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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
Why did I slog through this 748-pager? Good question. It had some redeeming passages, and the first half was intriguing enough to keep me hooked. I passed through stages of confusion, curiosity and exhaustion as I dutifully read. I did enjoy the book more when I read it with a sense of humor - taking it seriously tended to tick me off.
I had this on my to-read shelf for a really long time. For a while Amazon had been insistent that I would like it. By the end I was just perplexed by the conclusion of the book. Whoa, that was weird.
I had this on my to-read shelf for a really long time. For a while Amazon had been insistent that I would like it. By the end I was just perplexed by the conclusion of the book. Whoa, that was weird.
Hmmm... Where to start? Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin is an odd, winding, sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and very long journey to a destination I'm not quite sure of. Initially I picked up this book so I could read it before the film came out, but honestly, the film trailers seem to be telling a completely different story, and I don't blame them. Winter's Tale is about so many different people and stories and ideas that I'm surprised someone managed to pull out something worth making a film about.
I feel like Helprin often got lost in the beauty of his own words and forgot that he was writing a story with a plot. Granted, sometimes that's nice to have lovely, flowy language, but more often than not it interrupted what was trying to be an interesting, and sometimes magically mysterious story. I've seen other authors weave language and plot together much more successfully.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of a clear sense of time period. Of course, this was part of Helprin's design, that New York City has this great feeling of being part of many different eras all at once, but it was so distracting and really pulled me out of the story. I spent all of the first half - and most of the second - trying to figure out what year it was. Knowing the year would have helped me focus more on the story and less on whether or not that horse and cart is really out of place or if it's magical.
The characters, on the other hand, were a lot of fun to read, and, maybe because it was so long and we spent so much time with them, I felt they were mostly thoroughly explored. Their quirks were fun and somewhat inexplicable but they stuck to them and refused to apologize. They were who they were and that's that. I especially liked the characterization of the horse. What a fun way to enter a story!
In summary, I thought this book was too long and drawn out and too interested in its ability to wax poetic about the scenery. I would only recommend it to those who enjoy long, flowery sentences sprinkled with occasional humor.
I feel like Helprin often got lost in the beauty of his own words and forgot that he was writing a story with a plot. Granted, sometimes that's nice to have lovely, flowy language, but more often than not it interrupted what was trying to be an interesting, and sometimes magically mysterious story. I've seen other authors weave language and plot together much more successfully.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of a clear sense of time period. Of course, this was part of Helprin's design, that New York City has this great feeling of being part of many different eras all at once, but it was so distracting and really pulled me out of the story. I spent all of the first half - and most of the second - trying to figure out what year it was. Knowing the year would have helped me focus more on the story and less on whether or not that horse and cart is really out of place or if it's magical.
The characters, on the other hand, were a lot of fun to read, and, maybe because it was so long and we spent so much time with them, I felt they were mostly thoroughly explored. Their quirks were fun and somewhat inexplicable but they stuck to them and refused to apologize. They were who they were and that's that. I especially liked the characterization of the horse. What a fun way to enter a story!
In summary, I thought this book was too long and drawn out and too interested in its ability to wax poetic about the scenery. I would only recommend it to those who enjoy long, flowery sentences sprinkled with occasional humor.
This book might not deserve only two stars. It also doesn't deserve to be marked "read," at least not by me,
At one point I was sort of into this book, when it went into the back story of Peter Lake. But when it got to the real story I started losing interest. Then I lost it completely when Peter Lake disappeared from the story altogether. Maybe he comes back later. I have no idea. All I know is the book sat on the table by my bed for a week without ever feeling like I wanted to pick it up again.
So I just picked up another book and cut the cord on this one.Maybe I should have given it more of a chance. I didn't like Memoir from Antproof Case, the last (and only) Mark Helprin book I read. I would not have picked up "Winter's"at all if I hadn't seen the positive reviews of from friends on this site. I think Mr. Helprin just isn't for me.
At one point I was sort of into this book, when it went into the back story of Peter Lake. But when it got to the real story I started losing interest. Then I lost it completely when Peter Lake disappeared from the story altogether. Maybe he comes back later. I have no idea. All I know is the book sat on the table by my bed for a week without ever feeling like I wanted to pick it up again.
So I just picked up another book and cut the cord on this one.Maybe I should have given it more of a chance. I didn't like Memoir from Antproof Case, the last (and only) Mark Helprin book I read. I would not have picked up "Winter's"at all if I hadn't seen the positive reviews of from friends on this site. I think Mr. Helprin just isn't for me.
Ugh, you guys. I was so bitterly disappointed by this book.
Honestly, I’d never even heard of it until it was featured in an episode of Fringe a couple of years ago, and because Fringe is the shit, I decided to check it out. It sounded like something that had been written just for me, and indeed, when I started it I thought I was going to love it. And then the first chapter ended, and I started to get that sinking feeling. And then I got about 1/3 of the way and I wanted to rip my hair out. It was a chore to finish it after that, but I forced myself to do it because a) I hate not finishing books, and b) I kept hoping it would get better.
It’s really hard to explain this book to you, which is part of the reason I picked it up. Usually I love really imaginative fiction. The book begins with a horse running away, only he’s no ordinary horse. He’s clearly intelligent, and he loves to run away to Manhattan as apparently it’s his favorite place in the whole world. Clearly adorable, and I loved this part. And then the horse rescues a man named Peter Lake from a gang of mobsters and they become, uh, friends? Is that the right word? From there it got a bit convoluted and started to lose me. Helprin winds in and out of his own story, telling things in bits and pieces. Peter Lake is a burglar whose parents sent him to American shores as a baby in a tiny model boat because they couldn’t get past Ellis Island. He was raised by a group of pseudo-mystical people called the Baymen, exiled at puberty and slowly evolved into a burglar. He’s caught breaking into the home of a wealthy man with a very sick daughter, Beverly, and he and the daughter fall in love. If it sounds like this is a love story, don’t be fooled. From there, it only gets weird and apocalyptic. There’s people dying and coming back, immortal intelligent horses, long time jumps in the narrative, messiahs, the end of the world, a strange curtain of mystical fog constantly surrounding Manhattan, and bridges sometimes lead other places, but only sometimes. It all sounds cool in theory, but mostly it just confused the fuck out of me.
Other stuff that bothered me: Helprin writes with almost no dialogue, just lots and lots and lots of weird description, most of which would be beautiful on their own but when it’s all you’re getting sentence after sentence, page after page, it was just too much. There wasn’t enough character stuff, and too much emphasis on scenery. He spends five pages describing how the fucking wind feels on Beverly’s face, and about five seconds on her relationship with Peter. it’s just like BOOM they’re in love, for no discernible reason. I know that sometimes things just tend to happen in magical realism, but it really got on my nerves. All of his character’s actions started to feel like affectations after a while because I couldn’t really discern their motivation.
Probably the tipping point for my dislike was the narrator. I know I would have enjoyed this book A LOT more if I hadn’t listened to it on audiobook. The only thing narrator Oliver Wyman got right was Peter’s voice because he does a mean Irish accent. The rest of it he read in this airy annoying tone, emphasizing the wrong words, and doing mostly awful voices for other characters (the worst was Beverly, who I completely loathed because he made her sound so stupid and whiny with his line-readings).
I feel like this was never going to be a book I would love, but I also feel like I didn’t give the book a chance because of narrator. Will probably pick it up in hard copy in the future.
Honestly, I’d never even heard of it until it was featured in an episode of Fringe a couple of years ago, and because Fringe is the shit, I decided to check it out. It sounded like something that had been written just for me, and indeed, when I started it I thought I was going to love it. And then the first chapter ended, and I started to get that sinking feeling. And then I got about 1/3 of the way and I wanted to rip my hair out. It was a chore to finish it after that, but I forced myself to do it because a) I hate not finishing books, and b) I kept hoping it would get better.
It’s really hard to explain this book to you, which is part of the reason I picked it up. Usually I love really imaginative fiction. The book begins with a horse running away, only he’s no ordinary horse. He’s clearly intelligent, and he loves to run away to Manhattan as apparently it’s his favorite place in the whole world. Clearly adorable, and I loved this part. And then the horse rescues a man named Peter Lake from a gang of mobsters and they become, uh, friends? Is that the right word? From there it got a bit convoluted and started to lose me. Helprin winds in and out of his own story, telling things in bits and pieces. Peter Lake is a burglar whose parents sent him to American shores as a baby in a tiny model boat because they couldn’t get past Ellis Island. He was raised by a group of pseudo-mystical people called the Baymen, exiled at puberty and slowly evolved into a burglar. He’s caught breaking into the home of a wealthy man with a very sick daughter, Beverly, and he and the daughter fall in love. If it sounds like this is a love story, don’t be fooled. From there, it only gets weird and apocalyptic. There’s people dying and coming back, immortal intelligent horses, long time jumps in the narrative, messiahs, the end of the world, a strange curtain of mystical fog constantly surrounding Manhattan, and bridges sometimes lead other places, but only sometimes. It all sounds cool in theory, but mostly it just confused the fuck out of me.
Other stuff that bothered me: Helprin writes with almost no dialogue, just lots and lots and lots of weird description, most of which would be beautiful on their own but when it’s all you’re getting sentence after sentence, page after page, it was just too much. There wasn’t enough character stuff, and too much emphasis on scenery. He spends five pages describing how the fucking wind feels on Beverly’s face, and about five seconds on her relationship with Peter. it’s just like BOOM they’re in love, for no discernible reason. I know that sometimes things just tend to happen in magical realism, but it really got on my nerves. All of his character’s actions started to feel like affectations after a while because I couldn’t really discern their motivation.
Probably the tipping point for my dislike was the narrator. I know I would have enjoyed this book A LOT more if I hadn’t listened to it on audiobook. The only thing narrator Oliver Wyman got right was Peter’s voice because he does a mean Irish accent. The rest of it he read in this airy annoying tone, emphasizing the wrong words, and doing mostly awful voices for other characters (the worst was Beverly, who I completely loathed because he made her sound so stupid and whiny with his line-readings).
I feel like this was never going to be a book I would love, but I also feel like I didn’t give the book a chance because of narrator. Will probably pick it up in hard copy in the future.
uncle!
I can't even bring myself to pick this one up to read more.
I can't even bring myself to pick this one up to read more.
Exceptionally well written novel. The writing style is beautiful and the story contains so many wonderful elements that it was a pleasure to read. The back drop of the story is two different historical periods with the main place as New York, although other areas are featured. I was teary eyed one moment and laughing the next. The narrator's performance added to the entertainment as his different character voices were marvelous. I am not sure what genre this would fit into as it's a Romance, Time-Travel, Fantasy and probably more. Highly recommend this book.
I really enjoy watching good films that have been made from good books. So, having seen a lot of people making a really big deal out of this book being made into a film-- and it having some actors in it that I actually quite like-- I decided to make it a priority to listen to this audio-book next.
I always listen to the full audio-books, not the abridged ones, because it seems sort of like cheating--or being cheat-ed when you don't get to listen to the entire book. However, I tell you, in THIS book's case? I really, really wish I'd found an abridged edition. Perhaps I wouldn't have been so completely annoyed with it by the time I was done.
I thought, because of the sheer number of people who truly seem to adore this book that Helprin must be an extraordinary writer. Perhaps he could be, if he'd lose a bit of his love of the "prettiness" of his very wordy sentences and actually chop his book back a great deal so that it flowed better. I remember listening to many great authors speak and many have said that often-times the sentences you have to cut are those that seem the most "precious", or self-conscious--those you seem most proud of--simply because if they are there for the 'writer',and not because they belong in the book- then they don't belong in the book. I constantly found that to be the case in this book.
I have always disliked it when an author decided they needed to overtly describe a scene or a setting to the point of being ridiculous. Firstly, it's boring. Second, it's pretentious and thirdly, it holds up the actual action of the plot and movement of the characters in whatever they are supposed to do. So, well... this book drove me absolutely crazy.
As I listened to this book I *often* found myself saying out loud, "I get it, it's pretty there... Now, could you PLEASE just get ON with the story??" (I was vacuuming so at least I didn't sound like a nut!) :)
But, I stuck with it. Because... I wanted to find out one thing. The author had made me curious about how he was going to tie up a plot that was "supposedly" the main plot of the book (according to the book jacket) (But with the way the book meanders and jumps from plot to plot and character to character... there were times I really lost track of what was going on. Still, I held onto my curiosity about Peter...) I do not understand what sort of possible metaphors or underlying meaning the author might have been attempting to write into the book, because it was so sodden with hyperbole that the story almost seemed not the point. It seemed he wrote the book merely to have somewhere to wax poetic at long length about the woods and horses and the moon, and to try to think of really outlandish things that could happen that he could somehow just write in as "fine" and have the reader accept it because, well, he wrote it--despite it making absolutely no sense at all.
By the end I was frustrated and annoyed with this book. I kept waiting for the author to have some higher meaning, for the plots to truly tie together... for reading the book to have been a bit worth my time. I felt I'd been wading through a slushy, muddy marsh that had a multitude of redirect signs that took me out of the way of the main road-- but at the end, when I was at last there... FINALLY I'd get the answer I'd waited for to satisfy the curiosity that had caused me to slog through the book... Right???
Spoiler..................................................
If I'd been holding a book, I'd likely have thrown it. (I was listening to my phone and didn't want to break it.) So, some creative cursing was done... for a while.
I won't be reading any more books by Mr. Helprin.
I always listen to the full audio-books, not the abridged ones, because it seems sort of like cheating--or being cheat-ed when you don't get to listen to the entire book. However, I tell you, in THIS book's case? I really, really wish I'd found an abridged edition. Perhaps I wouldn't have been so completely annoyed with it by the time I was done.
I thought, because of the sheer number of people who truly seem to adore this book that Helprin must be an extraordinary writer. Perhaps he could be, if he'd lose a bit of his love of the "prettiness" of his very wordy sentences and actually chop his book back a great deal so that it flowed better. I remember listening to many great authors speak and many have said that often-times the sentences you have to cut are those that seem the most "precious", or self-conscious--those you seem most proud of--simply because if they are there for the 'writer',and not because they belong in the book- then they don't belong in the book. I constantly found that to be the case in this book.
I have always disliked it when an author decided they needed to overtly describe a scene or a setting to the point of being ridiculous. Firstly, it's boring. Second, it's pretentious and thirdly, it holds up the actual action of the plot and movement of the characters in whatever they are supposed to do. So, well... this book drove me absolutely crazy.
As I listened to this book I *often* found myself saying out loud, "I get it, it's pretty there... Now, could you PLEASE just get ON with the story??" (I was vacuuming so at least I didn't sound like a nut!) :)
But, I stuck with it. Because... I wanted to find out one thing. The author had made me curious about how he was going to tie up a plot that was "supposedly" the main plot of the book (according to the book jacket) (But with the way the book meanders and jumps from plot to plot and character to character... there were times I really lost track of what was going on. Still, I held onto my curiosity about Peter...) I do not understand what sort of possible metaphors or underlying meaning the author might have been attempting to write into the book, because it was so sodden with hyperbole that the story almost seemed not the point. It seemed he wrote the book merely to have somewhere to wax poetic at long length about the woods and horses and the moon, and to try to think of really outlandish things that could happen that he could somehow just write in as "fine" and have the reader accept it because, well, he wrote it--despite it making absolutely no sense at all.
Spoiler
Because, seriously, the ENTIRE scene where Peter meets Beverly... REALLY?? Back in the days when women used to have to be followed about by chaperone, *this* woman--who is ILL--is left ALONE (She's female and ILL, remember) she's accosted by a middle-aged man alone INSIDE her house who ADMITS he is there as a burglar so her response is... to decide to sleep with him and fall in love with him. Because, of course that what she'd do. (NOT!!) (Still not mentioning that NO ONE WOULD HAVE LEFT HER THERE ANYWAY!!!By the end I was frustrated and annoyed with this book. I kept waiting for the author to have some higher meaning, for the plots to truly tie together... for reading the book to have been a bit worth my time. I felt I'd been wading through a slushy, muddy marsh that had a multitude of redirect signs that took me out of the way of the main road-- but at the end, when I was at last there... FINALLY I'd get the answer I'd waited for to satisfy the curiosity that had caused me to slog through the book... Right???
Spoiler..................................................
Spoiler
NOPE!! And then, he refused to tell me- us, the readers. With some stupid sentence about the "reader using their imagination" or some such rot. (I don't have it here right now, and don't intend to look for one ever again to check, that's close enough.)If I'd been holding a book, I'd likely have thrown it. (I was listening to my phone and didn't want to break it.) So, some creative cursing was done... for a while.
I won't be reading any more books by Mr. Helprin.
I picked it for my bookclub choice and I'm not sorry. Because of that, I'm going to refrain from mentioning it here until after we've read it. Bookclub members, if you're reading this - please don't do any research on it before you read it. Just trust me, ok? I'm actually going to go buy a copy that is not dribbling pages out at random onto my living room floor, to be assured that I have it twenty years from now.