The Museum of Extraordinary Things: A Novel Author: Alice Hoffman | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DPM7YM2 | Format: PDF
The Museum of Extraordinary Things: A Novel Description
Mesmerizing and illuminating, Alice Hoffman’s
The Museum of Extraordinary Things is the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century.
Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.
The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.
With its colorful crowds of bootleggers, heiresses, thugs, and idealists, New York itself becomes a riveting character as Hoffman weaves her trademark magic, romance, and masterful storytelling to unite Coralie and Eddie in a sizzling, tender, and moving story of young love in tumultuous times.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things is Alice Hoffman at her most spellbinding.
- File Size: 3397 KB
- Print Length: 385 pages
- Publisher: Scribner (February 18, 2014)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DPM7YM2
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Russian - #1
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in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Russian - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American - #2
in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman is a highly recommended historical fiction novel set in New York in the early 1900's. The story is told through alternating narratives from two characters, Eddie (Ezekiel) and Coralie, and takes place before and during two well-known fires of the time: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25, 1911, and the Coney Island Dreamland fire of May 26, 1911.
Coralie Sardie lives with her father, the Professor, in his Museum of Extraordinary Things on Coney Island. The museum is really a freak show where her father displays natural curiosities while taking advantage of his human marvels for his side shows. Due to her webbed hands, Coralie has been in training her whole life to be the mermaid in his show. The Professor is an abusive man who exerts absolute control over his daughter. If not for Maureen, the house keeper and her mother figure, Coralie would not be shown any love or attention.
Eddie (Ezekiel Cohen) has left his birth name, religion, and his father behind him to become a photographer. He felt that his father was a coward and weak. Eddie is distancing himself from his emotions as well as his past while he pursues his photography. But Eddie also has a reputation as someone who can find missing people which eventually leads him to meeting Coralie.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things is part mystery, part love story and part historical social commentary. The historical setting is very compelling since this was a turbulent time where the gap between socioeconomic groups was wide. Factory owners took advantage of the poor. Women and children were treated as lesser beings or possessions of men. The mystery comes into play when Eddie begins searching for a missing girl.
I’m a big fan of magical realism in my reading and this is what Alice Hoffman does best. This book was a wonderful mix of magic vs. science, of history and tragedy, and of love and romance. Coralie is raised in the Museum of Extraordinary Things on New York’s Coney Island and loves the wonders she sees– the birds, the Butterfly Girl who has no arms and even the Wolfman– even if she is not allowed to interact with them according to her father’s rules. As a child she doesn’t realize that what she calls wonders, others would call a freak show. This is a gift of Alice Hoffman’s, putting beauty in everything and in nearly every situation. Coralie feels lucky to join the Museum as a mermaid when she comes of age–until she realizes her father is not the man of science that he claims to be, but that she’s the daughter of a monster.
Each chapter starts with flashes back to childhood and then moves forward to the events of 1911. So when we meet Eddie Cohen, the photographer that captures Coralie’s heart, we already know that he was raised Ezekiel, an Orthodox Jew who escaped from Ukraine with his father. Eddie has tried to walk away from his past and his faith, but we see how those shape the man he is and the choices he makes once he witnesses the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and begins searching for the missing Hannah. We also see Coralie progress from obedient child to a thoughtful and observant young woman; and we see her transform in her own mind from a freak of nature to a young woman able to give and receive love freely.
I really enjoyed following this story and I was so anxious after Coralie first spotted Eddie waiting for them to really meet. But this was much more than just a romantic love story, this touched on parental love, friendship and questions of faith.
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