I had no clue it would take me no time to read this book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1997; but reading it puts one into a dreamlike state, perfectly in keeping with the fabulous (in many meanings of the term) story of this book. And, having just finished reading it, I may still be in a dream giving a report of it, which may be just fine. (A good book, and quite readable, but a deep book, with subterranean levels.)
The book tells the story of Martin Dressler, born in New York City in 1872, where his father runs a cigar shop in the midst of the city. Martin is a person of dreams, with no apparent need for friends (none are ever mentioned, except for people he associates with in his business dealings). At the age of 14, he becomes a bellhop in a hotel, which begins his career of providing not just what people want, but what people did not know they wanted until it was provided for them. Martin is a master of the art of making his dreams reality, and he does this totally within the framework of turn-of-the-last century New York City.
In the course of the book, he meets a family consisting of a widowed mother and her two daughters, Emmeline and Caroline. Emmeline is dark, somewhat plain both in her figure and her personality, and is a person of executive and administrative ability, who can sweep the cobwebs out of one’s thoughts. Caroline is blond and mysterious; when she is not lying languidly on a couch, she is sleeping, and her moods and disposition rule the family. Naturally, Martin, the master of turning dreams into reality, is attracted to the dream-like woman, who turns out to be a master of turning reality into dreams.
Martin feels that a kindly Power has been leading his steps, ever since his days in his father’s cigar store, leading him to the financial status and to the architect and to the advertiser who present his ever-more grandiose ideas to the public of New York City; but eventually, and inevitably, the dreams that turn into reality turn back into dreams, and the reality that turns into dreams turns into reality. Which conclusion, of course, leads one to wonder where one’s own dreams and reality are logically headed. So, to simply say this is a story of an entrepreneur is like saying that Moby-Dick is just a book about a whale hunt; and for such a slight book (not quite 300 pages), this is a book that will remain in my mind for quite some time to come.
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