Among the Wonderful

by Stacy Carlson

[Lianne]

I won a copy of this book from a contest held on Twitter by @HistoricalFix. This review was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2015/09/16/review-among-the-wonderful/

The premise of this novel is quite intriguing and different than I expected. It feels a little whimsical in some sense, with a natural history museum being morphed into a sort of strange and wondrous exhibition, but intertwined with some of the realities of the 19th century. “Kaleidoscopic” is a good word to describe the book, it really felt like a menage of elements and character experiences all tied into the museum and what Mr. Barnum hoped to achieve, even though he is absent for most of the novel. Giantesses and performing acts, taxidermy and natives, it felt pretty mad at one point with all of these elements running about. The book was also quite thoughtful at times, contemplating on life and living it and the nature of everything; there were some great thoughts here and there.

Having said that, it did lull at times and for a good chunk in the middle left me wondering where the story was headed exactly. Ana Swift and Emile Guillaudeu’s stories, while tied to the museum, were on different trajectories much of the time that they seemed like two different stories until the end. Also, I felt much more interested and invested in Emile Guillaudeu’s story, probably because of its strong opening at the start of the novel, and because I was curious at his struggle with the changes in the museum and its new owner and his more unchanging attitude towards science and the way things are. I was expecting more confrontations and happenings with him in the museum, but found he ambled quite a bit for a while as well. Ana’s story felt a little overwhelming at times, probably because she herself was overwhelmed with people gawking over her and her stature, but at the same time we can relate with her story of isolation and feeling out of place from everyone.

Among the Wonderful was overall an interesting read despite of the lulls, the premise and elements a lot different from what I’m used to reading in historical fiction. Readers of historical fiction looking for something different and set in 19th century New York may want to check out this novel.