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A review by literarycrushes
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
2.0
Winter’s Tale is a slow burn of a book with ambitions almost as aggressive as its physical size, which comes in at 748 pages. This is a work of magical realism, that’s been described as the first “capitalist fantasy,” set in a mythical turn-of-the-century New York. We’re introduced to Peter Lake, an Irish orphan who is taken in by a group of ruffians before being turned back out into the city at twelve, where he’s taken in by a well-known street gang, the Short Tails and their fiercely eccentric leader, Pearly Soames. After more than a few wrong turns, he ends up fending for himself, adopting a life of petty street crime, which, more often than not, lands him in trouble.
Until he meets Athansor, his literal white horse, who turns out to have magical abilities; with him by his side, Peter gains stealth that allows him to up his burglary skills. These eventually lead him to the ethereal Beverly; a young woman dying of consumption who was left alone in her family’s mansion on the very night Peter plans to rob it. From there, the two embark on a strangely moving romance, and the novel breaks off into many, many more side plots.
This is a book that’s been on my shelf for years, so I was excited to read it over the holidays. While I don’t normally go for magical realism, I was sold on the NYC-centric plot and the Colin Firth film adaptation. Still, I had a difficult time getting into it. I almost put it down many times until I hit the page 200 mark, when things picked up for me (it says a lot about a book to be still so unsure if I liked it while knowing there were another 500 pages…). The plot was incredibly complicated – which says a lot about the author’s talent, but it felt over-written, as though he were more interested in proving he was a good writer rather than actually being one. Like, there was probably a solid hundred pages just dedicated to describing what the snow looks like in New York City. But, who knows, I could easily see how someone else might come into this book and absolutely love it.
Until he meets Athansor, his literal white horse, who turns out to have magical abilities; with him by his side, Peter gains stealth that allows him to up his burglary skills. These eventually lead him to the ethereal Beverly; a young woman dying of consumption who was left alone in her family’s mansion on the very night Peter plans to rob it. From there, the two embark on a strangely moving romance, and the novel breaks off into many, many more side plots.
This is a book that’s been on my shelf for years, so I was excited to read it over the holidays. While I don’t normally go for magical realism, I was sold on the NYC-centric plot and the Colin Firth film adaptation. Still, I had a difficult time getting into it. I almost put it down many times until I hit the page 200 mark, when things picked up for me (it says a lot about a book to be still so unsure if I liked it while knowing there were another 500 pages…). The plot was incredibly complicated – which says a lot about the author’s talent, but it felt over-written, as though he were more interested in proving he was a good writer rather than actually being one. Like, there was probably a solid hundred pages just dedicated to describing what the snow looks like in New York City. But, who knows, I could easily see how someone else might come into this book and absolutely love it.