Dream of Venus

by Miles Beller

DREAM OF VENUS (OR LIVING PICTURES), a novel set in the 1939-'40 New York World's Fair, is a speculative history reanimating the last great international fair this world would ever know. Meshing actualities with invention, DREAM OF VENUS renders a future past that is nostalgic and predictive, an account of hope and longing at the onset of World War II. Focusing on Zeke Lichtenquist - an artist moved into the Fair's Town of Tomorrow - VENUS takes us on a search for authenticity and meaning. Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and the Fair's president Grover Whalen all pop in and out, players in a fabled New York of the late 1930s. This work of alternative history has taken its title from Salvadore Dali's surrealistic pavilion featured at the fair.

298 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tumbling, tumult through the NY worlds fair of 1939 - this is more a pastiche than a story. Our hero is a struggling artist way ahead of his time sketching fairgoers for money. The book (novel?) is a rush of images, catchphrases, slogans, songs, snippets overheard which hold together a series of monologues, really. It is fascinating and utterly unique. Not quite like any book I've ever read. Those interested in history, pre-war America, the fair or New York will find much to marvel at here.

[Jest · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only good thing I managed to find in this book is the bibliography.