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cucumberedpickle's review against another edition
1.0
No. Horrible…especially the namesake story. Overhyped for reasons unknown.
srogan88's review against another edition
1.0
Read 91 pages and 6 stories before giving up. I hated everything. When I read Helprin's A Winter's Tale,'I found his writing to be absolutely beautiful but perhaps a little unfocused. I had high hopes that the short story format would be magical for him. Letting his style shine while forcing a bit of focus. Instead, I felt like the loveliness was gone and the focus still lacked.
So I gave up at the midpoint. Life's too short.
So I gave up at the midpoint. Life's too short.
piratequeen's review against another edition
4.0
Mark Helprin is one of my favorite writers, and this collection doesn't disappoint. It's not his strongest ("The Pacific" has his best short stories, in my opinion), but the writing is still beautiful. His stories all have a dream-like quality to them; the settings don't feel entirely of this earth, as though there's something almost supernatural happening just out of your line of sight. His characters see the world in terms of beauty; everything is bold colors, haunting music, shifting fog, and crystalline stars. Nothing is boring to them; they are surrounded always by the extraordinary, the beautiful, the breathtaking. I wish I lived in a world of Mark Helprin's creation. Even as his characters suffer through warfare and devastating loss, they seem to rise above it, and let it make them better people than they were before.
rusalka's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent and highly varied collection of short stories. My favorite was probably the first, the dreamy, feverish Alpine adventure(ish) "The Schreuderspitze." "Tamar" and "A Vermont Tale" are my other top picks. I had not read anything by Helprin before; his style and perspective is very masculine and Continental, in a way - but not a bad way. A lot of the stories focus on wartime and interwar Europe (and the Middle East, but from a very European perspective), and feature heroism, self-denial, and fortitude both physical and mental that guides through intense trial to redemption. Reminds me a little bit of Hemingway, but tempered and wiser.
jessica503's review
4.0
Oh, I just love Helprin. Of course I loved this book. I'd give it 5 stars, but I don't think I'll ever like short stories that much, regardless of who write them.
piratequeen's review
4.0
Mark Helprin is one of my favorite writers, and this collection doesn't disappoint. It's not his strongest ("The Pacific" has his best short stories, in my opinion), but the writing is still beautiful. His stories all have a dream-like quality to them; the settings don't feel entirely of this earth, as though there's something almost supernatural happening just out of your line of sight. His characters see the world in terms of beauty; everything is bold colors, haunting music, shifting fog, and crystalline stars. Nothing is boring to them; they are surrounded always by the extraordinary, the beautiful, the breathtaking. I wish I lived in a world of Mark Helprin's creation. Even as his characters suffer through warfare and devastating loss, they seem to rise above it, and let it make them better people than they were before.
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