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heathermt1923 's review for:
Winter's Tale
by Mark Helprin
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.