khadiija's review against another edition
4.0
Winter's Tale is a very long (more than 700 pages) love-letter to New York City. And it makes you fall in love not only with the city but with harsh, snowy winters too. (I really dislike winter but longed for it when I read this book). There are so many passages describing the city as a being that is alive and constantly in motion, so beautifully and with so much love, reverence and clarity - that it's hard to pick one as my favorite.
But here is one that I liked a lot:
"This was the first city he had ever seen that immediately spoke for itself, as if it had no people and were a system of empty canyons cutting across the desert in the west. The overwhelming mass of its architecture, in which time crossed and mixed, dis not ask for attention shyly, like Paris or Copenhagen, but demanded it like a centurion barking orders....he knew right off that an unseen force was breathing under all the gray, that the events and miracles of the city were simply the effect of this force as it turned in its sleep, that it saturated everything, and that it had sculpted the city before it had even opened its eyes...It was perhaps the grayest, coldest, most dangerous city in the world. He understood why young people from all over came to pit themselves against it."
Ok, one more:
"..they held tightly to the tails, unable to take their eyes off the city. Ten thousand bolts of lightning struck the high towers, plaiting them with white gold and filling the air with thundercrack after thundercrack that made all fixed objects rattle. It set a hundred fires in the city of the poor, but the rain was so hard that they were extinguished as quickly as they started - which made them look like the slowly disintegrating spheres of airborne fireworks. When the storm was at its height, it seemed as if waves were breaking upon the city from a sea that floated and raged above. But the city neither flinched, nor blinked, nor bent its back for a moment. It tood fully upright like a range of great mountains, and harvested in the bolts. All the time that the storm was pounding, New York remained serene, with its lights aglow, for its ranks of steady towers were built on bedrock."
The only reason I took off one star, maybe half, is because there were many passages I felt were unnecessary and did not add to to the story in the least. A hundred pages could have been removed. He also jumped around from character to character a little too much.
It takes a while to get used to the fact that every sentence in this book is a metaphor or a simile or just has way too many descriptive words, but once you get past that and into the story, it really pulls you in, it captivates you with the imagery and the events and the suspense of when all the pieces will come together. I did not expect the magical realism aspect of the book but it was refreshing to read this genre after a long time.
And now, I just want to move to New York, magical or not. Thanks, Mark Helprin.
But here is one that I liked a lot:
"This was the first city he had ever seen that immediately spoke for itself, as if it had no people and were a system of empty canyons cutting across the desert in the west. The overwhelming mass of its architecture, in which time crossed and mixed, dis not ask for attention shyly, like Paris or Copenhagen, but demanded it like a centurion barking orders....he knew right off that an unseen force was breathing under all the gray, that the events and miracles of the city were simply the effect of this force as it turned in its sleep, that it saturated everything, and that it had sculpted the city before it had even opened its eyes...It was perhaps the grayest, coldest, most dangerous city in the world. He understood why young people from all over came to pit themselves against it."
Ok, one more:
"..they held tightly to the tails, unable to take their eyes off the city. Ten thousand bolts of lightning struck the high towers, plaiting them with white gold and filling the air with thundercrack after thundercrack that made all fixed objects rattle. It set a hundred fires in the city of the poor, but the rain was so hard that they were extinguished as quickly as they started - which made them look like the slowly disintegrating spheres of airborne fireworks. When the storm was at its height, it seemed as if waves were breaking upon the city from a sea that floated and raged above. But the city neither flinched, nor blinked, nor bent its back for a moment. It tood fully upright like a range of great mountains, and harvested in the bolts. All the time that the storm was pounding, New York remained serene, with its lights aglow, for its ranks of steady towers were built on bedrock."
The only reason I took off one star, maybe half, is because there were many passages I felt were unnecessary and did not add to to the story in the least. A hundred pages could have been removed. He also jumped around from character to character a little too much.
It takes a while to get used to the fact that every sentence in this book is a metaphor or a simile or just has way too many descriptive words, but once you get past that and into the story, it really pulls you in, it captivates you with the imagery and the events and the suspense of when all the pieces will come together. I did not expect the magical realism aspect of the book but it was refreshing to read this genre after a long time.
And now, I just want to move to New York, magical or not. Thanks, Mark Helprin.
ablotial's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really weird book. It starts off from the point of view of a horse, which was kind of odd. And there are a lot of mystical aspects of the book -- like the cloud wall -- which are never really explained. They just are. I like fantasy novels that are obviously fantasy, where the world is explained and understood. This one is a weird blend of fantasy and reality that just didn't do it for me.
I did rather like the character of Peter Lake, and also Beverly. And Virginia and Mrs. Gamely weren't bad -- I especially liked when they went on literary and etymological tangents. The idea of Lake of the Coheeries was pretty neat, and I loved the townsfolk there. But the book was long, I found myself wishing it would move on faster and the bright spots of these characters and the Lake wasn't enough to carry it for me. Too many unanswered questions.
I'll still watch the movie, but everything I've read (and some notes from GR friends) say that the movie is absolutely nothing like the book in terms of the plot/mystical aspects. Maybe that means I'll like it more!
I did rather like the character of Peter Lake, and also Beverly. And Virginia and Mrs. Gamely weren't bad -- I especially liked when they went on literary and etymological tangents. The idea of Lake of the Coheeries was pretty neat, and I loved the townsfolk there. But the book was long, I found myself wishing it would move on faster and the bright spots of these characters and the Lake wasn't enough to carry it for me. Too many unanswered questions.
I'll still watch the movie, but everything I've read (and some notes from GR friends) say that the movie is absolutely nothing like the book in terms of the plot/mystical aspects. Maybe that means I'll like it more!
lakecake's review against another edition
3.0
I really loved the imagery Helprin evoked with this novel, and I was curious and drawn to the characters but it was also kind of weird and I really didn't understand the ending. It felt like it was too deep for me to really understand where he was going with it, and it hurt my brain a little trying to make sense of it.
halcyon_rising's review against another edition
1.0
Something that I would like to do in my life is read books, and then drop a review of said books on GoodReads, even though I'm not good with words at all. Like, at all.
In a moment of utter madness, I felt this desire to go back into my Read section, and then make a shelf for all the books I had never posted reviews on, with the intention of going back to them sometime, to fix that problem. This book also never received a review from me, to accompany its one star rating.
So, here's my review.
I'm not a fan of this book, so I won't say anything positive about it. If you liked what you read, more power to you. I did not. I'm not English, and I think I remember from 6 years ago that I had quite some issues with the way this was written. I did not experience the magic in the story as it was experienced by other people. I only remember wanting to tick this book off of my 'to read' list, it resisting my understanding of what it was trying to say (if there was meant to be anything special), and it dragging on forever. I feel like this is on of the, if not the, book that I suffered through the most when reading. I don't think I'll ever revisit it. This is not for me.
In a moment of utter madness, I felt this desire to go back into my Read section, and then make a shelf for all the books I had never posted reviews on, with the intention of going back to them sometime, to fix that problem. This book also never received a review from me, to accompany its one star rating.
So, here's my review.
I'm not a fan of this book, so I won't say anything positive about it. If you liked what you read, more power to you. I did not. I'm not English, and I think I remember from 6 years ago that I had quite some issues with the way this was written. I did not experience the magic in the story as it was experienced by other people. I only remember wanting to tick this book off of my 'to read' list, it resisting my understanding of what it was trying to say (if there was meant to be anything special), and it dragging on forever. I feel like this is on of the, if not the, book that I suffered through the most when reading. I don't think I'll ever revisit it. This is not for me.
dernichtraucherin's review against another edition
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
since the movie was always a childhood favorite of mine and remains my favorite cheesy christmas movie until today, i thought id pick up the book when i found it for free and was surprised that the screenwriters changed a lot!
the beverly penn & peter lake love story stays mostly the same and until her death i enjoyed the book immensly because of all the extra information about peter lake's earlier life, like growing up with pearly e.g. . but the rest of the book was rather hard to read cause i wasnt as invested in the new characters as in the ones i knew and held so dearly as the ones from the movie and it felt really dreary to get emotionally attached to any of them (except for virginia probably).
which leads me to my next point; other changes made for the movie:
the whole penn family was incredibly well portrayed on screen but i was happy about the choice they made by making willa and not harry the one that survives all of it because her relationship with peter lake was much more relevant for him and to just not mention her at all in the second part of the book annoyed me. i also enjoyed book-virginia and loved her coheeries backstory as well as her time at "the sun" and thought she lacked that manic pixie dream girl spirit in the movie (no hate to jennifer connelly tho, shes a fabulous cast).
other changes to the movie that i didnt hate because it made the film more cohesive and neat (wheras the almost 700 pages book felt very all over the place at most times) were:
the whole angels&demons arc! i was so surprised to learn that theres no ineffable plan and heaven and hell fighting for dominance over humans and their miracles in the book!! that was an amazing addition to the movie although i always felt that lucifer was a little silly and unnecessary.
i liked how beverly and her unique view of the universe was so well portrayed in the movie and that most of the characters conversations were taken into the screenplay word for word. i will annoy people with fun background infos while rewatching the movie (for the 100th time) now but i wouldnt reread the book.
addition: i always headcanon peter lake as a butch and in my humble opinion, peter lake & beverly are lesbians with a magical white horse and noone can tell me otherwise.
the beverly penn & peter lake love story stays mostly the same and until her death i enjoyed the book immensly because of all the extra information about peter lake's earlier life, like growing up with pearly e.g. . but the rest of the book was rather hard to read cause i wasnt as invested in the new characters as in the ones i knew and held so dearly as the ones from the movie and it felt really dreary to get emotionally attached to any of them (except for virginia probably).
which leads me to my next point; other changes made for the movie:
the whole penn family was incredibly well portrayed on screen but i was happy about the choice they made by making willa and not harry the one that survives all of it because her relationship with peter lake was much more relevant for him and to just not mention her at all in the second part of the book annoyed me. i also enjoyed book-virginia and loved her coheeries backstory as well as her time at "the sun" and thought she lacked that manic pixie dream girl spirit in the movie (no hate to jennifer connelly tho, shes a fabulous cast).
other changes to the movie that i didnt hate because it made the film more cohesive and neat (wheras the almost 700 pages book felt very all over the place at most times) were:
the whole angels&demons arc! i was so surprised to learn that theres no ineffable plan and heaven and hell fighting for dominance over humans and their miracles in the book!! that was an amazing addition to the movie although i always felt that lucifer was a little silly and unnecessary.
i liked how beverly and her unique view of the universe was so well portrayed in the movie and that most of the characters conversations were taken into the screenplay word for word. i will annoy people with fun background infos while rewatching the movie (for the 100th time) now but i wouldnt reread the book.
addition: i always headcanon peter lake as a butch and in my humble opinion, peter lake & beverly are lesbians with a magical white horse and noone can tell me otherwise.
kaytemi's review against another edition
4.0
I desperately want to give this book 5 stars, but alas, I cannot. This was such an indulgent read, full of description and beautiful words strung together like music. The writing is beautiful and yet so confusing and in the end, just a notch off satisfying. I feel like it could have been so much more and yet, it's perfect the way it is. A difficult rating to make in the end, but it was definitely worth the read.
wwatts1734's review against another edition
3.0
I am honestly a big fan of Mark Helprin and felt bad to give this book only a three star rating. I loved some of his other books (Memoir from an Antproof Case, A Soldier of the Great War) but this one was disappointing. Perhaps because it is a fantasy set in a real city at a real time, but bears no real resemblance to the place.
The Winter's Tale begins in the years after the Civil War in New York City. Peter Lake, a sometime mechanic and gang member in the city's interminable gang wars of the later 19th and early 20th century, meets and befriends a great white horse. His tale and that of the horse span over 100 years to the end of the 20th Century (a time that was in the future for this book, which was published in 1983). By the time Peter Lake emerges in the last years of the 20th Century, he is unsure of who is was and where he came from. But he remembers the unlikely romance that he shared 100 years before with a young woman, the only daughter of a newspaper magnate. It is at the end of the 20th Century that Peter Lake saves the newspaper that was owned by the family of his wife and lover of 100 years before.
If this sounds confusing it's because it is. Like others of Helprin's novels, the real story slowly unravels but, unlike others of his novels, it never really quite makes sense. Still, Helprin's exquisite prose makes this novel worth reading. His allusions to the history of New York City and the wonders of winter make great reading. Helprin is a sentimental author, and most of his novels are about bygone times that are missed greatly by the survivors who remember them. This is no less true of "A Winter's Tale". I think that it would have been more enjoyable if this novel had been set in an imaginary place, or perhaps a more obscure place than New York City. The unreal descriptions that Helprin makes of the city, the mixture of the past and the present and his jumping from the City to other upstate communities makes the setting seem muddled. It is, after all, a fantasy, but even so it just doesn't quite work.
Overall, this is a good book but I would recommend Helprin's other books before this one.
The Winter's Tale begins in the years after the Civil War in New York City. Peter Lake, a sometime mechanic and gang member in the city's interminable gang wars of the later 19th and early 20th century, meets and befriends a great white horse. His tale and that of the horse span over 100 years to the end of the 20th Century (a time that was in the future for this book, which was published in 1983). By the time Peter Lake emerges in the last years of the 20th Century, he is unsure of who is was and where he came from. But he remembers the unlikely romance that he shared 100 years before with a young woman, the only daughter of a newspaper magnate. It is at the end of the 20th Century that Peter Lake saves the newspaper that was owned by the family of his wife and lover of 100 years before.
If this sounds confusing it's because it is. Like others of Helprin's novels, the real story slowly unravels but, unlike others of his novels, it never really quite makes sense. Still, Helprin's exquisite prose makes this novel worth reading. His allusions to the history of New York City and the wonders of winter make great reading. Helprin is a sentimental author, and most of his novels are about bygone times that are missed greatly by the survivors who remember them. This is no less true of "A Winter's Tale". I think that it would have been more enjoyable if this novel had been set in an imaginary place, or perhaps a more obscure place than New York City. The unreal descriptions that Helprin makes of the city, the mixture of the past and the present and his jumping from the City to other upstate communities makes the setting seem muddled. It is, after all, a fantasy, but even so it just doesn't quite work.
Overall, this is a good book but I would recommend Helprin's other books before this one.
rissaleighs's review against another edition
3.0
I guess the coldest day in two decades is a fitting day to FINALLY finish reading Winter's Tale.
I feel like probably 7/8ths of this book was entirely unnecessary. Other reviewers have used the term "indulgent," and I concur. Usually, I don't have trouble keeping track of a large cast of characters or a meandering storyline (here's looking at you, 100 Days of Solitude) but this was pretty extreme. I think this story would have been better told as a handful of vibrant paintings.
As it was, this book had moments of pure perfection and I enjoyed Helprin's way with words, but the characters didn't do it for me. I am left with the impression of having watched some sort of odd Punch and Judy puppet show where the glittering backdrop outshone the rest of the spectacle.
And all the random prurience. Ugh. But for a handful of perfectly turned phrases and crafted scenes, this would have been a two star read for me.
I feel like probably 7/8ths of this book was entirely unnecessary. Other reviewers have used the term "indulgent," and I concur. Usually, I don't have trouble keeping track of a large cast of characters or a meandering storyline (here's looking at you, 100 Days of Solitude) but this was pretty extreme. I think this story would have been better told as a handful of vibrant paintings.
As it was, this book had moments of pure perfection and I enjoyed Helprin's way with words, but the characters didn't do it for me. I am left with the impression of having watched some sort of odd Punch and Judy puppet show where the glittering backdrop outshone the rest of the spectacle.
And all the random prurience. Ugh. But for a handful of perfectly turned phrases and crafted scenes, this would have been a two star read for me.
tomwright's review against another edition
I had difficulty following some of the story. Luckily, the book was long, so I had difficulty following the story for a long time.
Winter's Tale was enjoyable enough, but I didn't keep going back to it like I do my favorite reads.
Winter's Tale was enjoyable enough, but I didn't keep going back to it like I do my favorite reads.