Dreamland: A Land Where No

Dreamland: A land where no dreams come true

The title of Kevin Baker's Dreamland is deliberately ironic. It reminds the reader of the presence of the Coney Island theme park of the same name. This tawdry and exploitative place is one of the many means of escapism offered to the novel's characters living in turn-of -- the century New York City. Characters escape into their own heads, and enjoy pleasure, often at the expense of other people's rights.

The word Dreamland also refers to the American Dream, which is theoretically accessible to everyone. But this is a dream most of the poor and disenfranchised characters of the novel can never experience, despite living in a nation where the streets are supposedly paved with gold. Such a dream is only that -- a dream -- for most Americans, although all of the characters harbor ambitious about bettering themselves. Some, like Esther 'Esse' Abramowitz, wish to do so through political action. Others, like the state Senator Tim Baker, wish to do so through wheeling and dealing. And criminals have their own vision of the American Dream and financial success: making a profit by any means necessary.

The meandering, sprawling novel is stuffed with characters -- and multiple points-of-view. Its cast includes carnival workers -- and Sigmund Freud. (the title Dreamland also refers to Freud's theory of dreams). Baker blends fact and fiction to create a sense of drama and verisimilitude. He paints a complete, panoramic view of the era. For example, a famous incident that occurred in the history of New York City was a fire in a sweatshop called the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This fire helped spawn the modern labor movement. Esther Abramowitz is not a real character but she represents the untold number of young women forced to choose between laboring in stifling conditions and working for pennies, or becoming prostitutes. Esther is Russian and Jewish and although she is radicalized by the appalling conditions under which she must work -- much to the displeasure of her former rabbi father, who wishes her to live a more conventional existence -- some characters, like factory owners, use the desperation of others as a way of exploiting others and scrabbling to the top of the American Dream.

Weaving the stories of characters of types of people from Esther to Freud allows Barker to show a broad-sweeping panorama of history, from the lower classes to the intelligentsia of Europe. While characters come from very different segments of society, the commonly-shared desires for love, riches, and self-improvement unite them all. All of the characters, however tangentially are linked, and show different aspects of the American Dream. For example, to depict the immigrant experience, Baker has Esther dating a non-Jew, Kid Twist, who emigrates on the same ocean liner that Freud and Jung take across the seas. The novel begins with the Kid rescuing a newsboy (who is actually a dwarf named 'Trick') from to Esther's brother, Gyp the Blood. This illustrates the Kid's kind nature, despite his impoverished existence, in contrast to the criminal Gyp who eventually tries to kill the Kid.