Paradise Alley: A Novel (Today Show Book Club #6) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "He is coming..." (more)
Key Phrases: nigger village, black gable, goblin man, Johnny Dolan, Paradise Alley, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Paradise Alley, Kevin Baker's follow-up to Dreamland, makes full use of his skills as a top historical researcher. Paradise Alley concerns a tumultuous moment in the record of the Civil War: the 1863 New York riots that followed President Lincoln's decision to create a draft. Baker refers to the street violence as one of the worst instances of civic unrest in American history. Yet one can't tell a compelling story with simple pronouncements. Baker gives us a handful of characters--fictional, yet emblematic--who lead readers through the dense weave of class, race, ambition, gender politics, and violence in mid-19th-century America. More importantly, Baker has that rare gift of establishing crucial links between the past and the present, of helping a reader understand that we live with the consequences of history. A hugely ambitious project, Baker wrestles with his responsibility to the overall vision as well as to many, many outstanding moments, and for the most part he gets the balance right. --Tom Keogh

From 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.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060195827
• ISBN-13: 978-0060195823
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #419,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 6 in The Today Show Book Club Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No sophomore slump here., October 4, 2002

By	Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Kevin Baker, whose "Dreamland" made its strong and haunting appearance several years ago, follows up with another excitingly researched and characterized novel. Set during the five hot days of the New York City draft riots of 1863, "Paradise Alley" traces the lives of three women living on that street waiting for terror and anarchy to reach their doors.

Ruth, Dierdre, and Maddy are all Irish, struggling in a hard city that is nonetheless better than what they left. Dierdre and her family are the closest to achieving a form of middle class stability, yet she is the one who brings hell to her own door. Her former sister-in-law Ruth is a ragpicker. Now married to a runaway slave, Ruth came to New York with Dierdre's psychotic brother, whom they hear has been released from prison and is on his way back to town. Maddy, once the mistress of the journalist who tells part of the story, now opens her bedroom to all comers.

Baker fills "Paradise Alley" with rich details about the lives of mid-19th century Irish immigrants-their social clubs, their pride in their firefighting teams, the gangs, the church, and the backbreaking work. This is all wonderful stuff, especially his descriptions of the fire teams with their traditions and colorful names.

This is a nice big book, packed with compelling characters, intriguing historical detail, and plenty of suspense. Baker orchestrates his novel masterfully, keeping all the themes twisting and twining until the novel reaches its climax. This is one of the best evocations of Civil War-era New York I have read, and it joins Peter Quinn's "Banished Children of Eve" as an outstanding fictionalization of five terrible days in U.S. history.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paradise Alley, November 15, 2002

By	K. Freeman (Apple Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is an excellent book, which not only covers a little-known facet of 19th century history but has definite literary credentials.

In the summer of 1863, poor, mostly Irish, workers in New York resent the mounting Civil War casualties, and hate the recently instituted draft. When the government tries to impose the draft, riots erupt that affect the lives of a vivid cast of characters.

Baker writes in a literary but not pretentious style. This is Kantor-type historical fiction: following many characters and giving details of each person's past. Some readers will probably find this hard to get through; for me, it was effective, giving each character depth and ratcheting up the tension as I had to wait to find out what was happening to each person in the "now" plotline.

The portrayals of 1863 New York and Famine Ireland are definitely gritty, not to say grotesque, but one gets the feeling that vast and accurate research has been done. Baker's overall grip of battles and soldier mentality seems strong--Fredericksburg is excellent and the mob scenes are powerful--but the most interesting part is really the fire-fighting scene, with the details of the engines and the crews. He writes well about members of several ethnic minorities, presenting them as individuals and giving a vivid cultural picture without resorting to condescension or political correctness. The character of Billy Dove, escaped slave and shipwright, is especially well portrayed.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How much misery can you tolerate?, October 4, 2002

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Life was cheap in New York City in 1863, the setting for this powerfully realized, naturalistic novel. For $ a man who did not want to fight in the Civil War could hire another man to take his place, an option available only to the wealthy, the poor, of necessity, obeying the draft. Living in the city's fetid back alleys, where pigs ran wild, children sailed paper boats in rivers of blood running out of butcheries, and horses and dogs rotted where they fell, the mainly Irish poor finally reached their limits and exploded in murderous rage. During three of the hottest days in July, 1863, they rioted, bludgeoning any man, woman, or child who got in their way, saving their particular wrath for blacks, whom they blamed for the war--innocent neighbors who were stripped, set on fire, and hanged from lamp posts.

The "Draft Riots," the people who participated in them, the conditions which spawned them, and the politicians, churchmen, and police who either did not or could not stop them, are fully examined in this huge novel, filled with ugliness and offering little in the way of hope.

These days of anarchy, with all their depredations, are recreated through the stories and points of view of seven characters--Ruth Dove, who survived the Irish potato famine (depicted in horrifying background detail) and her husband Billy, a former slave; Dangerous Johnny Dolan, Ruth's abusive and jealous former lover; Johnny's sister, Deirdre Dolan O'Kane, and her husband Tom, who participates in the battles of Fredericksburg and Gettysburg; and newspaper hack, Herbert Willis Robinson, who follows the rioters around the city while worrying about his lover Maddy, a woman who became a prostitute when he refused to give her entree into his world.

Baker is a master of odd, and apparently accurate, details from the period, devoting many pages to wide-ranging background material, and developing his characters just enough to make the plot seem plausible, despite its remarkable coincidences, its frequent telegraphing of the action, and an ending which leaves no loose ends. The picture of humanity here is very dark, with details sometimes appearing to be inserted for their shock value. The mob's ghoulish delight in torture and mayhem is sustained for over 600 pages, an experience which makes the reader long for a moment or two of levity. I wish, among all the encyclopedic detail, Baker had offered a few hints about the inner resources which allow one or two characters to rise above the fray and achieve grandeur. Mary Whipple