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.
wendel's review against another edition
4.0
Lots of interesting characters. A bit hard to get into them and their interaction if you read in short spurts. Perhaps I have to read this book again sometime.
rdebner's review against another edition
4.0
Kevin Baker has written an in-depth, you-feel-like-you're-there story set in early 20th century New York. He ties in the heyday of Coney Island, Freud & Jung's visit to America, labor and ethnic issues, Tammany Hall, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire. At turns violent and grotesque, this may not be everyone's choice for reading; for those who have a love affair with New York and/or excellently researched and written historical fiction, I would recommend this book. Part of Baker's City of Fire trilogy.
kate_lynn's review against another edition
1.0
I could overlook the confusing story telling. I could even look past trying to find out what the long drawn out plot was for. What I couldn't get over was the inaccurate telling of historical events. The 1909 shirtwaist strike is told so blatantly wrong and over embellished that I wanted to scream. Read a book before writing about something, please.
The timeline presented in the book wasn't even clear. Were Freud and Jung necessary? All of the talk about sex sure wasn't. Nor was using rape as a plot device. I'm honestly surprised I even read the whole book. How can you write something like this and not mention dates. Was there a point to the story at all?
The timeline presented in the book wasn't even clear. Were Freud and Jung necessary? All of the talk about sex sure wasn't. Nor was using rape as a plot device. I'm honestly surprised I even read the whole book. How can you write something like this and not mention dates. Was there a point to the story at all?
shickenbutt's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know why the hell I wasted my time on this book. Probably because, naively, I thought it would get better. It didn't, it was full of WAY too many characters, and honestly I couldn't figure out what was going on half the time with each of these 1,200 characters and why I should even care.
leialocks's review against another edition
5.0
Starts off slow but when the characters start to intertwine, it picks up for the climax at the setting that ties everyone together.
mavenbooks's review against another edition
5.0
The multiple plots were initially confusing, but they proved quite interesting once I sorted them out. The details and characters kept me going, though I was disappointed with the somewhat sudden ending that left some things very uncertain. What exactly happened to Esther and Kid Twist, I wanted to know? The suggested ending wasn't exactly satisfying or positive.