The Museum of Extraordinary Things – Alice Hoffman

Well, its Alice Hoffman.  So, I pretty much expected it to be an excellent read.  And she didn’t let me down.  Once again, she has taken a set of rather unusual characters and made them a part of your inner circle.  Even though the story revolves around their “oddness”, it becomes only relevant to the story and ceases to be noticed in the image of the character. The Museum of Extraordinary Things is two stories.  First, Coralie, the girl with the webbed hands whose father, the proprietor of the museum, trains her to be able to spend huge amounts of time underwater and bills her as a human mermaid.  The museum is a freak show of midgets and Siamese twins and a wolfman, plus bottles and jars and displays of curiosities.  Her father dominates and controls her while she seeks tiny rebellions and dreams to find a place in the world outside of the sideshow. The second is Eddie, Russian immigrant and street detective who finds lost people.  Then one day, he finds Levy and learns to see the world through the eyes of a camera lens.  The world becomes a different place when he holds the camera and he tells the tales of his city with his images. The story circles around a real point in history as the two characters slowly start to spin in each other’s direction.  Alice weaves a spellbinding tale of these two unfortunate souls and paints a landscape that will haunt your mind for a long time after.  She’s a master storyteller and every tale seems to find a previously untried direction, unlike many writers who find a path and stick with it.  Alice likes taking the side roads.  I’m guessing because she knows some of the most interesting things can be found around their bends.  Pick up The Museum of Extraordinary Things and breath in the scent of a bygone era dipped generously in a skillful fable.