In 1842 Phineas T. Barnum is a young man, freshly arrived in New York and still unknown to the world. With uncanny confidence and impeccable timing, he transforms a dusty natural history museum into a great ark for public imagination. Barnum's museum, with its human wonders and extraordinary live-animal menagerie, rises to become not only the nation's most popular attraction, but also a catalyst that ushers America out of a culture of glassed-in exhibits and into the modern age of entertainment.
In this kaleidoscopic setting, the stories of two compelling characters are brought to life. Emile Guillaudeu is the museum's grumpy taxidermist, who is horrified by the chaotic change Barnum brings to his beloved institution. Ana Swift is a professional giantess plagued by chronic pain and jaded by a world of gawkers. The differences between these two are many: one is isolated and spends his working hours making dead things look alive, while the other has people pushing against her, and reacting to her, every day. But they both move toward change, one against his will, propelled by a paradigm shift happening whether he likes it or not, and the other because she is struggling to survive.
In many shapes and forms, metamorphosis is at the core of Among the Wonderful. Pursuing this theme, the book weaves a world where upper Manhattan is still untrammeled wilderness, the Five Points is at the height of its bloody glory, and within the walls of Barnum's museum, ancient tribal feuds play out in the midst of an unlikely community of marvels.
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"I loved this book. It was told from the two points of view: one, a giantess (Anastasia) that P. T. Barnum "recruits" to be a part of his American Museum in New York City in the 1840s, the second a taxidermist who worked in the Natural History Museum that was housed in the building prior to Barnum taking it over for the American Museum. The author really gets into Anastasia's head to express what it's like to be different in society and the voyeurism that keeps the American Museum packed with people. The taxidermist, Guillaudeu, worked for the building's previous owner for many years and struggles with the drastic changes that Barnum is making to the museum. Guillaudeu is methodical and into the classification of things according to Linneus's system. Barnum defies classification and Guillaudeu is in strong conflict with this. He begins to soften."
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Bets (5 out of 5 stars)