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faithelaine's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lexi_malkin's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars, would have been 3 if it were at least 200 pages shorter. Had it not been a book club book, I would have given up 100 pages in. I am glad I finished but too long, too many irrelevant flashbacks and just didn't pull me in like I had hoped.
dhb1964's review against another edition
2.0
After trying to read this for several weeks, I finally gave up. I'm sure it's a book that will appeal to others, but I just could not get into it. It's very unusual that I don't finish a book, even if I don't love it, but this one was just too tedious for me to get through. I couldn't connect to the characters - they felt very one-dimensional, the writing at times seemed trite, the author often relied on over-used phrases and finally, the pace was painfully slow. I think there was potential here, but it just wasn't fulfilled.
connie_rea's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, honestly, this book has some really beautiful quotes. I mean some REALLY wonderful bits....but damn, this book kinda sucked. Oh f*ck it...it really sucked....Okay, the premise was "okay". But this book had no timeline, straight or otherwise that it followed. It jumped from present and past with no rhyme or reason. I understand why the author wished to include Henry's military past, but why in hell did he do it in the midst of their romance with no warning? Why not have a time line that was followed....for *this* book a straight timeline would have served the novel better....I don't mind books that jump back in the past, but this one, seriously, the way it was done was not only confusing, it took away so much from the enjoyment of the book. Towards the end the story also took on a bad made-for-tv movie storyline. There are so many other little things I could nitpick on about, but really what's the point? This was a very long book to have wasted so much of my time....but it's one of those that you get so far into it, you've already wasted so much of you time...well, you almost feel obligated to finish it. I understand this isn't the author's best work...and I can readily believe that. I understand that "Winter's Tale" is suppose to be marvelous. However, at this point, I am just really gun shy....but I say again, this book had some amazing, beautiful paragraphs....it's just a shame that the entire book itself kinda tried it's very best to ruin them completely.....this book would have been a solid 2 star...but hey ho...I really love quotes....
700 plus freaking pages
st_urmer's review against another edition
4.0
Most of the negative comments you will read about this novel are more or less accurate. The main theme, aside from "love is the most powerful thing in the world", seems to be that the rich are people too and suffer just like everyone else. Characters speak in pretentious, overwrought dialogue and most are caricatures. And yet, you may notice, I gave it 4 stars. Mark Helprin's voice is mesmerizing to me. Any complaint I have falls away before the beauty of his writing. It is over the top, but sweeps me away and I find myself up at night well past when I should be asleep, completely rapt. I may never learn to love New York City, but through Helprin's prose, it seems a little less ugly to me. I eagerly await his next once-a-decade book.
pris_asagiri's review against another edition
4.0
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.”
dflemmons's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The writing is very lyrical and romantic. It took me a while to get into it, but by the end I appreciated the journey.
naturegoddess's review against another edition
1.0
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.