rebellion against her strict rabbi father, her role in the Uprising of the 20,000 in 1909, and her romance with a gangster in hiding from her gangster brother.
Baker skillfully weaves historical figures including Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung (the least interesting characters in the book) union organizer Clara Lemlich (I learned about her in Triangle) and Big Tim "Dry Dollar" Sullivan with his own characters.
Some reviewers compared Dreamland to Ragtime which I read in May. I thought Dreamland was much better.
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