There are characters such as Abraham Hochman, the “Seer of Rivington Street”, who could find missing persons (among other services) and was fabled as being a wizard, but who actually employed a cadre of street-wise boys who knew how to watch and listen without attracting attention. Here we have communities of displaced Orthodox Jews who have fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, marveling at the magnificence of the Eldridge Street Synagogue but choosing to worship in their own nondescript building in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge. Hoffman’s brilliant narrative makes New York come alive, whether it be the crowded streets of Coney Island, the Jewish tenements on Ludlow Street, the textile factories on the East side of Washington Square, the posh neighborhoods along Park Avenue or the woods that still remain north of Upper Manhattan. While much of the action takes place prior to 1911, that is the pivotal year in the story and Ms. Part fairy tale, part morality play, part historical fiction, Alice Hoffman’s 31st novel, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, pays homage to New York City in 1911.
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