I was interested in the story, but it was so wordy! The descriptions went on and on and just bored me. I got through 100 pages and realized I was mostly just skimming along, not reading. Set it aside to read another book, then another. I didn't feel like skimming another 600 pages but I did read the last chapter (thus the second star, I cared enough to find out what happened).

Helprin's story takes place in the later part of WWII and finishes in post war NYC with the interweaving of the mafia, the establishment of the CIA, while also addressing the challenges of being Jewish, black, and poor. I was frustrated by the language he uses to describe love and that mystical quality of falling at first sight. A friend, who recently read it, described it as inspiring that a male author could so effectively describe love and affection so poignantly. I found that idea intriguing as I read the same thing and found annoyance at the perpetuation of the ideas of love happening to two people by chance or fate as if that was enough. What I enjoyed from the story was the way that little decisions and the character's past experiences informed the decisions they made as they moved through the story. They seemed to grow and change and struggle based on a real life and not just the imaginings of a writer. I don't know if I would recommend the book, but I don't regret reading it.

Very evocative of summer and it's move into fall. Extremely romantic. but a little old fashioned in sentiment what with the woman on pedestal ideas. Nevertheless, a good read.

Lovely, lush language -- a whole paragraph devoted to the smallest detail. I used to love Helprin but right now I just don't have the patience. Maybe I will try again.

A fantastically well written and engaging story set in New York city after World War II. A story of life, love, and the struggles for those returning from war, along with the struggles of ethnic identity related to Jewish families and class society.

This did not work for me as an audiobook and for reasons that probably make it a lovely read: too poetically written, therefore hard to follow while listening and doing other tasks.

It took me almost two years to finish this book. This is the reason I almost never give up on a book. When I first started it, I couldn't stand the writing style. It was over-the-top pretentious and the author was in love with the fact that he could write a sentence that went on for ten lines. So annoying! I couldn't bring myself to read more than a couple pages every few weeks and kept picking up other books instead. Then I ran out of Kindle books and decided to force myself to finish it. Either I got used to the writing style or the author mellowed out. It turned out to be a very enjoyable book and I'm glad I finished it.

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.

*No outright spoilers, but STRONG HINTS at the ending!!*



I'm furious at the ending of this novel, which I guess is a sign of an intelligent novel, even if I can't say I loved it. An underlying message of the story is that the images and habits of war never leaves a person. And while I agree with that, some habits can be avoided, LIKE SUICIDE MISSIONS THAT CAN'T POSSIBLY HAVE A GOOD OUTCOME.

Also, this was very long-winded. I feel like all the content of the book should have been maybe 400, not 700 pages.

I listened to the first hour of this 31-part (!) audiobook and NOTHING happened. It is beautifully written but I no longer have time to read/listen to books this long if they don't grab me pretty quickly.