The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman

This novel weaves fiction with actual events at the turn of the last century, one of which is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed about 150 young immigrant workers.  Coralie Sardie is the daughter of “The Professor,” a magician and owner of a freak show on Coney Island called “The Museum of Extraordinary Things.” She is, in fact, one of its attractions.  A minor birth defect, her fingers are webbed, has inspired him to train her to perform in a large tank as a mermaid.  Eddie, nee Ezekiel, Cohen, has fallen away from his Orthodox upbringing, lived on the streets as an Oliver Twist type urchin, and has become a photographer and photojournalist after a chance encounter with an older photographer.  He witnesses and photographs the events of the night of the fire.  When Coralie and Eddie’s lives intersect, much of what Coralie believed to be the truth of her existence is called into question, and Eddie gains a different view of his own father.  A second fire, the Dreamland fire on Coney Island, rounds out the book.  Imaginative and engrossing, but I was annoyed by the device of having large sections of the book printed in italics.  There are other ways to indicate a different voice, point of view, or shift in time.  367 pp.