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Overview
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.
Synopsis
Three remarkable women have nothing but one another to rely on as they seek to protect their homes and families from the brutality of a city -- and a nation -- gone mad.
The New Yorker
This follow-up to "Dreamland," Baker's 1999 novel about Coney Island, is both an example of his talents as a historian and, occasionally, a warning about the power of facts to upend the delicate balance of fiction. With painstaking accuracy, the author re-creates the 1863 Draft Riots, in which President Lincoln's announcement of a new conscription law provoked thousands of New Yorkers, primarily Irish immigrants, to rampage through the city, looting and murdering. The principal characters, a trio of working-class women, furnish a rich domestic perspective that complements the public record. Unfortunately, Baker's liberal use of other voices -- including those of a reporter, a thug, and a fireman -- ultimately proves distracting.
Editorials
Houston Chronicle
"[A] huge success....fascinating, instructive, never pedantic."New York Post
"A page-turning epic."Christian Science Monitor
"[An] extraordinary talent....Kevin Baker is quickly altering the landscape of American historical fiction."Edmonton Journal
"Paradise Alley probes the primal mysteries of ...love and war with skill, drama and deep humanity."New York Times
"Rich in color and drama.... Extraordinary.... A triumph."Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Extraordinary....Baker achieves a hallucinatory realism packed with sensory detail."Hartford Courant
"Paradise Alley is a skillful historical reconstruction — an exploration of love and loyalty."Denver Post
"A rare and special work."Booklist
"[A] richly detailed, impeccably researched drama."San Diego Union-Tribune
Phenomenal."Baltimore Sun
"Inspired.... vividly entertaining, and its themes are as timely as any drawn from this morning’s newspaper. "Entertainment Weekly
"An engrossing epic"Entertainment Weekly
“An engrossing epic”New York Times
“Rich in color and drama.... Extraordinary.... A triumph.”Booklist
“[A] richly detailed, impeccably researched drama.”Houston Chronicle
“[A] huge success....fascinating, instructive, never pedantic.”Denver Post
“A rare and special work.”San Diego Union-Tribune
Phenomenal.”Baltimore Sun
“Inspired.... vividly entertaining, and its themes are as timely as any drawn from this morning’s newspaper. ”New York Post
“A page-turning epic.”Hartford Courant
“Paradise Alley is a skillful historical reconstruction -- an exploration of love and loyalty.”Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Extraordinary....Baker achieves a hallucinatory realism packed with sensory detail.”Christian Science Monitor
“[An] extraordinary talent....Kevin Baker is quickly altering the landscape of American historical fiction.”Edmonton Journal
“Paradise Alley probes the primal mysteries of ...love and war with skill, drama and deep humanity.”The New Yorker
This follow-up to "Dreamland," Baker's 1999 novel about Coney Island, is both an example of his talents as a historian and, occasionally, a warning about the power of facts to upend the delicate balance of fiction. With painstaking accuracy, the author re-creates the 1863 Draft Riots, in which President Lincoln's announcement of a new conscription law provoked thousands of New Yorkers, primarily Irish immigrants, to rampage through the city, looting and murdering. The principal characters, a trio of working-class women, furnish a rich domestic perspective that complements the public record. Unfortunately, Baker's liberal use of other voices -- including those of a reporter, a thug, and a fireman -- ultimately proves distracting.Publishers Weekly
In his second New York novel (after Dreamland), Baker takes a grisly event-the 1863 Civil War draft riots-and crafts a terrifying, human story bursting with all the calamity, brutality and power of the riots themselves, which may have been the worst civic disturbance in U.S. history. Baker, an American Heritage writer, bases his work largely on historic events-Lincoln's announcement of the draft law did in fact propel thousands of New Yorkers, mainly Irish, to burn and loot the city and murder hundreds of innocents. The book follows the difficult lives of Ruth, Deirdre and Maddy, three women living on Paradise Alley, a dingy Lower East Side passageway, during the five days of riots. Each chapter alternates among many voices, however; in addition to the women, Baker speaks through a New York Tribune reporter, an escaped slave, an immigrant boxer turned criminal, an army private, a volunteer fireman and other characters. The formula works brilliantly, giving Baker the opportunity to flash back to Ruth's survival of the Irish potato famine; the voyage she and so many Irish made from their ravaged country to America; and her future husband's journey from slavery in Charleston, S.C., to freedom in New Jersey. The combination of momentous events, tellingly real aspects of lower-class 19th-century life, and raw emotions like fear and pride make this a viscerally affecting story. Baker intertwines love, violence, history, adventure and social commentary to give readers an invigorating, heartbreaking tale of the immigrant experience. Agent, Henry Dunow. (Oct. 15) Forecast: Like Dreamland, Baker's latest will undoubtedly attract much attention, based on his name and strong word of mouth. It will be especially popular in New York, although an eight-city author tour and national advertising should bring him numerous readers outside of the city. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
In his follow-up to Dreamland, Baker continues to bring New York City history to life. This time he focuses on the Draft Riots of 1863, when rampaging Irish immigrants literally burned the city. To tell the story of those three fateful days in July, Baker employs multiple narrators: Herbert Robinson, a reporter for the Tribune, and Maddy, his Irish mistress; Billie Dove, an escaped slave, and his wife, Ruth, an Irishwoman who survived the potato famine; and Johnny Dolan, a murderous Irish thug, his upwardly mobile sister Deirdre, and her husband, Tom O'Kane, now serving in the Union army. The characters not only describe the riot but also recall the events that brought them all to New York City's Paradise Alley. Baker, who served as chief researcher of The American Century, seamlessly weaves actual events and figures into his fictional narrative. However, while the novel skillfully illuminates a little-known episode in this country's history, few of the characters are particularly engaging or likable. For larger fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/02.] Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
The New York City draft riots of 1863 provide an appropriately violent subject for this period melodrama from the historical researcher (for Harry Evans’s The American Century) and novelist (Dreamland, 1999, etc.).The eponymous setting is a Dantesque slum where the "only sound heard in the street is the buzzing of flies, hovering over the heaps of garbage and the horse carcasses." That uncomfortably vivid description is offered by Herbert Willis Robinson, a New York Tribune reporter who drifts incognito throughout the Alley and environs, recording the destructive rage of an impoverished (mostly immigrant) populace reacting to the wholesale drafting of workingmen unable to pay their way out of military service. Though Robinson alone speaks as a first-person narrator, he’s one of several major characters whose viewpoints relay the increasingly complex action. Foremost is Ruth Dove, a rag-picker who has survived Ireland’s Potato Famine and the attentions of Dangerous Johnny Dolan, an embittered thief and murderer recently out of prison, and a ticking time bomb aimed in the direction of Ruth (with whom he fled Ireland, and who possesses a "treasure" Johnny wants back), her husband Billy, a runaway slave, and their five biracial children. The story of Ruth’s ordeal during "The Year of Slaughter" (1846) and escape to America is neatly juxtaposed with the entwined present fates and past histories of several other vigorously drawn characters. Prominent among them: the aforementioned Johnny, a vicious destructive force of nature; his long-suffering sister Deirdre O’Kane and her husband Tom, a wounded Civil War veteran; stoical Billy Dove, who labors against insuperable odds to exemplify thesimple goodness his name suggests; truculent prostitute Maddy Boyle (who’s "kept"—though not controlled—by Robinson); wily Tammany Hall politico Finn McCool; and numerous other briefly glimpsed figures. Paradise Alley is probably too long, and the grisly, frequently nauseating naturalistic detail is laid on with a trowel. But it’s deftly plotted, fabulously detailed, and never less than absorbing.
An authoritative blend of documentary realism and driving narrative that’s just about irresistible.
Author tour