I borrowed The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman a little by accident. I was shelving at the library (basically if ever I borrow a book, assume that I found it while I was shelving) while I was going through the new books. The cover of this one caught my eye, as did the title. I read the description and I was sold. I quietly put it back on my cart and kept it for myself.
This is a fantastic story that takes place over the course of a few years, but is mostly set in 1911. It is the story of Coralie Sardie, the daughter of Professor Sardie, owner of The Museum of Extraordinary Things on Coney Island. The Professor, as the museum's curator, prides himself in that all that he presents is science. The people he finds are all wonders of nature, men covered in hair, girls with no arms, and a tortoise that is over a hundred years old. His daughter has her own disability, and over her lifetime he has been training her to swim in the freezing Hudson River, teaching her essentially to become a mermaid. She has barely had any contact with the outside world, and as she grows older, the pull of the city becomes stronger as her life deteriorates.
Meanwhile, in the Jewish neighborhoods of New York, a young immigrant boy named Ezekiel is growing furious at the treatment the working class must live with. He eventually slips away from his religious father and community, renames himself Eddie and becomes the apprentice of a Jewish mystic who specializes in finding people. When he gets tired of that, he becomes the apprentice of a photographer and eventually photographs the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and leaves it with a changed, darker view of the world. One night as he is night fishing by the Hudson, he spots a mermaid climbing up on shore.
I loved this book. It was sad, and raw, and just a great read. I couldn't put it down. There were times when I genuinely felt sorry and empathic towards the characters. I almost cried on the bus at one point as I was reading the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire chapter.
It was nice to have a book that I liked enough that I felt that I could sit down by the fireplace and read for an hour. I would recommend this if you like historical novels, because there was a lot of historical details, but I would also recommend it if you liked Water for Elephants because it reminded me a lot of it.
I should probably read On the Road now, so I won't borrow another book until I've read that one.
Have a nice week!
