Mark Helprin

A breathtaking novel by the author of "A Soldier of the Great War," this is a book about the beauty and complexity of the human soul, about God, love, and justice. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Winter's Tale

Colton Ray

When I first read this book 4 years ago, I appreciated the story, but didn't enjoy actually reading the thing, and stuck it with a frustrated 2-star rating. This winter, I decided to give it another chance and had a much better experience. Sure, I still don't technically 'get it.' Sure it's overwritten and baggy and full of pseudo-mystical mumbo-jumbo about love and light and souls. Sure, there's cheesy insta-romance and everyone is dashingly handsome or demurely beautiful. But there's something to be said about the utter sincerity of this enormous epic about New York City that spans the breadth of a century and encompasses time-traveling burglars, rainbow bridges to the stars, flying horses, magical resurrections, Y2K, gang wars, and Armageddon into one gigantic tome. Helprin assembles a cast of almost fifteen main characters, each with their own plot lines and goals that intersect and collide from the 1890s to the 1990s. While it drags at times like slogging through waist-deep snow, there are enough moments of stark beauty to make it worth the while of anyone interested.

When master mechanic Peter Lake attempts to rob a mansion on the Upper West Side, he is caught by young Beverly Penn, the terminally ill daughter of the house, and their subsequent love sends Peter on a desperate personal journey. Reissue.

Benjamin Erwin

An amazing combination of magical realism and moral commentary. Although written 26 years ago, it speaks to the times we're in now. This will most likely be my number 1 suggested book for quite a while.

Barry Hess

From a review out there: “You’re either going to hate it or you’re going to love it, but either way you’re going to feel something.”

That’s probably sort of right. I mean I’d stop short of saying I loved it. I adored many parts of it. And I was not real happy with other parts. I could see why many, or even most, people would hate it. It’s a big book and a time commitment, so you hope to not have to equivocate.

So I’ll say I enjoyed it. Parts of it will stick with me for a long time. I’m glad I read it. And I’m not going to recommend it to anyone. :)

Melody Izard

This was a leftover “Ginnie Jones” recommendation. If you’ve no idea who Ginnie was go to  this thread if you are curious. 
I was enchanted with the opening story. We’re introduced to Peter Lake and the transformed milk-cart horse, Athansor. We get the love story of Peter and Beverly Penn. We glimpse an early version of New York with mythical magical things stirred in for fun. The gangsters rollick. The icy, icy landscape enchants. The humor is lame – but there is a bit of humor. Then things start to drag. Halprin’s dreamscape language still is captivating. But the lame humor crops up more and more and is sometimes startling. Yes, I was startled! – at least once by just entirely too much slap-stick stuff tucked away in the ice. But I think I needed to be startled because I kept looking for that mood set in the beginning and it just wasn’t going to happen. Ginnie – I think your review was just too captivating. Of course it’s been deleted now – so I can’t look at it to see what it was you said about it that made me expect too much from Peter and his friends. But I remember thinking this would become one of my all-time favorites and in hind-site that was just a set-up for disappointment.

Movie Tie-In Edition

Winter's tale

Neveen Badr

I can't wait to read this book. Even for the pain, the violence and over age scen; I want to read it so bad because it marks your soul like no other book shall do. It's time to carry a dark complex mark from each page you read over every blood cell that runs over my body until all bind inside my heart just to make me change.

Winter's Tale

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