by Mark Helprin
Rapturous epic of the city, as magical as Helprin's great Winter's Tale even if it is not a fantasy. It is as immersive as anything ever conjured up from fairyland. 1946 New York City is the equal to Lud-in-the-Mist, Narnia, Middle Earth, Wonderland and Looking-Glass World, Gormenghast. Veteran Harr...
This is not the best Helprin novel that I have read. Supposedly a love story between Catherine Hale and Harry, the novel becomes lost in added details that really detach from the plot. The basic plot is Catherine and Harry struggles to be together, and the obstacles are not necessary the ones you th...
On one hand, the words were beautifully written and reading it was like enjoying a lovely spring day. On the other hand, it was slow and the characters were just too perfect. I think that a book like this should move me or drive me towards some insightful self reflection, but I am just glad I got ...
Gave up on it - early going was sappy romance.
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...
This book would have been 4 or 5 and 200 pages shorter if a good editor could have controlled Mr. Helprin's excessive verbiage. High literary style like highly spiced foods must be used sparingly. Helprin's writing exudes excessive overdone overwrought over the top prose. Sepnding a page and a half ...
Zzz. The writing in this book is overly wordy in a very pretentious way, and the characters seemed so flat. I got tired of trying to wade through it just to find any substance at all, and I gave up before I got very far.
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