Dreamland
Review
by : Russ
Ray
Written
by : Kevin
Baker
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Dreamland
is a wonderful period novel that blends the depth, characterization,
and sweeping historical scope of a Michener novel with the
romance and streetwise grit of Dickens. Set in New York City
vaguely around 1910, the multitude of main characters include
narrator Trick the Dwarf, a gangster on the run known as Kid
Twist, the young garment maker in love with him named Esther,
her brother Gyp the Blood who is a rival gangster to Twist,
Gyp's whore Sadie, crooked politician Big Tim Sullivan, and
(amazingly enough) Dr. Sigmund Freud. The name of the book
refers to a section of Coney Island, which is where much of
the book takes place.
The
book tackles many of the issues of the time: immigration,
fair treatment of labor, labor unions, housing shortages,
racism, police belligerence, unsafe prison conditions, political
machines, crime, and child welfare. Many of the stories Baker
tells in the book are derived from actual historical accounts
and hundreds of hours of research. Some of these stories are
mainly told in passing, such as the block-and-fall joints
that would serve gin laced with poison and were so named because
the customers would literally walk a block upon leaving and
fall over, making them ripe for robbery. There were horse
poisoners that would threaten peddlers for protection money,
cops that took bribes from pimps and other criminals to look
the other way, and gangs of children and newsies and gear
crawlers and apprentices staying up all night at one of the
various theaters in the Bowery watching crude plays and can
can shows. Other stories are told over several chapters, such
as Esther's experiences with the factory foremen, the way
she was treated in different shops, and some of her dealings
with the labor unions (including a cameo from Samuel Gompers).
All are derived from historical fact, whether from first-person
journals that have since been published or from other research.
Baker
also uses a lot of the slang and dialects of the various neighborhoods
and nationalities. Yiddish and Bowery gang slang is common
throughout, with other various references here and there to
the Italian, German, and Chinese languages. It reflects the
color of the various groups and the racially-motivated conflicts
in-between (mostly between the Catholic Irish and Jews). Although
it does add that bit of color to the book, it does tend to
get overused, and it gets bothersome to keep flipping to the
end of the book to look up a word.
I have
a mixed opinion on the ending of the book. It deliberately
leaves the resolution of what happens to the romance of Kid
Twist and Esther open-ended. Although Trick the Dwarf makes
the argument that with so many people traveling through Coney
Island in any given day that it's easy to lose touch with
people, I would have preferred a more definitive conclusion.
Trick develops several scenarios that could have happened
to either of them, if they either stayed together or split
apart. Also, I found the writing to be a bit vague sometimes,
and I often found myself having to re-read certain passages
because the actual narrative voice (not the actual spoken
dialogue of the characters) was just awkward to read. However,
the actual construction of the plot was impeccable, and there
were often many interesting scenes where we were able to read
about an incident from the perspective of two or three different
characters. Even with these technical flaws, I heartily recommend
this book, both for the history you'll learn and for the rich
tapestry that Baker weaves with his cast of thousands.
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