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The Cloud Sketcher: A Novel
In a tiny village in Finland, Esko Vaananen is at the brink of despair -- he loves a woman he can never have. Suddenly, in the magical light of the aurora borealis, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from the frozen lake and disappearing into the clouds above him. This pilvenpiirtaja -- "cloud sketcher" or skyscraper -- sparks a lifelong quest...more
Paperback, 432 pages
Published
March 19th 2002
by Harper Perennial
(first published 2000)
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The Last book of the trip that I read most of on
the way home was "The Cloud Sketcher" by Richard
Rayner that I pulled of a book shelf at home
before we went away looked at and had no real
memory of getting it, but liked the blurb on the
back and put it in the bag.
Well I can't remember the last 500 page book I
read as quickly as this one. It's a total page
turner of a life and death story of Esko a
Little Finnish boy who grew up dreaming of
building a Cloud Sketcher, which is what the
Finnish wo...more
the way home was "The Cloud Sketcher" by Richard
Rayner that I pulled of a book shelf at home
before we went away looked at and had no real
memory of getting it, but liked the blurb on the
back and put it in the bag.
Well I can't remember the last 500 page book I
read as quickly as this one. It's a total page
turner of a life and death story of Esko a
Little Finnish boy who grew up dreaming of
building a Cloud Sketcher, which is what the
Finnish wo...more
Greatly enjoyed this novel by Richard Rayner that has a few favorite topics of mine weaving through its epic story of romance--architecture, revolution, civil war, Finland, the mafia, prohibition, more architecture and the 1920s. Set in Finland and New York in the range of 1917 to about 1929 with Rayner packing a lot of action and story in this short span of time--almost too much to be honest. Toward the end with the characters talking about all the time that has passed and it's only been a deca...more
I don’t hate Esko, but I do find him distasteful. I don’t like his relationship with Katerina, because she’s just not there — as a character, she simply can’t support Esko’s obsession. Esko’s story is told in close, close third person, but all Rayner can do is repeat endlessly how fascinated by Katerina Esko is. But she has no particular quality of any kind that really seems interesting enough. And given the backstory Rayner offers? It seems somewhat obscene. I should care about her, for that ve...more
A gripping, emotionally intense, & intellectually powerful novel. A young boy of 11 becomes obsessed with a Russian girl & with a desire to build a skyscraper. The rest of the novel plays out his pursuit of those twin dreams & the many barriers that stand in the way of achieving them, from a Finnish Civil War in the wake of the Russian Revolution to political machinations in the awarding of architectural contracts to Prohibition. As with other books (such as Dr. Zhivago, which this b...more
Tortured architect hero, at his best in lonely youth of frigid Finland forests. Can surfeit of tree trunks and ice chunks give life form? Yup. Great background of border tensions with Russian Revolution, Stalin makes an appearance, and partisan fighting where nationalism, communism mix it up with no clear good guy/bad guy right and left are interesting for those of us (all of us?) who don't know the issues of Finnish independence around WWI. A murder mystery runs through it and a love story, but...more
I'm on about the fourth chapter and loving this book. Rich characters, unique subjects.
Okay --- I have been thinking about this all morning. How to say how amazing and beautiful this book is --- how well-written, rich, full of depth and variety and skillful use of language and characterization. It isn't getting any easier.
One way that I can attempt it is to make a comparison. I've recently read a nice little Southern book about a more-or-less orphaned girl who goes to live with a rich aunt in Sa...more
Okay --- I have been thinking about this all morning. How to say how amazing and beautiful this book is --- how well-written, rich, full of depth and variety and skillful use of language and characterization. It isn't getting any easier.
One way that I can attempt it is to make a comparison. I've recently read a nice little Southern book about a more-or-less orphaned girl who goes to live with a rich aunt in Sa...more
Mar 24, 2008
Fran
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who love emotional stories
I don't know why I bought this book, or even if I bought it (or it could have been in a pack of books I bought cheap). It's been on my bookshelf for more than a few months now and in my attempt to read most of the books I have before buying new ones I picked it up. When I read the quote from the Chicago Tribune on the back "no one who opens The Cloud Sketcher will find it easy to stop reading before the last vertiginous page" I worried that the book would be a little too pretentious for me. I me...more
It's a slow start but bear with it...once it gets going, it will capture your attention. Politics, idealism, love, passion, hope, uglienss all merge together in a story of a man who uniquely discovers and creates the world around him even as it changes through war, loss and possibility.
I would not have chosen this book from the jacket description, but a friend loaned it to me & I'm so glad she did. While parts of the story were quite predictable like the reappearance of the love interest, there were so many good things about it, I would highly recommend.
1920s. Esko fights the Bolsheviks in Finland before fleeing to the USA to be a skyscraper architect. 2 stories fused together with little to link them. Well sketched characters, except for the principal love interest. Historical color. Good pace. Easy to read. An airplane read.
Jun 16, 2007
Bjorn
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people interested in architecture
Shelves:
katrina-lost,
college
I had to read this book before I spent a summer semester in Finland. It is about a Finnish Architect and his quest for beauty. I didn't like The Fountainhead when i read it (maybe will give it another chance) so i was really not sure if this would be good. When he describes the church he is building the prose is beautiful and you can just see the church take shape.
I really did enjoy this book and really got into reading it on the plane to Helsinki. It was done in no time after getting into it. O...more
I really did enjoy this book and really got into reading it on the plane to Helsinki. It was done in no time after getting into it. O...more
Good writing, but kind of depressing. It's an anything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong kind of book.
GOD AWFUL. Couldn't finish it.
This was a great book of historical fiction set in Finland in the early 1900s and New York City during the jazz age of the 1920s. Reading it, I could almost hear the music playing and the men working on the steel girders of the growing skyscrapers. The characters also came to life with their hopes and fears.
very moving... even though it was a big book and a lil bit hard to finish it, the plot was always twisting. another plus for me is that the author described each scene with every little detail. really fascinating
Started slow but got really good after the first section. Interesting characters and historical look at New York in the 1920s especially.
Jan 23, 2008
Tami Roof
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Sylvie
Recommended to Tami by:
Jennie Barlow
This is a GREAT book!!! Sylvie, if you haven't read this one yet you should; I know you would love it.
Nov 09, 2007
Stephanie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
any Romantic
Shelves:
fiction-contemporary
A time period and setting that I love---NY in early 1900's. Prose is elegant and story is beautiful.
enjoyed this book alot,it had alot of things going on it.
Aug 14, 2007
Elijoh
marked it as to-read
heard it was historical fiction
May 10, 2013
Dawn Woodward
added it
Apr 06, 2013
Jamie
marked it as to-read
Mar 26, 2013
Erin
marked it as to-read
Mar 24, 2013
Sophia
marked it as to-read
Mar 23, 2013
Ðɑηηɑ
marked it as li_unfiltered
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Richard Rayner is a British author who now lives in Los Angeles. He was born on December 15, 1955 in the northern city of Bradford. Rayner attended schools in Yorkshire and Wales before studying philosophy and law at the University of Cambridge. He has worked as an editor at Time Out Magazine, in London, and later on the literary magazine Granta, then based in Cambridge.
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“He saw a cross on a wall with another cross behind it, a shadow cross, the shadow of what God left behind when God was gone, the continued need for joy and beauty, a commitment to hope where there appeared to be none, and to grace in spite of everything.”
—
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