Dreamland

by Kevin Baker | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 9780060931216 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingperryfranwing of Elk Grove, California USA on 10/20/2007
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
9 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingperryfranwing from Elk Grove, California USA on Saturday, October 20, 2007
Amazon.com
Kevin Baker's Dreamland is the kind of novel that begins with a two-page list of characters and ends with a nine-page glossary. In between, this vast, sprawling carnival of a book takes in Coney Island and the Lower East Side, midgets and gangsters, Bowery bars and opium dens, even Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. It is, in short, a novel as big, lively, and ambitious as Gotham itself, and if you can stomach some of the more garish local color, it's every bit as much fun. Set at the turn of the century, in a New York as polyglot as any city on earth, Dreamland opens with an act of misplaced--and very stupid--compassion. Eastern European immigrant Kid Twist intervenes when villainous gangster Gyp the Blood is on the verge of murdering a young newsboy for sport. But surprise: that's no street urchin--that's Trick the Dwarf, self-proclaimed Mayor of Little City and a Coney Island tout, who dresses up as a boy, he says, as "a way I had of leaving myself behind." Trick hides Kid Twist in the hind parts of the Tin Elephant Hotel; Kid Twist meets Esther Abramowitz, impoverished seamstress and labor agitator, then falls in love; Trick woos Mad Carlotta, a three-foot beauty who thinks she's the Empress of Mexico; and Freud and Jung sail for America, where they squabble about psychoanalysis. There are also a few subplots involving police corruption, Tammany Hall, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire--but who's counting? Suffice to say that it all really does come together in the end, and you won't be bored for one step of the way. Baker served as chief historical researcher for Harold Evans's The American Century, and it's clear that he put his time there to good use; Dreamland is full of vivid historical detail, from Lower East Side slang to the lyrics of popular songs. If this is middlebrow entertainment, it's middlebrow in the same way as Dickens: extravagantly plotted, elegantly written, and compassionate to the core.

Journal Entry 2 by wingperryfranwing at North Ogden, Utah USA on Thursday, September 15, 2011
I've had this book on my shelf for several years and just now got around to reading it. When the book first came out in 1999, I read a review of it in the Washington Post and put it on my wish list then. I eventually found a paperback copy and I'm sorry I didn't delve into this fascinating novel sooner. The novel takes place around 1910 in New York City and Coney Island. It's a long sprawling story of Coney Island freaks, New York gangs, prostitutes, politicians, cops, Jewish immigrants, sweatshop workers, and the other myriad social classes that inhabited New York at the time. The book goes into details of the brutality and cruelty of life in the slums and the day-to-day existence of the people. This includes cruelty to both people and animals - some of this is really hard to read. It tells of the horrible 14-hour-day drudgery of women working in sweatshops sewing shirtwaists, the awful living conditions of the common people being crammed into small tenements and renters buying shifts to sleep in a spare bed, and it details the life of the dwarfs and other side-show freaks who populated Coney Island. This is a must read if you are interested in New York City history and life during the early 1900s. High recommendation!

Entrance to Coney Island Dreamland circa 1908:


Journal Entry 3 by wingperryfranwing at North Ogden, Utah USA on Friday, November 11, 2011
Bookray
Starting a bookray for this book. Please PM me if interested in joining. Bookray will remain open until last person has the book.

Participants so far:

. PJLBewdy from Australia (International)
. kizmiaz from Portugal (EU preferred, international if needed)
. Icila from France (International)
. mysteriousmummy from UK (International)
. ReetPetite from UK (International)
. lunatum from Finland (International)
. biisbsw from the US (US preferred)

Note: Order is subject to change based on shipping preferences and others joining the bookray.

How the bookray works:
* Someone will PM you for your address, PM them back and provide your address
* When you receive the book, please make a journal entry letting everyone know that you received it
* Put the book at the top of your TBR pile (under other rings/rays that arrived first)
* Read the book (take your time and enjoy the book, don't feel rushed to finish it but try to get it out to next reader within a couple of months)
* When the end is in sight, check the book's journal and PM the next person to get their address
* Finish the book, make another journal entry and let everyone know what you thought of the book
* Send the book to the next person on the list (please use the cheapest shipping method available), make release notes (Controlled Release) or journal entry to let everyone know that it's in the mail
* Last person on the ray can wild release or pass it on to another bookcrosser as a RABCK, etc.

Please feel free to PM me at any time with questions


Bookray is now completed. Thanks everyone for participating!


Journal Entry 4 by wingperryfranwing at Smiths Lake, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, November 12, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (11/12/2011 UTC) at Smiths Lake, New South Wales Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to Australia to start this bookray. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 5 by PJLBewdy at Smiths Lake, New South Wales Australia on Friday, November 25, 2011
Received from perryfran today - thanks for sharing. Quite a hefty tome at 650+ pages but should get to it relatively soon. Looks interesting.

Journal Entry 6 by PJLBewdy at Smiths Lake, New South Wales Australia on Monday, December 19, 2011
Epic. Sometimes surreal and at other times grittily realistic. Quite a long read but well worth it. I will certainly be reading Mr Baker's other works.

Journal Entry 7 by PJLBewdy at Smiths Lake, New South Wales Australia on Monday, December 19, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (12/20/2011 UTC) at Smiths Lake, New South Wales Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to Portugal as the next leg of its travels. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 8 by kizmiaz at Belém , Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Just got it, thanks.
Still have a couple to go before I start on this one, but it shouldn't take long.

Journal Entry 9 by kizmiaz at Belém , Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Monday, April 23, 2012
I had no idea of what I was getting into when I signed up for the BRay, unknown author and book but if perryfran likes it chances are I will too, I'm very glad I did sign up, whatta ride!
A tale of epic proportions and very well researched. An historical novel ,for sure.
Reading these pages you really get the feel of NY and Coney Island circa 1910, and most of the times it's not a nice feeling or pleasant place to be.
The characters are very well built and the multiple plots roll along at a good pace, there's a lot of good writting here and some really tasty lines and ideas.
It's not a easy book to read, mainly for the long list of characters, but once you get the hang of it it'll pull you along to the very last pages. certainly I liked some characters more than others and felt that maybe "The Great Head Doctors from Vienna" were a bit in the way of the narrative but it's a great read either way.
Loved the ending especially because of the way that... well, you'll get there.
I'll be passing it along soon

Journal Entry 10 by wingIcilawing at Nantes, Pays de la Loire France on Monday, May 21, 2012
Arrived safely this morning. Thanks !

Journal Entry 11 by wingIcilawing at Nantes, Pays de la Loire France on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Perhaps I'm not in the right mood. I can't get into. So it's time to move it.
Thanks for sharing.

Journal Entry 12 by wingIcilawing at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, Pays de la Loire France on Saturday, July 7, 2012

Released 11 yrs ago (7/7/2012 UTC) at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, Pays de la Loire France

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to mysteriousmummy in UK.

Journal Entry 13 by mysteriousmummy at Shefford, Bedfordshire United Kingdom on Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sorry received a couple of weeks ago but been too busy to register, about half way through and really enjoying it. Hope to finish and post off before i go on holiday next week.

Journal Entry 14 by mysteriousmummy at Shefford, Bedfordshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
I really enjoyed this book up until the last 100 or so pages when it felt like the author had just lost interest in the book and wanted to finish it as soon as possible and no longer cared about his characters or what happened to them. A very dissappointing end to what I had found a very enjoyable book.

Off to Reetpetite by the end of the week hopefully.

Released 11 yrs ago (8/2/2012 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted off to Reetpetite yesterday

Journal Entry 16 by wingReetPetitewing at Beeston, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Thanks Mysteriousmummy. Thanks also for the postcard, bookmark & face mask.

Journal Entry 17 by wingReetPetitewing at Beeston, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom on Sunday, August 19, 2012
Gritty read with horrible events and gangsters. Some images will stay with you afterwards like Freud slipping on the grease outside the elevator. It's about an overcrowded city that just couldn't cope. I thought it ended well with an event that changed working conditions.
Thanks for the ray perryfran.
I've PMed lunatum.

Journal Entry 18 by lunatum at Savukoski, Lappi / Lappland Finland on Saturday, September 1, 2012
The book arrived yesterday. I have two rings ahead of this.

Journal Entry 19 by lunatum at Savukoski, Lappi / Lappland Finland on Saturday, October 27, 2012

Released 11 yrs ago (10/27/2012 UTC) at Savukoski, Lappi / Lappland Finland

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I sent the book forward without reading it though biisbsw said I can take my time. I have been really busy with everything lately and that's why I sent the book forward.

Journal Entry 20 by biisbsw at Endicott, New York USA on Thursday, November 29, 2012
Arrived safely in New York several days ago. I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks for sharing! I'll get to it soon and find a way to send it on.

Journal Entry 21 by biisbsw at Endicott, New York USA on Saturday, January 26, 2013
This was really a great book and I enjoyed it very much! Thanks so much for sharing.

Journal Entry 22 by biisbsw at Endicott, New York USA on Monday, February 18, 2013
Added to Gen Lit VBB

Journal Entry 23 by biisbsw at Endicott, New York USA on Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (6/17/2013 UTC) at Endicott, New York USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Selected from VBB. Hope you enjoy!

Journal Entry 24 by BooksandMusic at Seattle, Washington USA on Saturday, June 29, 2013
I think that I forgot to acknowledge that I have received this book. I'm so pleased to get a book that so many people have actually read and journaled.

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.