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Chargement... The Museum of Extraordinary Thingspar Alice Hoffman
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. I didn't enjoy this one very much---mainly because it was just so extremely boring. The set up took about 300 pages, leaving me with about 50 pages of an actual story that I breezed through in about 20 minutes. The way it was written is distracting: lots of jumping back and forth between narrators, first and third person narratives, and bouncing around the timeline. The ending is obvious and anticlimactic. The parts I didn't guess very early on were not super exciting either. I'm not usually one for magical realism but I think a little more focus on the fantastical in this story would have made it much more palatable. The one thing I did really enjoy about the story were all of the historical bits and references to my favorite time in history. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
The daughter of a Coney Island boardwalk curiosities museum's front man pursues an impassioned love affair with a Russian immigrant photographer who after fleeing his Lower East Side Orthodox community has captured poignant images of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Not sure I found either of the characters particularly empathetic or authentic. I have no problem with unsympathetic protagonists, but in this case both characters evince a frustrating level of gullibility and lack of introspection - dramatically necessary, perhaps, but irritating. There's not a lot of plot, and what plot there is comes off as contrived and far-fetched.
But there's also much to savor here, like Hoffman's lovely, evocative descriptions of the Manhattan wilderness in the days before human development entirely consumed the Hudson River and its environs. Also relished the historically accurate depictions of Coney Island, immigrant tenements, and the devastating Dreamland Fire of 1911. Her portrayal of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and its aftermath is gut-wrenching.
While Hoffman employs many of the elements of literary fiction - themes, symbols, extended metaphors - there's not necessarily a lot of sophistication to it. Water and fire symbolize transformation. Dreamland symbolizes human hubris. Starlings represent invading Europeans/civilization. A fish that may or may not have been reborn symbolizes the miracle and hope of love. There's a cactus that finally blooms at the moment that Coralie's free will finally blossoms, and an extended metaphor in which the novel Jane Eyre serves as a construct for exploring the definition and price of freedom, wrapping up in a rather unsubtle denouement in which the Coney Island fire parallels the famous conflagration at the end of Bronte's novel. In other words, nothing your average high school literature student wouldn't be able to access. (And just in case you do overlook something, the author includes an afterward, in the form of a letter, that clears up any possible ambiguities.) Indeed, it often feels like these literary elements are driving the story rather than visa versa. They add some richness, but detract from the authenticity of the story while adding little in the way of added insight or profundity.
This was my first Hoffman novel, so can't shed any light on how it might compare to her others. I enjoyed the tale for what it was, but am not sure - based on this outing - whether I'm in any hurry to explore Hoffman's wider oeuvre. ( )