Its magnificent strength is also its weakness

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	• Paradise Alley (P.S.) Kevin Baker Harper Perennial, 2006 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Paradise Alley

I have only jsut started reading this. The writing drags a bit, but the descriptions are good and make the story very alive. I was only disappointed by the school district that included it in a summer reading list without a warning about the prostition, etc.

Hot Times in the Old Town

The second book of Baker's planned trilogy about historical New York City, "Paradise Alley" is set during the infamous 1863 draft riots in NYC. Protest against Lincoln's attempt to draft soldiers into the Union army quickly devolves into a pogrom against free blacks struggling to live as second-class citizens in the city. Irish-Americans and the backgrounds they bring with them from Ireland also play a big part in the story--both the heroine and the villain are survivors of the 1840's Potato Famine in Ireland. This book seemed more historically grounded and less surreal than Baker's first book of the trilogy, "Dreamland". (The story is completely separate--no characters or events overlap) However, the recounting of historical events from the draft riots seems surreal enough and serves as a wakeup call to Yankees about the less savory aspects of their history. The human story is also very involving as Baker alternates points of view among seven major characters: a "proper" Irish-American woman and Union soldier husband; a newspaper "hack" and his [...] girlfriend; and the Irish refugee heroine and her two husbands, the first a fellow refugee and villain, the second a good-hearted, but flawed black man. An entertaining and instructive aspect of the book is Baker's descriptions of the workings of volunteer fire brigades in the middle of the 19th century. Putting out fires appears to have been about third or fourth on their priority list.

Very highly recommended--my favorite of Baker's New York City trilogy and one of my all-time favorite historical novels.

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Its magnificent strength is also its weakness

Paradise Alley is centered on one of the most despicable events in American history: The New York City Civil War Draft riots of July 13 through 15, 1863. To get to this explosive center, author Baker brings his characters from the potato famine catastrophe of Ireland, escaped slavery of America's south, and the battlefields of the Civil War. He introduces each of these characters in full blow detail that makes us fascinated with their travails and sympathetic to their struggles. He them places each of them in precarious situations, as he crafts their tales with overwhelming suspense. He is a master at getting us involved to the breaking point with these individuals, but just before the climax hits, he abruptly drops off and switches to another story line. Often I was tempted to skip over pages to see what happened next, but stuck with his narrative hoping for satisfactory conclusions. Unfortunately, Baker is more adept at creating tension than resolving it. A good deal of the action builds to lukewarm payoffs. Yet, this is a spellbinder. You'll learn about things they never taught you in high school, including the cruelty, the criminality, and the suffering this riot - by far the worst ever in America - brought to the streets of Manhattan. Crooked politicians, abject poverty, the making of Central Park, religious rivalries, northern segregation are just a few of the history lessons that make this book well worth reading.

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LIVES THAT WERE LESS THAN PARADISE

Bakers diligent research, and writing prowess brings an intricate narrative weaving of truth and imagination that completely immerses the reader in the fight for survival in 19th century New York City.

While there are an infinite array of threads to this story, the major character focus is on the three women of the saga, all residents of the waterfront slum called Paradise Alley. Having survived everything from the Irish famine to slavery and prostitution, they find themselves once again struggling through difficult times to protect themselves and their loved ones from the insanity that is running rampant in the city.

Any reader with a taste for history, who enjoys a good Dickensian style novel, will be captivated by this story and find themselves flying through the nearly 700 pages of this novel.

If you are a lover of historical fiction, this book will definitely not disappoint.

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Great history - poor characters

Paradise Alley is a fascinating historical novel about a time and place that has become a footnote in most history books - the Draft Riots in New York City in 1863. Baker does a wonderful job in presenting this incident in all of its nuances and complexity. However, maybe to make it sell better, the novel concentrates too heavily (for my tastes) on the personal - the life stories of characters who experienced and suffered in the riots. The characters seemed very two-dimensional. Their suffering was so extreme that they lost their veracity and became cartoon characters.

Of great interest was the proposed walking tour of lower Manhattan included in the Appendix. I wish I was closer to New York so I could more closely experience and understand the events depicted in this historical novel.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

They came by boat from a starving land?and by the Underground Railroad from Southern chains?seeking refuge in a crowded, filthy corner of hell at the bottom of a great metropolis. But in the terrible July of 1863, the poor and desperate of Paradise Alley would face a new catastrophe?as flames from the war that was tearing America in two reached out to set their city on fire.

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