"Though these exhibits made my skin prickle with fear, I felt at home among such things," says Coralie Sardie of the human anomalies and sideshow items of her father's Museum of Extraordinary Things, in Alice Hoffman's magical new novel. In fact, at the age of 10, Coralie became an exhibit herself: the Human Mermaid. Her hands are webbed and she can swim with speed and ease; her father, "the Professor," trained her to use a special breathing device so she could spend an hour or more underwater in an ice-filled tub.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things is primarily set over a few months in 1911, encompassing the infamous fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and the blaze that destroyed Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park, weaving these real-life moments together with fiction in a fantastical story. Thanks to a believable tail and some carefully applied paint, Coralie's evening swims up and down the Hudson generate rumors of a monster. One night, as she rests along the northern shore of the river, she spies a young man taking photographs in the dark: "Coralie felt something pierce through her, as if she were a fish on a hook, unable to break free."
The man, Eddie Cohen (born Ezekiel), is an ambitious, smart young immigrant Jew who escaped the Ukrainian pogroms with his father. He works for a while as a tracker with the famous Jewish mystic Abraham Hochman, helping him find lost children. Later, he apprentices to a photographer, eventually taking over the business. While taking pictures of the horrific Shirtwaist fire, he becomes involved in a woman's disappearance. Meanwhile, Maureen, the Professor's Irish housekeeper--loyal to her employer and totally dedicated to Coralie--will come to play a key role.
Populated with historical figures like Clement Moore and Alfred Stieglitz, The Museum of Extraordinary Things is a carefully rendered portrait of a city and people living in extraordinary times, with a strange and moving love story at its heart. --Tom Lavoie
Shelf Talker: Hoffman has crafted another period-rich historical novel steeped in magical realism; her vision of turn-of-the century New York City is sure to be a hit with book clubs.