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Among The Wonderful: A Novel (2011)

by Stacy Carlson(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1586421840 (ISBN13: 9781586421847)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Steerforth

review 1: I picked up Among the Wonderful because I saw that the story was based around Phineas T. Barnum and his early-1900s museum of Wonders in NYC. I read a biography of Barnum a few years back, and was fascinated by his story, so when I saw this novel, I thought it would be an interesting look at how the museum began. There is definitely some history of the museum, much less about Barnum himself. Carlson explores the lives of different performers, how they were treated, and how they organized. The book is told from two perspectives: (1) a first-person narrative by the world's only known giantess and (2) a third-person narrative by the museum's trusted taxidermist and later-on animal menagerie manager. Through the giantess, the reader comes to know the inner lives of variou... mores performers: a pair of Siamese twins, a family of juggling Italians, two male giants, and many others. The taxidermist is troubled by the changes Barnum has enacted in the museum (he had purchased it from Scudder just a year or two before), and both resists and flows with the new museum management. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, just a tad too long.
review 2: This compelling debut novel transports the reader to 1840's Manhattan - a place that was rife with the tumble of humanity and yet still walking distance to wilderness. In the midst of this is P.T. Barnum's American Museum, home to "wonders" like a sewing dog, a hirsute woman, conjoined twins, and a tribe of Sioux. The two main narrators, giantess Ana Swift and reclusive taxidermist Emile Guillaudeu, have different but equally compelling perspectives on the circus of life as well as the immediate circus of their surroundings. While the plot isn't necessarily riveting, the richly drawn characters more than compensate in this really enjoyable read. less

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