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in Sunlight and in Shadow
An epic love story set in post-war New York, by the best-selling author of Winter's Tale.In the summer of 1946, New York City pulses with energy. Harry Copeland, a World War II veteran, has returned home to run the family business. Yet his life is upended by a single encounter with the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale, as each falls for the other in an instant. They pursue one another in a romance played out in Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine’s choice of Harry over her longtime fiancé endangers Harry’s livelihood and threatens his life. In the end, Harry must summon the strength of his wartime experience to fight for Catherine, and risk everything. “In its storytelling heft, its moral rectitude, the solemn magnificence of its writing and the splendor of its hymns to New York City, [In Sunlight and in Shadow] is a spiritual pendant to Winter’s Tale and every bit as extraordinary...Even the most stubbornly resistant readers will soon be disarmed by the nobility of the novel’s sentiments and seduced by the pure music of its prose.”—Wall Street Journal
725 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
536 people are currently reading
5,754 people want to read
About the author
Mark Helprin
41books1,594followersMark Helprin belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend. As many have observed and as Time Magazine has phrased it, “He lights his own way.� His three collections of short stories (A Dove of the East and Other Stories, Ellis Island and Other Stories, and The Pacific and Other Stories), six novels (Refiner's Fire, Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir From Antproof Case, Freddy and Fredericka and, In Sunlight and In Shadow), and three children's books (Swan Lake, A City in Winter, and The Veil of Snows, all illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg), speak eloquently for themselves and are remarkable throughout for the sustained beauty and power of their language.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 850 reviews
September 7, 2013
Imagine, if you will, a blue whale. But not just any blue whale. This whale lived longer than any blue whale has ever lived. This great beast was swimming the oceans when Teddy Roosevelt was president. It lived through wars and depressions and the explosive growth of technology, and somehow managed to evade whalers and orcas to become the largest animal ever to have been on this great blue ball we call home.
And it died. Not of some tragedy or violence, but of old age; it was time.
And this whale washed up on a remote beach somewhere on the continent of Australia. So remote that no news copters flew overhead. No crowd of people gathered to gawk and cry and mourn.
Even the predators that roam those waters and shallows—the terrifying great whites and the ancient armored crocodiles—did not come to partake in this bounteous feast. Perhaps out of deference, sensing that this creature was no ordinary denizen of the deep, but something much, much more.
But its stature and status could not stop the work of those forces that work on all of us when our time on Earth is done. And as the blistering heat of Australia’s summer sun shone down, and the internal gases pushed out, this blue whale expanded, like a magnificent and horrible fleshy hot air balloon, until the skin could scarcely contain it.
That whale was still not as bloated as this book.
And it died. Not of some tragedy or violence, but of old age; it was time.
And this whale washed up on a remote beach somewhere on the continent of Australia. So remote that no news copters flew overhead. No crowd of people gathered to gawk and cry and mourn.
Even the predators that roam those waters and shallows—the terrifying great whites and the ancient armored crocodiles—did not come to partake in this bounteous feast. Perhaps out of deference, sensing that this creature was no ordinary denizen of the deep, but something much, much more.
But its stature and status could not stop the work of those forces that work on all of us when our time on Earth is done. And as the blistering heat of Australia’s summer sun shone down, and the internal gases pushed out, this blue whale expanded, like a magnificent and horrible fleshy hot air balloon, until the skin could scarcely contain it.
That whale was still not as bloated as this book.
October 30, 2012
I see from the other reviews that people either love or hate this book. I bought the stupid thing based on one rave review, and I hated it. Let me explain why by pretending that I'm the author and I want to get across the simple idea, "She hated it."
Deep from within her soul, somewhere where the light never touched, just as the light never touched the dark roiling depths of the ocean near Normandy, where so many men were lost, lost forever in the dirt and sand, sand like the irritation beneath her eyelids when she first awoke, restless from a dream in which she wasted $18 on a book based on an A grade in "People," her stomach churning like the water in Battery Park during a storm surge, she hated this book.
Deep from within her soul, somewhere where the light never touched, just as the light never touched the dark roiling depths of the ocean near Normandy, where so many men were lost, lost forever in the dirt and sand, sand like the irritation beneath her eyelids when she first awoke, restless from a dream in which she wasted $18 on a book based on an A grade in "People," her stomach churning like the water in Battery Park during a storm surge, she hated this book.
July 2, 2012
It is no secret to my friends that Mark Helprin is among my favorite authors. I realize my admiration for his work makes me suspect, less than objective. Neverthless I must share my initial reflections regarding his new novel. How can I put this? When I finished In Sunlight and in Shadow I was overwhelmed with the sheer power of the novel. I had the story in my head for several days, I actually couldn't get it out of my head. I have not been moved by any novel in such a manner for many, many years. I was reminded of Benjamin De Mott's extraordinary review of Helprin's Winter's Tale in the New York Times Book Review back in 1982: "I find myself nervous, to a degree I don’t recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance.� My less articulate comment to two of my colleagues at work was "I may never read another novel." Clearly an overstatement, although it has been a week and I haven't started a new novel, a small record for me. In my estimation A Soldier of the Great War is Helprin's masterpiece with Winter's Tale a close second. Now, in the first flush, I am considering the new book to be the equal of those two. I plan to test that judgement with re-reads of both Soldier and the new one sometime soon.
Helprin takes the reader back to NewYork City in 1947 in the first flush of the great post-World War Two Boom. The protagonists are Harry Copeland, a returned veteran, Jewish, and now the owner of his late father's leather goods factory and Catherine Everett Hale, aspiring actress and singer and the daughter of immense Wall Street wealth. Their romance and the kindling of their love forms part of the story but as in any other novel by Helprin there are many more back stories all of which are strands in the magical web of the book. As remarkable as the people is Helprin's loving and detailed evocation of the New York City. Here he becomes the undisputed bard of the city. I know of no one who so lovingly details all the streets and parks, buildings and rivers than Helprin. He clearly loves this city and that great affection shines through on every page.
For a taste of this novel go to the author's web site and read the excerpt from the Prologue that's available there.
No? It begins like this:
Helprin takes the reader back to NewYork City in 1947 in the first flush of the great post-World War Two Boom. The protagonists are Harry Copeland, a returned veteran, Jewish, and now the owner of his late father's leather goods factory and Catherine Everett Hale, aspiring actress and singer and the daughter of immense Wall Street wealth. Their romance and the kindling of their love forms part of the story but as in any other novel by Helprin there are many more back stories all of which are strands in the magical web of the book. As remarkable as the people is Helprin's loving and detailed evocation of the New York City. Here he becomes the undisputed bard of the city. I know of no one who so lovingly details all the streets and parks, buildings and rivers than Helprin. He clearly loves this city and that great affection shines through on every page.
For a taste of this novel go to the author's web site and read the excerpt from the Prologue that's available there.
No? It begins like this:
If you were a spirit, and could fly and alight as you wished, and time did not bind you, and patience and love were all you knew, then you might rise to enter an open window high above the park, in the New York of almost a lifetime ago, early in November of 1947.
March 30, 2013
I spent five weeks with In Sunlight and In Shadow. Five monogamous weeks, which is quite a committed literary relationship for this fast-in, fast-out reader. Yes, life circumstances wore me out and distracted me, so that some days the amount of pages read would be imperceptible as measured on a standard ruler, but never once did I contemplate setting Helprin aside for a less complicated time or supplementing my evening reading with a less demanding literary companion.
I was enthralled by this lush, resplendent novel. Each and every one of its 705 pages.
The story itself is quite simple. In fact, the old-fashioned romance and adventure style makes this a curl-up-on-the-sofa read. But the beauty of Helprin’s prose, its rococo grandeur and meandering lyricism, make it worthy of lingering. Take your time to reread certain passages and be astonished anew by Helprin’s particular magic.
Harry Copeland is in his early 30s and recently returned to Manhattan from the European Theatre of WWII. Harry is alone in the world, an only child, his parents deceased, and he is taking his time to heal from the emotional wounds and physical trauma sustained as a special ops paratrooper. What can’t wait, however, is the luxury leather goods business he inherited from his father.
The business is being newly bilked by the Mafia. Not the perfunctorily threatening Jewish Mafia to which Copeland Leather and every other manufacturing business in the building has been accustomed to paying off. This is the deeply serious and deadly Mob. Which has singled out Copeland Leather for extortion.
One day, while traveling on the Staten Island ferry, Harry spies a beautiful woman in white and falls immediately and hopelessly in love. She is Catherine Thomas Hale, of the Manhattan and Hamptons Hales, an heiress and Broadway ingénue. Catherine is strong, moral and wise. She meets Harry’s love and passion measure for measure. They are not really star-crossed lovers: Harry is a Harvard man, after all. But he is a Jew and he is broke - facts he and Catherine cannot long hide from her family.
But this is more than a love story. It is a tale of a city at a golden moment in time, when the memories of two wars and the Depression remain vivid enough to fuse gratitude and caution, yet cannot stop the momentum of power and wealth that rocket New York inexorably forward as the steward of all things modern.
It is a thriller, where thugs with Thompsons are pitted against combat heroes with iron nerves; it is a war set piece, where a band of brothers plummet into the mists and mud of western France; it is a window into a world of grand society, where money can buy everything but peace of mind and integrity.
It is true, Helprin uses six words when two would suffice, but never once does the sprawl, the grandiloquence, feel like an attempt to dazzle or distract. The gorgeous language wraps, not traps, the reader; the descriptions of characters and settings put the reader fully inside a moment, most of which you want never to end.
In Sunlight and In Shadow is romanticism at its soft-focus, golden-hued, unapologetic best. Characters are a little more beautiful, dangerous, erudite and talented than real life could afford; food is more delicious, sunsets more vivid, memories more precise and comforting, It is a novel for pleasure-seekers, for readers ready to sink into a web spun by a story-teller. Logic and relativism need not apply; only good guys, bad guys, truth and beauty allowed.
I was enthralled by this lush, resplendent novel. Each and every one of its 705 pages.
The story itself is quite simple. In fact, the old-fashioned romance and adventure style makes this a curl-up-on-the-sofa read. But the beauty of Helprin’s prose, its rococo grandeur and meandering lyricism, make it worthy of lingering. Take your time to reread certain passages and be astonished anew by Helprin’s particular magic.
Harry Copeland is in his early 30s and recently returned to Manhattan from the European Theatre of WWII. Harry is alone in the world, an only child, his parents deceased, and he is taking his time to heal from the emotional wounds and physical trauma sustained as a special ops paratrooper. What can’t wait, however, is the luxury leather goods business he inherited from his father.
The business is being newly bilked by the Mafia. Not the perfunctorily threatening Jewish Mafia to which Copeland Leather and every other manufacturing business in the building has been accustomed to paying off. This is the deeply serious and deadly Mob. Which has singled out Copeland Leather for extortion.
One day, while traveling on the Staten Island ferry, Harry spies a beautiful woman in white and falls immediately and hopelessly in love. She is Catherine Thomas Hale, of the Manhattan and Hamptons Hales, an heiress and Broadway ingénue. Catherine is strong, moral and wise. She meets Harry’s love and passion measure for measure. They are not really star-crossed lovers: Harry is a Harvard man, after all. But he is a Jew and he is broke - facts he and Catherine cannot long hide from her family.
But this is more than a love story. It is a tale of a city at a golden moment in time, when the memories of two wars and the Depression remain vivid enough to fuse gratitude and caution, yet cannot stop the momentum of power and wealth that rocket New York inexorably forward as the steward of all things modern.
It is a thriller, where thugs with Thompsons are pitted against combat heroes with iron nerves; it is a war set piece, where a band of brothers plummet into the mists and mud of western France; it is a window into a world of grand society, where money can buy everything but peace of mind and integrity.
It is true, Helprin uses six words when two would suffice, but never once does the sprawl, the grandiloquence, feel like an attempt to dazzle or distract. The gorgeous language wraps, not traps, the reader; the descriptions of characters and settings put the reader fully inside a moment, most of which you want never to end.
In Sunlight and In Shadow is romanticism at its soft-focus, golden-hued, unapologetic best. Characters are a little more beautiful, dangerous, erudite and talented than real life could afford; food is more delicious, sunsets more vivid, memories more precise and comforting, It is a novel for pleasure-seekers, for readers ready to sink into a web spun by a story-teller. Logic and relativism need not apply; only good guys, bad guys, truth and beauty allowed.
August 13, 2012
The editor should be shot.
Oh, wait -- maybe there was no editor.
Helprin has long been one of my favorite authors. I read this book in an Advance Review Copy. All 700 pages.
I hated it. The language, which the cover describes as "lyrical," is pretentious and overblown.
I get the title. Do you have to include the words "sun," "light," or "shadow" on every page? Almost every paragraph?
The kernel of the story is engaging. This would have been a pretty good 250 page book. At 700 pages, with diversions that should have been left on the cutting-room floor, it was torture.
I'm sure the hype surrounding this book will be intense. Just read the Prologue. If you like the language, you may like the book. If you think it reads like a freshman Creative Writing paper, you might want to skip it.
So long a wait for such a disappointment....
Oh, wait -- maybe there was no editor.
Helprin has long been one of my favorite authors. I read this book in an Advance Review Copy. All 700 pages.
I hated it. The language, which the cover describes as "lyrical," is pretentious and overblown.
I get the title. Do you have to include the words "sun," "light," or "shadow" on every page? Almost every paragraph?
The kernel of the story is engaging. This would have been a pretty good 250 page book. At 700 pages, with diversions that should have been left on the cutting-room floor, it was torture.
I'm sure the hype surrounding this book will be intense. Just read the Prologue. If you like the language, you may like the book. If you think it reads like a freshman Creative Writing paper, you might want to skip it.
So long a wait for such a disappointment....
June 3, 2022
Audio #142
I went from never hearing of Helprin to having 4 or 5 of his novels. He was a recommendation from my ladies� book club. He reminds me of Jeffrey Archer without the bitterness and betrayal. His word choices are quite eloquent. Very smoothing narrative even though what is occurring may be quite sorrowful
I went from never hearing of Helprin to having 4 or 5 of his novels. He was a recommendation from my ladies� book club. He reminds me of Jeffrey Archer without the bitterness and betrayal. His word choices are quite eloquent. Very smoothing narrative even though what is occurring may be quite sorrowful
October 2, 2012
Retribution: A Love Story
There are many wonderful things about “In Sunlight and in Shadow�. Helprin’s writing reminds me of novelists from an earlier age where things were more leisurely and people had time and patience to read longer books. The Victorian Age? Helprin indulges in digressions which might sound potentially boring but almost every time he makes a stunning observation. This isn’t a book you’ll want to skim. Let yourself ease into its pace and you’ll be rewarded in my opinion. The depictions of New York and its inhabitants are especially vivid though it’s a city that has been described so times by so many authors. There’s a magical quality to Helprin’s ‘take� that’s just shy of fanciful.
Harry Copeland, a returning World War II vet, is seeking retribution for a wrong that has been done to him, though, thankfully, retribution is not the main theme of the book. At heart this is a love story between two people from different walks of New York life, Catherine comes from society’s elite, Harry, is middle class from people who fought to attain that status. And he’s Jewish which in 1946 still carries a stigma. He’s also fought in a war to help annihilate this prejudice and free the people who suffer/suffered because of it. He’s not willing to stifle his standards. When he and Catherine get together it’s electric and immediate. The rest of the world seems to falls away yet they’re eventually forced to deal with things like the fiancé she’s jilted and the failing business Harry’s inherited from his father.
Overall this is a workmanlike novel. I’m not meaning any disparagement by that. Helprin uses his plot to hang lots of insights and beautiful vignettes upon and there are parts that soar as when he describes Catherine rehearsing for the musical she’s going to be in or Harry’s experiences as a pathfinder in World War II. Another part that stood out concerned how two out of towners experience New York for the first time. Helprin doesn’t neglect any part of the City; he takes you from working class to high class life and everything in between. There are layers to New York that create its lushness just as there are layers to “In Sunlight and in Shadow�; all of them necessary, many of them dazzling.
There is an over idealization of women with an emphasis, of course, on young women as the ideal. There are characters that show up for what seems like no reason other than they were pretty girls. The love story dips into extremes at times and just misses being caricature. In my opinion what Helprin does well he does so, so well he can’t be faulted for the less than perfect parts. I was reading an Advanced Reading Copy so perhaps some of this was edited out by time it went to print.
This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publishers.
3.5/5 stars
There are many wonderful things about “In Sunlight and in Shadow�. Helprin’s writing reminds me of novelists from an earlier age where things were more leisurely and people had time and patience to read longer books. The Victorian Age? Helprin indulges in digressions which might sound potentially boring but almost every time he makes a stunning observation. This isn’t a book you’ll want to skim. Let yourself ease into its pace and you’ll be rewarded in my opinion. The depictions of New York and its inhabitants are especially vivid though it’s a city that has been described so times by so many authors. There’s a magical quality to Helprin’s ‘take� that’s just shy of fanciful.
Harry Copeland, a returning World War II vet, is seeking retribution for a wrong that has been done to him, though, thankfully, retribution is not the main theme of the book. At heart this is a love story between two people from different walks of New York life, Catherine comes from society’s elite, Harry, is middle class from people who fought to attain that status. And he’s Jewish which in 1946 still carries a stigma. He’s also fought in a war to help annihilate this prejudice and free the people who suffer/suffered because of it. He’s not willing to stifle his standards. When he and Catherine get together it’s electric and immediate. The rest of the world seems to falls away yet they’re eventually forced to deal with things like the fiancé she’s jilted and the failing business Harry’s inherited from his father.
Overall this is a workmanlike novel. I’m not meaning any disparagement by that. Helprin uses his plot to hang lots of insights and beautiful vignettes upon and there are parts that soar as when he describes Catherine rehearsing for the musical she’s going to be in or Harry’s experiences as a pathfinder in World War II. Another part that stood out concerned how two out of towners experience New York for the first time. Helprin doesn’t neglect any part of the City; he takes you from working class to high class life and everything in between. There are layers to New York that create its lushness just as there are layers to “In Sunlight and in Shadow�; all of them necessary, many of them dazzling.
There is an over idealization of women with an emphasis, of course, on young women as the ideal. There are characters that show up for what seems like no reason other than they were pretty girls. The love story dips into extremes at times and just misses being caricature. In my opinion what Helprin does well he does so, so well he can’t be faulted for the less than perfect parts. I was reading an Advanced Reading Copy so perhaps some of this was edited out by time it went to print.
This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publishers.
3.5/5 stars
November 4, 2012
Helprin has written some of my favorite books, and nobody can write as beautifully, as lyrically as he can. I form more images in my mind from him than most others. And this is a book about falling in love, it's been a long time since I fell in love and reading this I am transported back.
BUT so far I'm annoyed by all the speechifying in what's supposed to be dialog. We'll see what happens.
11/3 - god I can't believe I'm giving a Helprin 3 stars. But 3 stars means I LIKED IT! I've been pondering the rating for a few weeks now. I mean, the writing is so spectacular, and in this case the flashbacks to WW2 are spectacular. The descriptions are crystalline. Helprin has returned to this, as in SOAGW. It's like he's combined the WW2 aspect of that book with the 2 main characters of Winter's Tale but here ISAIS they never really breathe and live for me. The are Ideal so I couldn't get wrapped up in the love story and that's a shame because the love is the heartbeat of the book.
Still Helprin always reminds me of my own ideals, which is to live in the present moment, participate in the beauty of life and the universe, and bring that beauty to others.
BUT so far I'm annoyed by all the speechifying in what's supposed to be dialog. We'll see what happens.
11/3 - god I can't believe I'm giving a Helprin 3 stars. But 3 stars means I LIKED IT! I've been pondering the rating for a few weeks now. I mean, the writing is so spectacular, and in this case the flashbacks to WW2 are spectacular. The descriptions are crystalline. Helprin has returned to this, as in SOAGW. It's like he's combined the WW2 aspect of that book with the 2 main characters of Winter's Tale but here ISAIS they never really breathe and live for me. The are Ideal so I couldn't get wrapped up in the love story and that's a shame because the love is the heartbeat of the book.
Still Helprin always reminds me of my own ideals, which is to live in the present moment, participate in the beauty of life and the universe, and bring that beauty to others.
May 10, 2013
This book made me angry.
There, I said it.
I loved Helprin, especially A Soldier of the Great War. I tolerated two-dimensional female characters and wandering plots just for the opportunity to feed on his magnificent prose. There was no modern peer for his descriptions of the Alps or gilded age New York City.
But then came Freddy and Fredericka, which I barely tolerated, and then this cumbersome lump of dross.
I cannot begin to express what an astonishingly bad book this is. Characters so wooden I wanted to carve them into bat and knock myself out just for the sense of relief. A plot that would have been hackneyed in 1946. And sheer, unadulterated boringness.
But the most offensive part is that his great lyrical gift has turned into absurdity. His characters are incapable of expressing emotion, or even making us give a s**t whether the exist or die in a hail of gunfire. This is a fatal flaw in a love story, where at the very minimum we should expect characters capable of evoking and expressing emotion through their own thoughts, speech and deeds. As a result, Helprin vainly tries to make their preposterous love believable by ceaseless over-narration.
Here's a tip: If you have to write the phrase "They loved as no others had loved before", you have lost. If you write it every 2-3 pages, you make us want to commit some sort of ceremonial act of self-violence simply for the escape.
Show us, don't tell us.
I am done with Helprin.
There, I said it.
I loved Helprin, especially A Soldier of the Great War. I tolerated two-dimensional female characters and wandering plots just for the opportunity to feed on his magnificent prose. There was no modern peer for his descriptions of the Alps or gilded age New York City.
But then came Freddy and Fredericka, which I barely tolerated, and then this cumbersome lump of dross.
I cannot begin to express what an astonishingly bad book this is. Characters so wooden I wanted to carve them into bat and knock myself out just for the sense of relief. A plot that would have been hackneyed in 1946. And sheer, unadulterated boringness.
But the most offensive part is that his great lyrical gift has turned into absurdity. His characters are incapable of expressing emotion, or even making us give a s**t whether the exist or die in a hail of gunfire. This is a fatal flaw in a love story, where at the very minimum we should expect characters capable of evoking and expressing emotion through their own thoughts, speech and deeds. As a result, Helprin vainly tries to make their preposterous love believable by ceaseless over-narration.
Here's a tip: If you have to write the phrase "They loved as no others had loved before", you have lost. If you write it every 2-3 pages, you make us want to commit some sort of ceremonial act of self-violence simply for the escape.
Show us, don't tell us.
I am done with Helprin.
August 21, 2022
In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin was such a beautiful, lyrical, and heartfelt epic novel that I embraced from the beginning and hated to see it end. I want to read it again and once more immerse myself in all of the beautiful prose as well as very important themes of good versus evil. And that is what I love most about Mark Helprin's books. This book celebrates not only the beautiful and magical love story between Harry Copeland and Catherine Thomas Hale, but it is also a gorgeous love story about the city of Manhattan and New York City and its environs in mid-century New York after World War II.
Harry and Catherine met on board of the Staten Island Ferry and had an immediate and mutual attraction although they were from different worlds; Catherine an heiress from the WASP elite, a Bryn Mawr graduate, and Harry, a struggling businessman trying to maintain his father's leather goods company, Copeland Leather, in spite of all odds. Harry was an elite paratrooper who fought behind enemy lines in Europe. Their immediate bonding and attraction plays out in a romance amid Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, Wall Street financiers, and the corruption of gangsters. But at its heart is the love between Harry and Catherine, as well as her beautiful parents, Billy and Evelyn, an integral part of this magnificent tale.
But alas, Harry is still haunted by the horrors of the war in Europe in his service with the 82nd Airborne, and this is one of the underlying themes of this beautiful love story; war and peace, love and hate, heroism and cowardice. As the romance unfolds between these unlikely but destined lovers, I was swept away with their lives as they unfolded before us with such beauty described as only Mark Helprin can do so elegantly.
"To be in New York on a beautiful day is to feel razor-close to being in love. Trees flower into brilliant clouds that drape across the parks, plumes of smoke and steam rise into the blue or curl away on the wind, and disparate actions each the object of intense concentration run together in a fume of color, motion, and sound, with the charm of a first dance or a first kiss."
"At first they saw the flash of the towers as distant flares or out-of-place pieces of the sun, but as they sped without cease and when they arose on ramps and viaducts and were elevated into the air as effortlessly as aircraft, a gilded city appeared as the sunshine dropped its rays from the top cliffs of Manhattan to the depth of its streets."
Harry and Catherine met on board of the Staten Island Ferry and had an immediate and mutual attraction although they were from different worlds; Catherine an heiress from the WASP elite, a Bryn Mawr graduate, and Harry, a struggling businessman trying to maintain his father's leather goods company, Copeland Leather, in spite of all odds. Harry was an elite paratrooper who fought behind enemy lines in Europe. Their immediate bonding and attraction plays out in a romance amid Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, Wall Street financiers, and the corruption of gangsters. But at its heart is the love between Harry and Catherine, as well as her beautiful parents, Billy and Evelyn, an integral part of this magnificent tale.
But alas, Harry is still haunted by the horrors of the war in Europe in his service with the 82nd Airborne, and this is one of the underlying themes of this beautiful love story; war and peace, love and hate, heroism and cowardice. As the romance unfolds between these unlikely but destined lovers, I was swept away with their lives as they unfolded before us with such beauty described as only Mark Helprin can do so elegantly.
"Death leads either to the absence of light or to its omnipresence. One summer night in France, Harry Copeland lay in the brush, dying of a wound he could not see. For a few hours, the morphia had cleared away the frictions and regrets of existence, relaxing him to whatever might come, closing his accounts, dotting every i, crossing every t, winding every clock, locking every door, packing every case, and forgiving every sin. The only regret that stayed and that morphia could not errase was that he had yet to love or be loved as he had always hoped. All the majestical lights, airy and bright, the floating orbs, the effulgent stars, were lonely things and would not suffice. And here it was, deep in a luminous, moonlit forest, that he wished for an angel, for as they lay dying all soldiers whereve they may be need an angel to carry them up."
"And now, for the sake of the ones who hadn't come home, Harry lived the dream they had dreamed--of ordinary things, of pedestrian routine, of the small and quiet actions that to the less experienced might seem worthless or oppressive, but that were secretly laden with the beauty tha graced the quiet lives of those who had not returned could not live. Here were the dead in the hearts of the living, to who the iving spoke without speaking, saying: Here is a bustling restaurant and its whited sound; here are the lights of the theater; the halls of the Metropolitan; the afternoon sun deepening the fall colors of the park; the wind rising on the avenues, blowing dust in your eye; and here is a woman, her touch warm, her breathing deep and delicate, her skin fragrant, her patience loving."
"In the garden, illuminated by morning sun that reached back into a deeply shadowed place, was a bronze relief, almost life size, a memorial of the First World War. A soldier, his life gone, his rifle and bayonet cast aside, lay motionless in the arms of an angel. Winged and strong, she looked upward, undisturbed, about to rise. For soldiers need angels to comfort them and to carry them up, and if they are lucky, the angels will be sent to them early, so that in one form or another they will know them for all the days of their lives."
March 9, 2013
I'm unsure of how to write a review for In Sunlight and in Shadow since it is, for lack of a better testimony, the book I've been searching for. Without question, it is now my favorite book and I have no doubt it will continue to be no matter how many more novels I read in my lifetime. It is more beautifully written than I could have imagined and I'm in true mourning for the characters of which I can no longer spend my days with. Even though I'm positive the pages will crease and fade over time due to my countless re-reads I'll never be able to experience this flawless story for the first time ever again and because I recognized that early on (around page 20) I read as slowly as possible, for the first time in my life, because I couldn't bear for it to end. I could go on and on about the qualities that should be appreciated and recognized by everyone (exquisite imagery, soul wrenching prose and countless lessons of life that you can't help but draw from, hours and even days after you've finished the final word), but I won't because I can't do them justice and mostly, while incredible, those aren't the reasons why I will follow every word of Helprin's forever. In Sunlight is the best book I've ever read because I understood every rhythm, felt every word, laughed at every joke, marveled at all its genius and cried for every heart-breakingly beautiful moment, of which there are too many to count. Helprin's story and its vivid characters spoke to me as no other novel, and honestly most of my real-life events ever have. To put it simply Helprin is a master, I will always be a follower and as anyone's favorite book should achieve, In Sunlight and in Shadow awakened my soul and changed me entirely.
December 17, 2012
In conclusion: Unfortunately, I cannot whole-heartedly recommend this book to everyone, even though I loved parts. Some of the writing is beautiful and thought provoking, but there are verbose, sentimental, overly dramatic and sophomoric passages too. Whole chapters could/should have been completely eliminated. This book needs editing. The dialog IS often funny, but neither these clever lines nor the wonderful depiction of NYC save the book.
Every single woman mentioned is idealized. The two primary characters are beautiful, diligent, hard-working, moral, humble ....in other words simply too good to be true! The plot-line is sometimes long and drawn out, e.g. the war chapters, while the end is abrupt, unsatisfying and sappy. So much more could have been done with the ending.
I personally have no complaints with the narration of the audiobook by Sean Runnette, although my guess is that others will find it extremely slow. I thought the dialogs were in fact improved by the narrator's ability to catch the personality and class of the character speaking. It is the author's theorizing that is slow and ponderous, and this is not the narrator's fault.
So, how many stars? Parts I loved! I really did.....but then other parts were so overblown and never-ending. I am giving it three stars and recommending it to those readers who love NYC and philosophical tracts.
Through chapter 37:
I am not thrilled by the chapters and chapters and chapters depicting warfare in Europe. They go on and on and on. Boring and terrible, dreary rather than exciting or interesting! Another minus - women are ridiculously idealized. So the book is not perfect. Maybe if I complain it will change? I hope so.
and.....
Even the lines have lost their beauty and become, in my ears, pretentious:
She was no different from Harry, when before the jump, hands in the same position, head bent or upraised, he leaned into his reserve shoot, as the plane rose and fell in the wind, and he too not quite prayed, asking for nothing. From Catherine and from Harry came absolute surrender, and to Catherine and Harry came the deepest strength. The current was strong and magnetic, the exchange electric and warm as everything came alight from what the blind of spirit took for darkness. Catherine felt her heart swell with strength and love�.
Both Harry, in his parachuting from airplanes and fighting in battles, and Catherine fighting her own battles against injustice, are being compared and united in a common struggle. Both pray. For me the tone has become sophistic. The philosophical reasoning has gone over-the-top. This is rapidly going downhill. The magical prose has become soppy gibberish. Disappointing....but if I praise the start of a book and it then goes down-hill, I must report that too. Maybe I simply lack the religious faith necessary to appreciate these lines? However it is not just these religious lines that are sophomoric. Some of the prose glorifying music, beauty, love, goodness, honor are quite simply over-blown.
Then I listened some more and the scene shifts back to NYC....the description of NYC is wonderful ..... and then humor is thrown in. Catherine asks Harry for a definition of a nudnick! Harry's definition will surely make you laugh. Very funny! And she, Catherine of course, reads a digit wrong in her cookbook. With little cooking experience, given all the servants in her very wealthy family, she hasn't a clue how to cook a chicken. She puts it in the oven for 6 hours. You've got to laugh!
So I guess my views are mixed on this book. Parts I absolutely love; other parts make me moan with frustration and yawn with boredom. I would have appreciated better editing.
***
Through Chapter 23:
I haven't quite made up my mind about the quality of the audiobook's narration. I love the tone of Catherine when she is REALLY mad. This lady, when truly annoyed, spits out lines that are scathing! The narrator's tone is spot-on! I like the s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s of the narration, but will others? I need it to give me time to think about what is being said. However there is often a peculiar upward lilt that is strange.
This book may annoy those readers who just want to follow a plot. This is a book where the author leads you off in all different tangents, taking quick perceptive psychological mini-trips. I just finished chapter 23 - "The Settee". It covers everything from Franklin D. Roosevelt, sensual love, acquiescence versus combat, religious discrimination to pride and the need to be financially independent. That is a wide range of subjects, isn't it? You will either love the writing or you will hate it. I love it. I was going to start copying the lines here, but I would have to copy the entire chapter. It went from one wonderful line to another. From one topic to another.The humor is perfect. Catherine's father knew FDR. There is the funniest story - tickling and being dumped into water.... The story is all imaginary. It is both hilarious and has a great message; one little story rolled into the rest of the chapter's events. Remember this chapter when you read the book and tell me if you too love it. Oh yes, I forgot to mention another funny line, about the color of Roosevelt's advisors. Read the book!
Some people may be annoyed by the philosophical meanderings. I am trying to warn off those readers who KNOW they prefer plot driven books; all the diversions will most probably drive them bonkers!
***
In Chapter 9:
I am loving this, and I am kind of surprised. It starts with a ridiculous infatuation. But even if it is ridiculous, I like it! It is the writing. I actually believe that Helprin has captured how crazy people act when they fall head over heels in love.
There is humor. And it is my kind of humor.
Everyone knows of the "Roaring Twenties", and why the behavior of this period was a consequence of having survived WW1. Why is there so little literature about how people behaved after WW2.....other than books on the travails of the Jewish emigrates? This book seems to delve into this very topic. Hasn't there occurred a similar change in behavior and view on life after WW2? These people, those who survived the war, are the age of my parents. Fascinating to see why my parents thought as they did, looked on life as they did and made the choices they did.
Read this. Harry is back from the war. He is crazy for Catherine and Catherine for him, but she is about to be engaged to another. That future had been planned ten years ago. Do you simply accept past plans? What was good then is not now:
…sea, air and sun having evaporized everything but memory. He stopped in front of a black shoe missing its laces. It was preserved well enough that with some softening and polish it might have been back in service. The heel was hardly worn. He thought that had things gone differently it might have been his shoe and that someone else might have been standing in front of it as a grave, grasping the lapels of his tuxedo in a tight grip and pressing a bottle of champagne close to his thigh, as if he were the one who was dead, he spoke to himself, the one who was living, urgently charging him with life. He let the breeze force its way into his lungs and looked ahead at his objective�.. (chapter 9)
After living through the war, would one just accept that which has been planned? Wouldn’t one go after what one really wants? At least you’d give it a hard fight!
Another book that takes place in NYC right after the war. I am loving the feel of the city, since I lived there in the fifties. I am right back there, in a place I recognize. I feel the city, its odors and sights and the whole "NYC atmosphere"!
****
After only one chapter:
He had long known that to see a woman like this across the floor in receptions or in gatherings is as arresting as a full moon was arising within the walls of the room, but this was more arresting yet. And what was a beautiful woman? For him beauty was something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It was both what creates love and what love creates. For Harry, because his sight was clear, the world was filled with beautiful women whether the world called them that or not. (chapter one)
I am already sucked in by the language. Mark Helprin can certainly write! I love lines that make me think. By writing down these lines, listening carefully to the narrator, Sean Runnette, of the audiobook, I realize that reading a paper book gives you more time to ponder, to let your thoughts fly where they will, but Runnette’s narration is very slow. With excellent prose that is a plus!
Every single woman mentioned is idealized. The two primary characters are beautiful, diligent, hard-working, moral, humble ....in other words simply too good to be true! The plot-line is sometimes long and drawn out, e.g. the war chapters, while the end is abrupt, unsatisfying and sappy. So much more could have been done with the ending.
I personally have no complaints with the narration of the audiobook by Sean Runnette, although my guess is that others will find it extremely slow. I thought the dialogs were in fact improved by the narrator's ability to catch the personality and class of the character speaking. It is the author's theorizing that is slow and ponderous, and this is not the narrator's fault.
So, how many stars? Parts I loved! I really did.....but then other parts were so overblown and never-ending. I am giving it three stars and recommending it to those readers who love NYC and philosophical tracts.
Through chapter 37:
I am not thrilled by the chapters and chapters and chapters depicting warfare in Europe. They go on and on and on. Boring and terrible, dreary rather than exciting or interesting! Another minus - women are ridiculously idealized. So the book is not perfect. Maybe if I complain it will change? I hope so.
and.....
Even the lines have lost their beauty and become, in my ears, pretentious:
She was no different from Harry, when before the jump, hands in the same position, head bent or upraised, he leaned into his reserve shoot, as the plane rose and fell in the wind, and he too not quite prayed, asking for nothing. From Catherine and from Harry came absolute surrender, and to Catherine and Harry came the deepest strength. The current was strong and magnetic, the exchange electric and warm as everything came alight from what the blind of spirit took for darkness. Catherine felt her heart swell with strength and love�.
Both Harry, in his parachuting from airplanes and fighting in battles, and Catherine fighting her own battles against injustice, are being compared and united in a common struggle. Both pray. For me the tone has become sophistic. The philosophical reasoning has gone over-the-top. This is rapidly going downhill. The magical prose has become soppy gibberish. Disappointing....but if I praise the start of a book and it then goes down-hill, I must report that too. Maybe I simply lack the religious faith necessary to appreciate these lines? However it is not just these religious lines that are sophomoric. Some of the prose glorifying music, beauty, love, goodness, honor are quite simply over-blown.
Then I listened some more and the scene shifts back to NYC....the description of NYC is wonderful ..... and then humor is thrown in. Catherine asks Harry for a definition of a nudnick! Harry's definition will surely make you laugh. Very funny! And she, Catherine of course, reads a digit wrong in her cookbook. With little cooking experience, given all the servants in her very wealthy family, she hasn't a clue how to cook a chicken. She puts it in the oven for 6 hours. You've got to laugh!
So I guess my views are mixed on this book. Parts I absolutely love; other parts make me moan with frustration and yawn with boredom. I would have appreciated better editing.
***
Through Chapter 23:
I haven't quite made up my mind about the quality of the audiobook's narration. I love the tone of Catherine when she is REALLY mad. This lady, when truly annoyed, spits out lines that are scathing! The narrator's tone is spot-on! I like the s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s of the narration, but will others? I need it to give me time to think about what is being said. However there is often a peculiar upward lilt that is strange.
This book may annoy those readers who just want to follow a plot. This is a book where the author leads you off in all different tangents, taking quick perceptive psychological mini-trips. I just finished chapter 23 - "The Settee". It covers everything from Franklin D. Roosevelt, sensual love, acquiescence versus combat, religious discrimination to pride and the need to be financially independent. That is a wide range of subjects, isn't it? You will either love the writing or you will hate it. I love it. I was going to start copying the lines here, but I would have to copy the entire chapter. It went from one wonderful line to another. From one topic to another.The humor is perfect. Catherine's father knew FDR. There is the funniest story - tickling and being dumped into water.... The story is all imaginary. It is both hilarious and has a great message; one little story rolled into the rest of the chapter's events. Remember this chapter when you read the book and tell me if you too love it. Oh yes, I forgot to mention another funny line, about the color of Roosevelt's advisors. Read the book!
Some people may be annoyed by the philosophical meanderings. I am trying to warn off those readers who KNOW they prefer plot driven books; all the diversions will most probably drive them bonkers!
***
In Chapter 9:
I am loving this, and I am kind of surprised. It starts with a ridiculous infatuation. But even if it is ridiculous, I like it! It is the writing. I actually believe that Helprin has captured how crazy people act when they fall head over heels in love.
There is humor. And it is my kind of humor.
Everyone knows of the "Roaring Twenties", and why the behavior of this period was a consequence of having survived WW1. Why is there so little literature about how people behaved after WW2.....other than books on the travails of the Jewish emigrates? This book seems to delve into this very topic. Hasn't there occurred a similar change in behavior and view on life after WW2? These people, those who survived the war, are the age of my parents. Fascinating to see why my parents thought as they did, looked on life as they did and made the choices they did.
Read this. Harry is back from the war. He is crazy for Catherine and Catherine for him, but she is about to be engaged to another. That future had been planned ten years ago. Do you simply accept past plans? What was good then is not now:
…sea, air and sun having evaporized everything but memory. He stopped in front of a black shoe missing its laces. It was preserved well enough that with some softening and polish it might have been back in service. The heel was hardly worn. He thought that had things gone differently it might have been his shoe and that someone else might have been standing in front of it as a grave, grasping the lapels of his tuxedo in a tight grip and pressing a bottle of champagne close to his thigh, as if he were the one who was dead, he spoke to himself, the one who was living, urgently charging him with life. He let the breeze force its way into his lungs and looked ahead at his objective�.. (chapter 9)
After living through the war, would one just accept that which has been planned? Wouldn’t one go after what one really wants? At least you’d give it a hard fight!
Another book that takes place in NYC right after the war. I am loving the feel of the city, since I lived there in the fifties. I am right back there, in a place I recognize. I feel the city, its odors and sights and the whole "NYC atmosphere"!
****
After only one chapter:
He had long known that to see a woman like this across the floor in receptions or in gatherings is as arresting as a full moon was arising within the walls of the room, but this was more arresting yet. And what was a beautiful woman? For him beauty was something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It was both what creates love and what love creates. For Harry, because his sight was clear, the world was filled with beautiful women whether the world called them that or not. (chapter one)
I am already sucked in by the language. Mark Helprin can certainly write! I love lines that make me think. By writing down these lines, listening carefully to the narrator, Sean Runnette, of the audiobook, I realize that reading a paper book gives you more time to ponder, to let your thoughts fly where they will, but Runnette’s narration is very slow. With excellent prose that is a plus!
August 1, 2016
Lush, lyrical, verbose, bedazzled, vajazzled, sun-dappled, silken-nippled, polyp.encrusted, mucilaginous, ridiculous, smarmy, cornball, gaseous, putrid, death-inducing.
If this book were a panty-liner, it would be the biggest, softest, whitest, most absorbent panty-liner ever. If it were a leather handbag, it would be the softest, or possibly the hardest, depending on what was intended, most luxurious leather handbag ever stitched. If it were a wall, it would be the highest, thickest, grandest, most expensive, most turgid, most beautiful wall ever built. If this book were a hairstyle, it would be the most stylish, most caramel-colored, waftiest, silkiest, classiest, most breathtaking hairstyle ever coiffed.
If this book were a corpse you would make sure to puncture the gut and chest cavity quickly so it wouldn't explode inside the open casket, killing the priest, deacon, lector, and acolytes and sickening everyone in the first 30 pews of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Holy Apostolic Church.
September 20, 2014
The first time I sunk into one of Mark Helprin’s huge, atmospheric novels I wondered how it was this man was not better known. But he is well known as a maker of epics, I just didn’t know it then. That first brush with Helprin was which so enraptured me I thought I’d never read another that was as good. Later, a professor friend of mine told me he “couldn’t get through it.� Older now, I wonder if it isn’t the fantastical quality of the romance, or the steel thread of Ayn Rand-like self-reliance that runs through his work that put my friend off.
Helprin, having attended Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, has had access to the lives of the monied classes and unashamedly uses that access to create lavish sets for his novels. His insights into this exotic world waltz us off into dreaming how it would be if…which might actually be more fun than actually living in that constrained and rule-bound world. To be reassuringly safe from the vicissitudes of having enough to eat or clothes to wear, this is the stuff of romance. I am less susceptible to those fictions now, but I can see its attraction for many.
This is another impossibly romantic tale centered on a great love between a New York Brahmin and a New York Jew. We are treated to the lush scenery of a minutely-observed post-War New York City, and to the problems encountered by small businessmen trying to keep their businesses viable while paying out protection monies on a weekly basis. The outlines of Helprin’s characters are carefully and completely drawn, and are then filled in with great swathes of color and fabric and angled light—that sunshine and shadow comes at us from every direction.
What I noticed and celebrate again is Helprin’s unequalled ability to observe and then relate the way the water in the wake of a ship, for instance, curls and moves and vaporizes, indicating current, direction, wind speed, tide levels…so much is caught in his web of words we can taste the salt spray. It leaves me gasping.
Helprin takes his time over this novel, moving back and forth in time, as expansive on the state of play in the garment district of New York as on the honeyed beaches of Long Island. There is a brilliant set-piece in which the aspirant for the hand of the heiress meets her parents for the first time. They eat dinner at the beach house on Long Island and the conversation is so elliptical and constantly shifting that one feels the danger in the meanings behind the words like hidden shoals upon which one might be wrecked.
The cast of characters is large, but completely manageable in Helprin’s hands. We get Manhattan: the theatre district, the garment and financial districts, the shops, the bustle, the 1950’s coffee shops with menus and waitresses. It is a brilliant reconstruction that must tempt more than one filmmaker to try it on. But it is too large a thing for a film; others have already tried to make films of Helprin’s novels (A Winter’s Tale), and they must realize it is too…hopelessly romantic for our hard-bitten and seen-it-all audiences today.
I listened to the audio of this novel, and it went on for days while I worked on endless tasks. The inflectionless voice of the narrator, Sean Runnette, was not appealing at first, but this is a long story, and perhaps his style is what was needed. It was a little like being read to by one’s parent at bedtime instead of by a professional reader. Not what one would have chosen, but it becomes familiar. Helprin is still writing epics and he has a unique viewpoint that gives us romance like no one else.
Helprin, having attended Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, has had access to the lives of the monied classes and unashamedly uses that access to create lavish sets for his novels. His insights into this exotic world waltz us off into dreaming how it would be if…which might actually be more fun than actually living in that constrained and rule-bound world. To be reassuringly safe from the vicissitudes of having enough to eat or clothes to wear, this is the stuff of romance. I am less susceptible to those fictions now, but I can see its attraction for many.
This is another impossibly romantic tale centered on a great love between a New York Brahmin and a New York Jew. We are treated to the lush scenery of a minutely-observed post-War New York City, and to the problems encountered by small businessmen trying to keep their businesses viable while paying out protection monies on a weekly basis. The outlines of Helprin’s characters are carefully and completely drawn, and are then filled in with great swathes of color and fabric and angled light—that sunshine and shadow comes at us from every direction.
What I noticed and celebrate again is Helprin’s unequalled ability to observe and then relate the way the water in the wake of a ship, for instance, curls and moves and vaporizes, indicating current, direction, wind speed, tide levels…so much is caught in his web of words we can taste the salt spray. It leaves me gasping.
Helprin takes his time over this novel, moving back and forth in time, as expansive on the state of play in the garment district of New York as on the honeyed beaches of Long Island. There is a brilliant set-piece in which the aspirant for the hand of the heiress meets her parents for the first time. They eat dinner at the beach house on Long Island and the conversation is so elliptical and constantly shifting that one feels the danger in the meanings behind the words like hidden shoals upon which one might be wrecked.
The cast of characters is large, but completely manageable in Helprin’s hands. We get Manhattan: the theatre district, the garment and financial districts, the shops, the bustle, the 1950’s coffee shops with menus and waitresses. It is a brilliant reconstruction that must tempt more than one filmmaker to try it on. But it is too large a thing for a film; others have already tried to make films of Helprin’s novels (A Winter’s Tale), and they must realize it is too…hopelessly romantic for our hard-bitten and seen-it-all audiences today.
I listened to the audio of this novel, and it went on for days while I worked on endless tasks. The inflectionless voice of the narrator, Sean Runnette, was not appealing at first, but this is a long story, and perhaps his style is what was needed. It was a little like being read to by one’s parent at bedtime instead of by a professional reader. Not what one would have chosen, but it becomes familiar. Helprin is still writing epics and he has a unique viewpoint that gives us romance like no one else.
January 9, 2013
I love Mark Helprin. "Winter's Tale" is probably my favorite book of all time - at least in the top 5 - and I love "Memoirs of an Ant Proof Case." If you haven't read Mark Helprin, please pick up one of those books. Do not pick up this one as your first experience with him, since it may be your last.
It was not a terrible book, but I was very disappointed. It was a love story, but my main problem with it was that he told us about how much these two were in love, rather than show us. There was a lot of explanatory text - a lot - talking about how he loved her because of the way she buttoned her shirt or because of the curl of hair on her neck or because the world made him love her so, but I didn't really feel their love, didn't see it.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't really recommend this book. There were some good scenes, and I thought the ending was handled well, which is why I gave it 3 stars, but I wouldn't read it again.
If you like WW2 fiction (there's just a little of that in this book and they are the best scenes), I would recommend Helprin's other book "Soldier in the Great War." That was a great novel.
It was not a terrible book, but I was very disappointed. It was a love story, but my main problem with it was that he told us about how much these two were in love, rather than show us. There was a lot of explanatory text - a lot - talking about how he loved her because of the way she buttoned her shirt or because of the curl of hair on her neck or because the world made him love her so, but I didn't really feel their love, didn't see it.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't really recommend this book. There were some good scenes, and I thought the ending was handled well, which is why I gave it 3 stars, but I wouldn't read it again.
If you like WW2 fiction (there's just a little of that in this book and they are the best scenes), I would recommend Helprin's other book "Soldier in the Great War." That was a great novel.
August 24, 2012
Mark Helprin is a genus with the English language. I also believe Helprin is ambitious with the subject matter he tackles. In his latest novel Helprin really tries (and comes as close as I think you can get) to put on a page what it is like to fall head over heals in love. The emotions, sights, smells, tastes, and over all energy involved with a romantic infatuation danced off the page for me. The journey that followed, of a life filled with courage, honesty, and sacrifice made me want to be a better person. If you want a quick page turner that does not require much attention then this is not the book for you. If you want to read literature, to glimpse into the heart and soul of this brilliant author and be taken on a journey that will be a part of your own heart then you will enjoy every page. I disagree strongly with the negative reviews. Especially the negative mention of A Soldier of the Great War (ASOTGW) which (along with Winter's Tale) I consider Helprin's masterpiece. ASOTGW changed my life. In fact, when I retired from the US military after serving 20 years I took my family overseas to Italy to see a painting hanging in a Venice museum. It was that kind of book. And Helprin is that kind of author.
May 12, 2013
Profoundly disappointing.
Mark Helprin wrote a novel about New York that actually changed my life: Winter's Tale is such a gorgeous fairy tale, and such a compelling portrait of New York City, that I carried its images and its story with me when I moved to New York a few years after first reading it.
I've read all of Helprin's other novels, and I do love his way with description, but none of the others stuck with me the way Winter's Tale did.
So when I picked up In Sunlight and in Shadow, I thought that Helprin was going to give me another dose of what I loved before: a magical story that brings out the magic and beauty of NYC. Instead I plowed through a ponderous tome over-stuffed with his fabulous descriptions, but light on story and character description.
Some pet peeves: the main male character, Harry, is a paragon. What in writing classes is sometimes referred to as a "Mary Sue", the character that is perfect in every way and can do no wrong. He runs six miles, sometimes twelve on some days, and swims a mile on others; he loves the city; he is tall and strong; he was a paratrooper; he's determined to save the business he inherited (even though he shows little interest in or aptitude for the business itself, and indeed rarely goes to work); he believes that wrongdoers should be punished. Oh yeah, and he's in love with a beautiful woman. The main proof of his character seems to be that he works out every day. Because being disciplined and athletic means you are also trustworthy and of good moral character, I guess.
Catherine, the female protagonist, is also a paragon, though slightly more interesting than Harry, in that she sometimes blurts something out or makes a foolish choice. But mostly she is beautiful, and the outer beauty of a woman represents the beauty of her inner soul, Helprin tells us again and again. I think one-tenth of this book was comprised of elegies to the things that women represent. Especially beautiful women, who are of course the only ones worth talking about. It got old quickly. I really prefer books in which the female characters do things. Catherine does one thing--she's an actress--and she does it quite well, we're told, but Helprin compares her courage in stepping onstage after a bad review to the courage of soldiers going into battle, which I felt was stretching it to the point of insult. (Oh, she also swims regularly, so clearly has a sterling character. And she's an heiress.)
The story ends abruptly after an interminable march of description and flashback and more description and the cliched juxtaposition of happy scenes with scary scenes and we learn how things turn out for the two main characters, but never hear a word about all of the rest of the people who have been touched by the story. And in a 700 page novel, there are plenty of people in the story to be concerned about.
Most of them more interesting and more realistic than the protagonists.
Mark Helprin wrote a novel about New York that actually changed my life: Winter's Tale is such a gorgeous fairy tale, and such a compelling portrait of New York City, that I carried its images and its story with me when I moved to New York a few years after first reading it.
I've read all of Helprin's other novels, and I do love his way with description, but none of the others stuck with me the way Winter's Tale did.
So when I picked up In Sunlight and in Shadow, I thought that Helprin was going to give me another dose of what I loved before: a magical story that brings out the magic and beauty of NYC. Instead I plowed through a ponderous tome over-stuffed with his fabulous descriptions, but light on story and character description.
Some pet peeves: the main male character, Harry, is a paragon. What in writing classes is sometimes referred to as a "Mary Sue", the character that is perfect in every way and can do no wrong. He runs six miles, sometimes twelve on some days, and swims a mile on others; he loves the city; he is tall and strong; he was a paratrooper; he's determined to save the business he inherited (even though he shows little interest in or aptitude for the business itself, and indeed rarely goes to work); he believes that wrongdoers should be punished. Oh yeah, and he's in love with a beautiful woman. The main proof of his character seems to be that he works out every day. Because being disciplined and athletic means you are also trustworthy and of good moral character, I guess.
Catherine, the female protagonist, is also a paragon, though slightly more interesting than Harry, in that she sometimes blurts something out or makes a foolish choice. But mostly she is beautiful, and the outer beauty of a woman represents the beauty of her inner soul, Helprin tells us again and again. I think one-tenth of this book was comprised of elegies to the things that women represent. Especially beautiful women, who are of course the only ones worth talking about. It got old quickly. I really prefer books in which the female characters do things. Catherine does one thing--she's an actress--and she does it quite well, we're told, but Helprin compares her courage in stepping onstage after a bad review to the courage of soldiers going into battle, which I felt was stretching it to the point of insult. (Oh, she also swims regularly, so clearly has a sterling character. And she's an heiress.)
The story ends abruptly after an interminable march of description and flashback and more description and the cliched juxtaposition of happy scenes with scary scenes and we learn how things turn out for the two main characters, but never hear a word about all of the rest of the people who have been touched by the story. And in a 700 page novel, there are plenty of people in the story to be concerned about.
Most of them more interesting and more realistic than the protagonists.
March 5, 2013
I am a sentimental fool.
This book pulled every string, pushed every button, appealed to every emotion I have. The writing I normally enjoy is plain and straightforward and simple in the unadorned sense. What Helprin does here takes writing on a completely different level, perhaps not a higher plane, but separate. His words are musical, rising and falling, swelling with crescendos and whispering pianissimo. He paints murals with broad sweeping stroke and lush colors that make you feel if you just stretched our your arm, you could touch and taste and smell it all.
This story is a love story, but not a romance. Or maybe it is a romance, but in the old fashioned sense when romance meant more than just heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods and Hallmark greeting cards. It has all the heart pounding and sweaty palms of initial glances and nervous hellos and first kisses. It has the passion and strength and endurance of true love that will last the erosion of time.
It is a tribute to WWII, to all veterans of all war, the men and women who give their lives, their futures, their dreams for something bigger. It painted a picture of those who survived and what shaped them into the parents of the Baby Boomer generation.
Lastly, it is a love story to New York City. I have been to many great cities all over the world. I have seen many Wonders of the World, modern and ancient, natural and man-made. And nothing seems to inspire the love that NYC inspires. And having been several times to NYC, Helprin's depictions of this glorious place gives me the sense of actually standing in the center of Grand Central Station or Broadway despite his city being several decades older (younger?).
The reason for the loss of a star is that with all this wonderful (truly beautiful writing), he loses his way in the storytelling. He goes on one too many tangents, takes one too many detours. This doesn't ruin the story as a whole, but the ending, which should have swelled into a magnificent rush the way it feels when you finally get to have that first kiss with the (wo)man of your dreams after weeks of patient hand holding, was slightly anticlimactic because it took just a smidge too long to get there.
But I am so glad I read this. The world is full of cynics and critics and people who are looking for ways to tear you and it down. It is refreshing to read something that reminds me why I want to wake up every day.
...“in the end the whole world is nothing more than what you remember and what you love, things fleeting and indefensible, light and beautiful, that were not supposed to last, echoing forever.�
This book pulled every string, pushed every button, appealed to every emotion I have. The writing I normally enjoy is plain and straightforward and simple in the unadorned sense. What Helprin does here takes writing on a completely different level, perhaps not a higher plane, but separate. His words are musical, rising and falling, swelling with crescendos and whispering pianissimo. He paints murals with broad sweeping stroke and lush colors that make you feel if you just stretched our your arm, you could touch and taste and smell it all.
This story is a love story, but not a romance. Or maybe it is a romance, but in the old fashioned sense when romance meant more than just heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods and Hallmark greeting cards. It has all the heart pounding and sweaty palms of initial glances and nervous hellos and first kisses. It has the passion and strength and endurance of true love that will last the erosion of time.
It is a tribute to WWII, to all veterans of all war, the men and women who give their lives, their futures, their dreams for something bigger. It painted a picture of those who survived and what shaped them into the parents of the Baby Boomer generation.
Lastly, it is a love story to New York City. I have been to many great cities all over the world. I have seen many Wonders of the World, modern and ancient, natural and man-made. And nothing seems to inspire the love that NYC inspires. And having been several times to NYC, Helprin's depictions of this glorious place gives me the sense of actually standing in the center of Grand Central Station or Broadway despite his city being several decades older (younger?).
The reason for the loss of a star is that with all this wonderful (truly beautiful writing), he loses his way in the storytelling. He goes on one too many tangents, takes one too many detours. This doesn't ruin the story as a whole, but the ending, which should have swelled into a magnificent rush the way it feels when you finally get to have that first kiss with the (wo)man of your dreams after weeks of patient hand holding, was slightly anticlimactic because it took just a smidge too long to get there.
But I am so glad I read this. The world is full of cynics and critics and people who are looking for ways to tear you and it down. It is refreshing to read something that reminds me why I want to wake up every day.
...“in the end the whole world is nothing more than what you remember and what you love, things fleeting and indefensible, light and beautiful, that were not supposed to last, echoing forever.�
January 22, 2013
This is the end for me and Mark Helprin. This book is so utterly boring that I was able to skip a 100 page flashback and not have it impact the telling of the tale in any way. The two main characters, swept up in an unlikely and unrealistic love, are so redolent of their own smugness that by the end you loathe both of them. They are physically perfect, morally perfect, sexually perfect, socially perfect, intellectually perfect, militarily perfect....it goes on and on. The saccharine love story is so languorous and serpentine that you often lose interest only to be reminded later that A-HA! Everything is still excellent and going exactly according to plan and everyone is in love and harmony. Two small subplots never resolve, which would have been the least reward Helprin could have given us for forcing us to wade through 700 pages of purple prose and melodrama. The dialogue was ridiculous. It might be possible for people to have such elevated conversations occasionally, but in this book, everyone speaks from the highest plains of academic philosophy all the time. No one can just have a root beer float and a tortilla, they have to have the most poetic tortilla ever imagined followed by a root beer float which serves as an analogy of the love man must have for nature to be a truly whole spiritual being or some such tripe.
The female protagonists discovery that she is Jewish, and not in fact the Uber-WASP she was raised as, is handled in such a RIDICULOUS manner as to be laughable.
Also, after 500 pages of their moral one-upmanship, the plot resolves by committing an act that is not only grievously immoral, but is justified as the "only way" to live an honorable life. What's worse, the "protagonist" drags his army buddies into it, and a massacre ensues, which the men on the "moral high ground" feel absolutely justified in committing. It is an appalling lack of cohesion in the barely there fabric of the story.
I actually feel insulted by this book, and regret reading it. I feel that Helprin has become lazy, and diguises his lack of interest in story telling with such burdensome scene setting that it isn't even a novel, but more of a travelogue.
I give up.
The female protagonists discovery that she is Jewish, and not in fact the Uber-WASP she was raised as, is handled in such a RIDICULOUS manner as to be laughable.
Also, after 500 pages of their moral one-upmanship, the plot resolves by committing an act that is not only grievously immoral, but is justified as the "only way" to live an honorable life. What's worse, the "protagonist" drags his army buddies into it, and a massacre ensues, which the men on the "moral high ground" feel absolutely justified in committing. It is an appalling lack of cohesion in the barely there fabric of the story.
I actually feel insulted by this book, and regret reading it. I feel that Helprin has become lazy, and diguises his lack of interest in story telling with such burdensome scene setting that it isn't even a novel, but more of a travelogue.
I give up.
April 13, 2013
I am close to the end of this tiring book, finally. I could not just put it on the shelf and stop reading it so I am going to finish it. I was expecting a lot more plot in stead of the over-reaching, never ending scene descriptions that just go on and on. And beside that, the love story is too much and not enough reality about how love evolves, has it's ups and downs and turns. Not very believable. I want to finish the story to see what happens to the bad guys.
Continued...Well I did finish this book this morning and it ended like I expected (will not divulge here). If you like a book that takes a long time to through and you like metaphor, simile and all that, then you may enjoy this book. I felt that the over the top descriptions to take away from good story telling. I also felt the love story was just too much. Maybe I'm a pragmatist when it comes to love, although I love deeply especially when it comes to my children. I modified my rating a bit from a one star to a two start because I felt compelled to finish the book to see how it ended. So in that regard the author kept me engaged at least to find out the end.
Continued...Well I did finish this book this morning and it ended like I expected (will not divulge here). If you like a book that takes a long time to through and you like metaphor, simile and all that, then you may enjoy this book. I felt that the over the top descriptions to take away from good story telling. I also felt the love story was just too much. Maybe I'm a pragmatist when it comes to love, although I love deeply especially when it comes to my children. I modified my rating a bit from a one star to a two start because I felt compelled to finish the book to see how it ended. So in that regard the author kept me engaged at least to find out the end.
November 14, 2012
I read this one because it sounded to me a bit like his Winter's Tale, the only other Helprin novel I've read and which I became completely immersed in and loved. Like Winter's Tale, this novel celebrates New York City, this time at a somewhat later period. The time is 1946 and the main character, Harry Copeland, is a well-to-do Jewish ex-soldier who's come home to run his father's leather goods business, his father having died while he was at war. (I couldn't help but note that Swede Levov, Roth's main character in American Pastorale, was also a business man in leather goods.) Harry, now in his early 30ies, had been in the special forces and fought his way from Africa to Sicily and eventually to the Normandy invasion, undertaking hazardous missions alone or with an elite team, been seriously wounded and had not exactly expected to survive. In 1942 in NY, he had two significant problems: his want of someone to love and be loved by and the need to save his father's business from the "protection rackets" which were largely unchecked by police or government in the city. And those two are related in ways that define who Harry Copeland is and how he will live his life.
Visiting an aunt (his only relative and she not a blood relative) on Staten Island, he sees a woman on the ferry and falls in love with her before he even meets her. Their love story is the at the core of the novel and Helprin writes some downright purple prose in its praise, verging sometimes on sentimentality, but for me right on the edge with the focus of the horrendous need of human beings to love, especially after living through the nightmare of the century. The woman is Catherine, only daughter of a rich financier, engaged to marry the son of another rich financier; a recent graduate of Bryn Mawr she has been trained as a singer and is in a promising Broadway show. She too was stuck by seeing Harry on the ferry.
Harry's business is threatened with ruinous protection payments, orders of magnitude higher than those his father had been paying or any other tenants of the same building are currently paying, enough to ruin the business within the year. There is no hope of help from authority. The mob rules in this kind of thing. But Harry's sense of honor and dignity and what he owes to his father's memory cannot just close the business down and leave, and eventually it becomes clear that the mob is taking orders from the ex-fiance who has also bribed the critics to ignore Catherine's talent and imply that her rich father bought her a Broadway debut.
Love and honor denominate this novel and speak loudly to a generation that's learned to accept that neither is really possible in a world where return on investment trumps all. I recommend it highly. It's a moving story, a page turner and a tear jerker, but nonetheless honest.
I rate it a 10 though I doubt the critics do. I think it might be time to read other Helprin novels since these this one and Winter's Tale have captivated me so completely. And if you're in love with New York, this one isn't to be missed. I'm not--London is the city I dream about--but I still respond to Helprin's obvious love.
Visiting an aunt (his only relative and she not a blood relative) on Staten Island, he sees a woman on the ferry and falls in love with her before he even meets her. Their love story is the at the core of the novel and Helprin writes some downright purple prose in its praise, verging sometimes on sentimentality, but for me right on the edge with the focus of the horrendous need of human beings to love, especially after living through the nightmare of the century. The woman is Catherine, only daughter of a rich financier, engaged to marry the son of another rich financier; a recent graduate of Bryn Mawr she has been trained as a singer and is in a promising Broadway show. She too was stuck by seeing Harry on the ferry.
Harry's business is threatened with ruinous protection payments, orders of magnitude higher than those his father had been paying or any other tenants of the same building are currently paying, enough to ruin the business within the year. There is no hope of help from authority. The mob rules in this kind of thing. But Harry's sense of honor and dignity and what he owes to his father's memory cannot just close the business down and leave, and eventually it becomes clear that the mob is taking orders from the ex-fiance who has also bribed the critics to ignore Catherine's talent and imply that her rich father bought her a Broadway debut.
Love and honor denominate this novel and speak loudly to a generation that's learned to accept that neither is really possible in a world where return on investment trumps all. I recommend it highly. It's a moving story, a page turner and a tear jerker, but nonetheless honest.
I rate it a 10 though I doubt the critics do. I think it might be time to read other Helprin novels since these this one and Winter's Tale have captivated me so completely. And if you're in love with New York, this one isn't to be missed. I'm not--London is the city I dream about--but I still respond to Helprin's obvious love.
December 24, 2012
In Sunlight and in Shadow is a long and bloated book. Ostensibly a story about love and honor it is also a tale of New York in post-WWII New York. Perhaps it was Helprin's intent to capture the energy of the time when the country felt ripe with possibility and New York City seemed the powerful energy behind it all. But it didn't work for me. In many ways, it reminded me of the work of Ayn Rand. All is idealized--love, women, valor, the city and "Our Hero" of course. Most unbelievable to me is the love/rapture/passion/adoration of the two main characters--Harry and Catherine--who meet on the Staten Island Ferry and instantly fall in love. Helprin tells us over and over again how perfect their union is, as if we won't believe him unless he pounds it into our heads. And we won't believe it because nothing is that perfect. It's a lazy way to write. Rather than Sunlight and Shadow, the issues and viewpoints in this book are presented in black and white. Helprin lectures and moralizes through long, wordy paragraphs and stilted dialogue. In one of the oddest scenes, when Catherine--an heiress who suddenly learns that she was descended from a Jewish grandmother through her mother and was therefore Jewish herself, declares her instant affiliation with all Jews "who came before me, who lived in hovels in Eastern Europe ... Whatever I had thought about them before, now they're with me forever." Despite Helprin telling us that his characters are deepening and ripening, we don't see it in their actions, which, if the characters had truly been examining their souls, might have taken a different course.
So why two stars and not one or none? Although Helprin's brilliance as a writer is obscured in this book, it is not totally invisible. While sentences that run for paragraphs or are as empty as describing the wind in Main as "... fresh in a way that only thr northland can be," Helprin also describes the same air as better able carry oxygen "... than air in the city, perhaps because it came off the ocean and was free of the many millions of rooms, tunnels, and cul-de-sac that in the city captured, tortured, and enslaved it."
The scenes of war, when Harry is reliving his past, are the better ones in the book. At the launch of a mission we see, "With a thousand planes behind it, the C-47 faced an empty runway and the wind." When Harry parachutes from a plane, "All was darkness, speed, and wind as he was washe clean, emptied out, and reset." There are many such sentences that pull you from the drudgery of the book but not enough, and even these serve the idealized messages Helprin is trying to convey.
This is not Winter's Tale or A Soldier of the Great War. Read those instead.
So why two stars and not one or none? Although Helprin's brilliance as a writer is obscured in this book, it is not totally invisible. While sentences that run for paragraphs or are as empty as describing the wind in Main as "... fresh in a way that only thr northland can be," Helprin also describes the same air as better able carry oxygen "... than air in the city, perhaps because it came off the ocean and was free of the many millions of rooms, tunnels, and cul-de-sac that in the city captured, tortured, and enslaved it."
The scenes of war, when Harry is reliving his past, are the better ones in the book. At the launch of a mission we see, "With a thousand planes behind it, the C-47 faced an empty runway and the wind." When Harry parachutes from a plane, "All was darkness, speed, and wind as he was washe clean, emptied out, and reset." There are many such sentences that pull you from the drudgery of the book but not enough, and even these serve the idealized messages Helprin is trying to convey.
This is not Winter's Tale or A Soldier of the Great War. Read those instead.
November 13, 2017
World War II is over and won and Harry Copeland has returned to civilian life and home in New York City. Although Harry is seeking some time off to decompress, the family business is faltering and demands his attention so he half-heartedly “involves� himself in the repair. But what soon resurrects/captures Harry is the “sighting� of a young woman � Catherine - on the Staten Island Ferry � with whom Harry immediately falls head over heels in love. The two soon meet and their lives together begin. And what a tale it is for this is a romance for the ages � Romeo and Juliet a cartoon compared to this love story.
And that’s both the good news and bad news of this very hefty novel. For nothing in this hallowed couple’s lives is trivial � at least in the telling � which at times makes for some tedious, and even saccharine sweet, reading. If you are a Helprin fan � and I am � all you’d expect and hope for is here in this novel � sweeping breath taking descriptions � particularly of NYC - poignant observations on the human condition, a little history, subtle humor, somewhat quirky characters and the author’s “artistic� use of the English language. Unfortunately, this last bit gets out of control too often � the prose becoming syrupy and purple � detracting from both the story and the characters � even if the reader takes into account this book is a 700+ page fairy tale.
That being said In Sunlight and In Shadow is still a very good book � an “old fashioned� novel � just not in the same league � at least to this reader � as Winter’s Tale or A Soldier of the Great War.
And that’s both the good news and bad news of this very hefty novel. For nothing in this hallowed couple’s lives is trivial � at least in the telling � which at times makes for some tedious, and even saccharine sweet, reading. If you are a Helprin fan � and I am � all you’d expect and hope for is here in this novel � sweeping breath taking descriptions � particularly of NYC - poignant observations on the human condition, a little history, subtle humor, somewhat quirky characters and the author’s “artistic� use of the English language. Unfortunately, this last bit gets out of control too often � the prose becoming syrupy and purple � detracting from both the story and the characters � even if the reader takes into account this book is a 700+ page fairy tale.
That being said In Sunlight and In Shadow is still a very good book � an “old fashioned� novel � just not in the same league � at least to this reader � as Winter’s Tale or A Soldier of the Great War.
July 2, 2013
This book has such potential, but was in DESPERATE need of an editor! There are many things to love and admire about the book -- especially the way the author depicts the horrors of war, and how he portrays NYC in all of its complexity -- but there are even more things to be frustrated about: characters who are dropped in and out for no apparent reason, lyrical language run amok, ham-handed plot developments, redundancy, an off-putting objectification of women, an over-reliance on a narrow set of images (sunlight! shadows!)... It was a chore to read this book, a slog through 700 pages of what could've been a compelling story at half the length.
I am a big fan of Helprin's other works, but this book reads like the illegitimate love child of Ernest Hemingway and Ayn Rand: the intertwining of objectivism (do whatever you do, but do it with excellence) and honorable fatalism (play by the rules, even though you'll ultimately lose) made the characters strangely stilted and mostly unbelievable.
I can't recommend this book -- it's too much work for too little payout. I'm just glad it's over and I can now go read something else.
I am a big fan of Helprin's other works, but this book reads like the illegitimate love child of Ernest Hemingway and Ayn Rand: the intertwining of objectivism (do whatever you do, but do it with excellence) and honorable fatalism (play by the rules, even though you'll ultimately lose) made the characters strangely stilted and mostly unbelievable.
I can't recommend this book -- it's too much work for too little payout. I'm just glad it's over and I can now go read something else.
October 28, 2012
I loved A Winter's Tale, so I didn't hesitate to dive into In Sunlight and Shadow. Everything I loved about the former is missing from the latter. I remember Winter's Tale as a nimble, imaginative epic. This new novel is ponderous, sentimental, and almost preachy. At times I felt like I was reading male-version harlequin romance. The hero is an idealized male archetype, who, burnished by the masculine trials of physical and academic overachievement and then perfected in the crucible of war, learns that love is the only thing that truly matters. The heroine is a two-dimensional goddesses, who faced with her own challenges, only becomes more perfect. Neither ever becomes a believable human being, so the grand love story between them fails to interest. I don't disagree with Helprin's message in this extended sermon, but I didn't enjoy receiving it.
August 24, 2014
Helprin’s writing is lyrical, lush, metaphorical, and the imagery throughout is wonderful. The plot is strong, and it delivers the right level of emotional payoff at the end. But it gets bogged down with monologues that are inflated and unrealistic and there’s a whole looong interlude spent on Harry's flashbacks to his wartime experiences which was too much. If the 700 pages were edited to 500 I would give it 5 stars. Still, the story and the characters still remain with me 4 weeks after reading it and I, hoping it will be made into a movie.
November 25, 2023
4.5 - Helprin's prose is stunning and profound. I enjoyed this novel, especially the long WWII flashback in the middle, and I wept when I finished the book. My one complaint is Catherine. She's too perfect.
April 23, 2024
Excellent! Long but worth it. I loved the flashbacks to world war 2 and the current events. Heart wrenchingly beautiful!
August 4, 2014
Ayn Rand would've loved this novel, a cross between her wooden prose and Harlequin romances. The heroine is beautiful, lovely, beautiful---did I mention that she was beautiful? And of course perfection in her every move and every word she utters. Naturally her voice is unbelievably gorgeous. This information is repeated as nauseam, along with "he was in love," "she was in love," "they were in love." Maybe I'm quicker, but I got that on page--hmmm--2?
If you wish to sojourn in an imaginary world, with people who know they are superior to almost everybody else, this book is for you. The hero manufactures only the finest leather goods (what else?). He is stunning and brilliant and perfect, always with the right crisp word to rain down on the hoi polloi, those insensitive less attractive and far less brilliant people beneath consideration for the two of them. Mark Helprin has a fetish for adjectives and adverbs, sometimes sprinkling an unbearably long sentence in which every noun and verb is modified at least once--I think I counted a dozen in one sentence. His is the kind of turgid uneventful prose that sets some critics in mind of great literature. These characters, however, are wooden puppets, their strings cluttering every page. Disbelief could not be suspended except by a blow to the skull.
I'm sorry but it's impossible to continue slogging my way through this dreadful book. I want to scream at the author: SHOW! STOP TELLING! And please please please (as he seems to relish repetition) stop repeating and repeating and repeating. Perhaps it's my prejudice against boring perfect people that causes me to give up on page 259. For heavens sakes, SOMETHING should have happened by then.
If you wish to sojourn in an imaginary world, with people who know they are superior to almost everybody else, this book is for you. The hero manufactures only the finest leather goods (what else?). He is stunning and brilliant and perfect, always with the right crisp word to rain down on the hoi polloi, those insensitive less attractive and far less brilliant people beneath consideration for the two of them. Mark Helprin has a fetish for adjectives and adverbs, sometimes sprinkling an unbearably long sentence in which every noun and verb is modified at least once--I think I counted a dozen in one sentence. His is the kind of turgid uneventful prose that sets some critics in mind of great literature. These characters, however, are wooden puppets, their strings cluttering every page. Disbelief could not be suspended except by a blow to the skull.
I'm sorry but it's impossible to continue slogging my way through this dreadful book. I want to scream at the author: SHOW! STOP TELLING! And please please please (as he seems to relish repetition) stop repeating and repeating and repeating. Perhaps it's my prejudice against boring perfect people that causes me to give up on page 259. For heavens sakes, SOMETHING should have happened by then.
November 8, 2012
I had not previously read any Helprin books and I'm guessing from some of the reviews I read it may not have been the best example of his work.
First - the good - the prose was breathtaking. It was like reading a poem. Each sentence was so deliberately constructed and painted such vivid pictures, and the writer in me lapped that up.
The story was also good and, when it was being told, intriguing and suspenseful.
But the reason I went with 3 stars and not 4 or 5 as the prose alone would deserve, is that the prose actually got in the way of the story. Not every book has to be a page turner, but this book couldn't decide what it was. There were long periods of action and the story moving forward, and then abrubtly interrupted by a long internal monologue or a brief visit to a character who has nothing to do with the story at all that were jarring.
Prose should serve the story, not hinder it. I found my attention wandering during several passages and I often skipped ahead, something I never EVER do as I like to let a story lead me and unfold on its own.
I recognize that the characters were representative of certain virtues - the hero being the very picture of old chivalry and romance, but that did make them a bit unrelatable. As people and as a couple while I liked them, they were often like perfect cardboard cut outs.
I also felt the end left a LOT of story lines unresolved, even with an epilogue. It felt rushed and not as "done" as it should have been based on the plots that were set up earlier in the book. It felt abandoned at the end.
Based on the writing alone, though, I'd like to read some of his other work.
First - the good - the prose was breathtaking. It was like reading a poem. Each sentence was so deliberately constructed and painted such vivid pictures, and the writer in me lapped that up.
The story was also good and, when it was being told, intriguing and suspenseful.
But the reason I went with 3 stars and not 4 or 5 as the prose alone would deserve, is that the prose actually got in the way of the story. Not every book has to be a page turner, but this book couldn't decide what it was. There were long periods of action and the story moving forward, and then abrubtly interrupted by a long internal monologue or a brief visit to a character who has nothing to do with the story at all that were jarring.
Prose should serve the story, not hinder it. I found my attention wandering during several passages and I often skipped ahead, something I never EVER do as I like to let a story lead me and unfold on its own.
I recognize that the characters were representative of certain virtues - the hero being the very picture of old chivalry and romance, but that did make them a bit unrelatable. As people and as a couple while I liked them, they were often like perfect cardboard cut outs.
I also felt the end left a LOT of story lines unresolved, even with an epilogue. It felt rushed and not as "done" as it should have been based on the plots that were set up earlier in the book. It felt abandoned at the end.
Based on the writing alone, though, I'd like to read some of his other work.
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