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Author: Mark Helprin
Genre: Contemporary Literature, Fantasy
Length: 673 pages
Published: 1983
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake, orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.
Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.
Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.
My Review:
Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.
Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.
My Review:
I give this book a 3 out of 5.
I had a hard time with this one. It was extremely descriptive, and that distracted me from the story itself quite a bit. The plot line was good, but hard to follow because of the excessive description. I understand why the author detailed everything so much, but it was tough to get through. I truly felt like the story could have been told in roughly half the pages.
I found myself not wanting to pick it up and continue reading because it felt too tedious to devote the time and energy to in order to comprehend the events. In fact I found myself actually skimming a lot of the longer paragraphs, basically catching hold of the most important ideas and I still understood what was going on.
All in all, the story itself is good. If you have time to kill this nearly 700-page story is worth it.
You can purchase Winter's Tale through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format.
I had a hard time with this one. It was extremely descriptive, and that distracted me from the story itself quite a bit. The plot line was good, but hard to follow because of the excessive description. I understand why the author detailed everything so much, but it was tough to get through. I truly felt like the story could have been told in roughly half the pages.
I found myself not wanting to pick it up and continue reading because it felt too tedious to devote the time and energy to in order to comprehend the events. In fact I found myself actually skimming a lot of the longer paragraphs, basically catching hold of the most important ideas and I still understood what was going on.
All in all, the story itself is good. If you have time to kill this nearly 700-page story is worth it.
You can purchase Winter's Tale through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format.
Have you read Winter's Tale? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.
Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.
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