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avidreadr's review against another edition
5.0
Read this book as a youngster and it made a huge, lasting impression on me as a reader.
duparker's review against another edition
3.0
Interestingly, this book felt like a dream. It was very atmospheric and cartoony in its characterization and flow. I liked it for those qualities and for the historical fiction aspects. As far as buying into the story and the plot, well, not so much.
ars410's review against another edition
3.0
I bought this book for $5.95 from Strand back in 2013 and it has sat on my shelf since then. Depressing as some of it was, I'm glad to have finally read it!
jdintr's review against another edition
4.0
I picked up this book to get my imagination ready for a visit to New York City. Like many Americans, my ancestors had settled for a time in the Lower East Side before moving on into the hinterlands.
Baker brings early 20th-century New York into vivid view, weaving a tapestry of a tale that includes Jewish gangsters, a politician from waning Tammany Hall, and young women fighting for labor rights at the doomed Triangle Shirtwaist Works. Dreamland/Coney Island is just a sideshow--as are the psychological German-speaking doctors, but it sets the scene for a memorable climax.
I would recommend Dreamland for any one of the millions of Americans who have roots in the Lower East Side, and those interested in seeing this era come to life.
Baker brings early 20th-century New York into vivid view, weaving a tapestry of a tale that includes Jewish gangsters, a politician from waning Tammany Hall, and young women fighting for labor rights at the doomed Triangle Shirtwaist Works. Dreamland/Coney Island is just a sideshow--as are the psychological German-speaking doctors, but it sets the scene for a memorable climax.
I would recommend Dreamland for any one of the millions of Americans who have roots in the Lower East Side, and those interested in seeing this era come to life.
labtracks's review against another edition
1.0
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!
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!
andreayoung's review against another edition
Might try to come back to this another time but it’s just too dark and vulgar for me.
jefecarpenter's review against another edition
5.0
I was transported by the story and his writing into something like the kind of opium-addled claustrophobia that the characters were living in their New York milieu of that era. Wonderfully evocative.
malloryhee's review against another edition
3.0
Well-written and thoroughly researched for sure, but not as "mesmerizing" or "intoxicating" as the cover claimed it would be.
ponycanyon's review against another edition
3.0
I have a ton of affection for this book, but re-reading it 10 years later has made me realize just how embarrassingly purple the prose is, and how mawkish the whole thing comes off. I love Coney Island and am a sucker for stories from the heyday of Luna Park and Dreamland, so I gladly slog through, but it still feels like SNL doing a Tom Waits parody.