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Winter's Tale

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 7,345 ratings · 1,160 reviews

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 i

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Paperback, 768 pages

Published June 1st 2005 by Mariner Books (first published 1983)

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Best Books of the 20th Century

335th out of 4,642 books — 31,490 voters

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Favorite Magical Realist Novels

46th out of 680 books — 2,758 voters

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Community Reviews

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Apr 08, 2007 Helena rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any fans of heartbreakingly beautiful prose.

Shelves: essentials

"Ulysses" is the most important book in my life. "Winter's Tale" is my favorite. If "Ulysses" is like that boyfriend/girlfriend with whom you're Totaly Fucking In Love, and with whom you constantly fight, and break up, and get back together, and cheat on or get cheated on by, and break up with again, and get back together with again, and sit in your car outside their house listening to Fall Out Boy and crying and about whom you talk incessantly to your friends about what an Impossible Heartless...more "Ulysses" is the most important book in my life. "Winter's Tale" is my favorite. If "Ulysses" is like that boyfriend/girlfriend with whom you're Totaly Fucking In Love, and with whom you constantly fight, and break up, and get back together, and cheat on or get cheated on by, and break up with again, and get back together with again, and sit in your car outside their house listening to Fall Out Boy and crying and about whom you talk incessantly to your friends about what an Impossible Heartless Pointless Slutty Asshole they are and then light up like a schoolchild on Christmas morning when you get a text message from them, then "Winter's Tale" is like the best friend who you kind of secretly want to marry one day.

"Winter's Tale" is an 800 [give or take] page metaphysical fairy tale about a fictionalized New York City. Its extremely historical and should appeal anyone who, like me, is a geek for anything about the history of Manhattan--particularly in the sections set amongst the gang wars in the five points neighborhood in the mid nineteenth century--and yet, at the same time, the universe in which the book dwells is just slightly removed from ours, a magic realist retelling of the history of New York [and, by extension, America]. It follows an extraordinarily skilled grand larcenist named Peter Lake, who may or may not in fact be immortal, and through his experience, and the experience of an ever-widening web of those associated to him by degrees, builds a mythology of and for the city in which it is set.
The prose is dense and luxurious, as is the semi-dickensian plotline (There are at least 15 characters who could each support an entire book of their own. I guarantee you will fall in love with SOMEONE depicted in this novel). Unlike many modern authors, who seem to be operating on the assumption that the fewer words you use, the cooler you'll be, Helrpin writes phrases, sentences, and paragraphs like gourmet meals. There are moments in this book so good that they make the reader forget to breathe. It is one of the best literary adventures I've yet had.

Also, I used to own 5 copies of this book, and I currently known none. If you have my copy of "Winter's Tale," please return it, won't you?(less)

101 likes · like · see review

Mar 27, 2009 Koeeoaddi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: poets, new yorkers, everyone

Shelves: best, favorites, over-and-over-and-over-and-over, st-mark-helprin

A fairy tale, steam-punk masterpiece set in snowy New York City, in a Belle Epoque that never was. There's a charming thief, a story within a story and a horse that flies. It's a great big hulking huge book and it took forever to read, but only because the writing was so exquisite that I had to stop every other paragraph and gasp.

Did I mention that I liked this book?

ETA: Beware the audiobook, the narrator is not up to it.

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Jan 15, 2008 Michael rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the National Book Award jury

Recommended to Michael by: a former coworker

I have no doubt that there are worse works of fiction in existence, but this is the worst one I've actually read. It is written for people who like the sound of language in their head and want to feel long streams of words washing over them. Judging by the popularity and success of this author, and others like Proulx, there are a lot of those people. But it's a terribly low standard that, in this case, gives us page after page of constructions like this: "Across the river was an eighteenth-centu...more

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Dec 02, 2008 Koeeoaddi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, st-mark-helprin

The book gets 5 stars, the audiobook gets 1.

Go buy the print book, but do NOT listen to this sing-song, idiotic, evisceration of a truly splendid novel. The only way the narrator could be worse is if he dressed up in purple tights and sang it to a Gilbert and Sullivan score. What a horrible disappointment. What on earth possessed BBC Audiobooks America?

Publisher's Weekly agrees:

"Issued on audio for the first time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its publication, this version of Helprin's cla...more

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Aug 19, 2008 Cristin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

So what if Helprin's political views make me want to spew in the nearest barf receptacle? He created Peter Lake, and I don't care about much else.

This is an intense example of magical realism. At times, the reader must willingly suspend his or her disbelief until the very notion of disbelief is shot straight to hell. Still, it is about the journey Helprin takes us on--not the destination we anticipate at the beginning of the story.

Meet Peter Lake: a middle aged, exceedingly clever burglar who...more So what if Helprin's political views make me want to spew in the nearest barf receptacle? He created Peter Lake, and I don't care about much else.

This is an intense example of magical realism. At times, the reader must willingly suspend his or her disbelief until the very notion of disbelief is shot straight to hell. Still, it is about the journey Helprin takes us on--not the destination we anticipate at the beginning of the story.

Meet Peter Lake: a middle aged, exceedingly clever burglar who is brought into the world under extraordinary circumstances...the rest of his unimaginably incredible life is, in essence, comprised of one miracle after another, until your brain is dangerously close to bursting and your eyes are brimming at the mere thought of him. He's kind of a riot, and possesses an Irish (you'll come to find that while he's not an authentic Irishman, he owns the title for a reason) wit that is inexhaustible, though not overstated.

Peter falls madly in love with Beverly Penn, a beautiful, frail young woman who (despite her few years on Earth) displays the wisdom and sensitivity of someone five times her age...She's almost unearthly, and her love for Peter Lake is like an infinitely blazing star, or rather, a universe of infinitesimal blazing stars that are perpetually waltzing about to a piano...playing softly. Their love story, which is the focus of the first half of this beast of a book, will undoubtedly consume you, much like Life consumed Beverly Penn.

Throughout the majority of the book, Peter Lake is running from the relentless pursuits of the morally corrupt, vacuous band of thieves known as the Short Tails. Lead by the infamous, electric, Pearly Soames, the Short Tails will stop at nothing to end Peter Lake. Fortunately, Peter Lake has a sort of guardian angel in the form of Athansor, the white horse. I’ll save more explanation and mention only that many of the scenes that feature Athansor made me cry–not from sadness, but from appreciation for his sheer beauty.

The rest of the story is far too complex to attempt to explain. Helprin is certainly erudite, among other things...At times, I actually began to shake my head while reading, thinking: “Well, now this bastard is just showing off!” His prose is dense and lyrical, and at times it seems almost magical. How a person so stubbornly conservative can produce work like this is beyond me. Forgive me. I’m prejudiced against conservatives (although I was in a rather intense relationship with one at one time...opposites attract, I guess). I do not mean to suggest that conservatives can’t make first rate artists...or do I?

I just don’t understand how 748 pages of passion could come pouring out of Helprin like some crazy love lava...if the source is, well...So stuffy!

Still, I’m making assumptions, which always makes an ass of me. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from "Winter’s Tale" (aptly named after Shakespeare's play "The Winter's Tale", in which people disappear for long stretches of time and later reveal themselves to be bursting with life). I’ll let the words work their own magic, and quit blundering about with my own clumsy, ham-fisted words.

"There were small shrines and forgotten places that were for Peter Lake like the roadside altars of the Alps---an old doorway lost in shadow and peeling paint, a cemetery tucked between monstrous buildings (though a hundred thousand people might pass in a day, very likely not one turned his head to look in, or hesitated to read an inscription or a name), hidden gardens, house fronts, meaningful views down strangely crooked streets, places that seemed to harbor an invisible presence."

"It was something that he could understand only with the gifts that come of early morning--- one of those things, like a dream, that one cannot always piece together again to remember and feel in sunlight and day. And yet enough early risings and enough work of heart and memory will bring it, half alive, from unfamiliar depths, like a slowly panting fish, hauled on deck, with fading eyes that beg for the sea."

Pretty friggin' awesome, huh?(less)

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Feb 05, 2008 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I feel like it took twelvty hundred years to get through this book. I snowplowed (reference intentional) my way through it, refusing to let its length and byzantine density conquer me, which is most likely why I'm disappointed and annoyed. And tired.

To be fair, when Helprin isn't waxing lyrical about 1) snow 2) justice 3) urban planning, the plot chugs along, the fantasy is enchanting, the jokes are funny, and the characters are delightfully anachronistic -- and not just the ones who are quite l...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Derek rated it 2 of 5 stars

Flowery and ultimately meaningless

There are many beautifully descriptive passages, mostly of the wind & snow; the best are those concerning the magical horse Althansor. Unfortunately, there are many of them, and I found my heart beginning to sink whenever another chapter began with another beautifully descriptive passage about the wind & snow.

I never did discover a plot. The human characters came and went without any real impact, either on the story or on me, although the magical horse i...more

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May 23, 2012 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: urban fantasy, with a love of the turn of the century and language verging on the poetic

Shelves: re-read

Made the mistake of setting this aside in favor of library books - read about the last third in dribs & drabs, which didn't do the story justice at all. It gets a tad metaphysical/woo-woo at the end for my tastes, but it's still quite a lovely read.

-------
Previously read: May 2004

I'd had Winter's Tale on my to read list for a while- I'd picked a used copy of it up a few months ago & and an online review reminded me to bump it to the top of the list.

The story's heart is a fantastical Ne...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-lit, favorites

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

So you’ve got your Russian greats—Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. Without hesitation—and I don’t say this lightly—I would nominate this novel as an American great.

Written in 1984, Winter’s Tale looks back at NYC of the Belle Epoque and then forward to the next millennium. The story is stunningly imaginative, and the language is often pure poetry. Mark Helprin clearly has fun with it and even winks at the reader from time to time. (As one character decries critics, the...more Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

So you’ve got your Russian greats—Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. Without hesitation—and I don’t say this lightly—I would nominate this novel as an American great.

Written in 1984, Winter’s Tale looks back at NYC of the Belle Epoque and then forward to the next millennium. The story is stunningly imaginative, and the language is often pure poetry. Mark Helprin clearly has fun with it and even winks at the reader from time to time. (As one character decries critics, the author quickly adds in parentheses that book critics, however, are “second only to the angels.”) There are hilarious moments that caught me off guard, my favorite involving two boys at the Penn family dinner table who have hidden away upstairs a set of “pornographic” (not really—they reveal arms up to the elbow and legs below the knee) postcards. I won’t spoil it for you, but this scene was the deal sealer. From here on out, I knew Helprin and I would get along nicely.

Other reviews talk about the heroic Peter Lake and his undying love for Beverly Penn, and yes, it’s a sweet story (though in all honesty I found it a little creepy at first; Beverly is barely of age, and Peter is a good bit older). But my favorite characters were secondary ones—newspaper mogul Harry Penn and, most of all, Athansor, the great white horse. I loved the story of Asbury and Christiana, too—they share a wall between their apartments and talk through it for hours on end, telling each other everything that comes to mind. They’ve never actually seen each other, and they eventually agree to meet on the rooftop one evening but not until summer. In the weeks leading up to their meeting, Christiana warns Asbury that she’s not pretty at all. Asbury’s friend counsels him, “If she is, as she claims, physically repulsive, you’ll need that wall between you for the rest of your lives.”

There were a few not-so-family-friendly moments (the Anarindas, for one, I could have done without). But Helprin doesn’t really linger on any of them, so if you’re the kind of reader who likes your disclaimers upfront, I wouldn’t worry about too much here.

Turning the last twenty pages or so was bittersweet. Sure, the novel is nearly 750 pages, but even so, I wanted it to keep going. Lovely book.(less)

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Jul 08, 2008 Bart rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who thinks Pynchon and Tolstoy, mixed together, might be delicious

Recommended to Bart by: Peggy Noonan

If it’s possible for a novel to establish its author as a good writer but a poor novelist, Winter’s Tale might be the book to do it. Helprin has great talent for description, good talent for language, remedial talent for storytelling and almost nothing that resembles perspective.

There’s a passage somewhere between pages 600 and 700 where Helprin goes hog wild in his description of the opening shot of a billiards game. The spheres are crashing and the green felt is cowering and the angles are all...more If it’s possible for a novel to establish its author as a good writer but a poor novelist, Winter’s Tale might be the book to do it. Helprin has great talent for description, good talent for language, remedial talent for storytelling and almost nothing that resembles perspective.

There’s a passage somewhere between pages 600 and 700 where Helprin goes hog wild in his description of the opening shot of a billiards game. The spheres are crashing and the green felt is cowering and the angles are all aligning – and it comes pretty close to being squirmingly bad, a moment when one feels a bit embarrassed for the author. What makes it important to an analysis of Helprin’s work is that it shows that for Helprin words are really the only important elements of writing; that is, the ideas they express are accidental results of the sounds they make and the ephemeral effects they have.

There is a pretty rich story here, though, sometimes. Peter Lake is a likable character, and his romance with Beverly Penn is an intriguing and touching one.

But then we put Mr. Lake away for a long time – more than half this enormous novel – and describe and describe and describe. The rest of the characters, however cleverly named, all look the same. There are some of Thomas Pynchon’s lamentable tricks – including a set of employees named after books in an encyclopedia set – and for a while Helprin seems to dabble in hyper realism. And those detours add up to approximately 350 pages (a full novel, in other words) that a reader regrets suffering through by the end.

Ah, the end. One begins hoping, round about page 500, that the end will explain all the numbing detail and description one has endured and is yet to endure. But the end does nothing of the sort. Helprin can’t seem to figure out how to end the novel, actually. Is the novel about Peter Lake? is it about a giant white horse? is it about a villainous gang? is it about New York City? Yes, yes, yes! No, not quite.

The novel is about love. In fact, the epilogue of this massive work finds the author helpfully instructing the reader to look inside his heart to figure out what the novel is about. For those readers who are annoyed by Tolstoy’s philosophy-of-history lecture at the end of War and Peace, Helprin holds a familiar treat. After almost 800 pages, he feels compelled to do a little summarizing. He even asks the reader if she remembers some of the characters from a month or so back. And the reader responds, understandably aloud, “No, I don’t!”

Were this novel 400 pages long, and concerned only with the Peter Lake and Beverly Penn characters, it would be recommendable. But at its actual length, finally, it asks too much of the reader and reciprocates too little.(less)

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Apr 22, 2009 Sarah Pi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: magical-realism

I can see why this book has its detractors. The author is verbose, and there are nearly too many characters to keep track. I have started it a half dozen times in the past, and always put it down before. This time, I made myself read far enough to get into it. The density of the prose gave way to some stunningly beautiful passages. The quirks of the individual characters and their backstories began to stand out. I was hooked.
I will admit that there are passages - often whole chapters - that I s...more

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May 08, 2008 Laurie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Time-travelers, Philosophers, Lovers of Winter & NY, Magical Thinkers, Lost Fans

Recommended to Laurie by: Greg

Shelves: magically-delicious, frosti, gotham

This novel is pretty dense. It's taken me months upon months to finish, because every time the story/characters/time period changed, I would lose interest.

I like the bits of magical realism and the writing is very beautiful. I was entranced by the beginning, and the gorgeous descriptions of Winter and the Lake of the Coheeries.

However, for me the ending fell flat. I'm not a genius, but I can usually grasp subtleness pretty well. After devoting so much of my life to this novel and spending almos...more

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May 27, 2008 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I'm only halfway through this book, but so far I'm loving it. I had never heard of Helprin before, but a friend gave me this book during Christmas because someone had given it to her, and she wasn't going to have time to read it anytime soon. It has eclipsed my will to read anything else at the moment. I'll refrain from providing specifics until I've finished it.

An update: I have now finished the book, and I think it's going to be one of my all time favorites. We'll have to wait and see; it's t...more

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Nov 27, 2007 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like magic and words. lots of words.

Boy, I really wanted to love this book. It's got some beautifully-written passages, an acute eye for detail, and utter narrative fearlessness. Unfortunately, it lacks a sense of real-world meaning to back up its monumental linguistic and metaphysical ambition.

This book tries to locate magic and transcendent wonder in the workaday fumblings and intersections of ordinary people and the (truly magical) city they live in, New York (circa 1900 and 2000, but in a universe not entirely familiar). There...more

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Jun 26, 2008 kabukigal rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are many things I admired about this book. I loved its depiction of the many facets of New York, some fantastical and some historical. I found many of the characters and their adventures in "time" engaging. That said, I was unable to get past page 500. I just lost steam. Helprin is a good writer, but not a great writer. I enjoyed his writing for the first couple of hundred pages. He is a solid word-smith, but I wanted a writer of artistry, which I don't believe he is. I also felt that his...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Jacquil rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: gave-up-on-it

I have read over 100 pages of this book and am re-thinking whether I want to finish it. Yes, it is beautifully descriptive, yes it's fantastical but it's also self-indulgent writing in the extreme. The author seems to be completely disconnected from his reader and is off in his own world. I keep picturing him in an early 20th century opium den; smoking opium and writing whatever comes to mind. The thread of the story keeps getting sewn into a fabric that warps and twists on the whim of its creat...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Chaitra rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, romance, made-into-a-movie, magical-realism, set-in-new-york, banging-heads-on-keyboards, big-names-coasting, cutesy-twee-whimsical, my-cat-can-write-better

Wow. This is the worst magical realism book I've ever read, and I've read Salman Rushdie's Fury. Bottom line is that I don't mind crap, but I do mind deadly dull crap. Everything happens without much point, even within the universe of the book. Why would a super idealistic newspaper run a column entitled The Mayor Looks Like an Egg. Period.? Why is it that the one horrid person in the universe is a complete buffoon? What was the point of the horse other than a deus ex machina? Why did the little...more Wow. This is the worst magical realism book I've ever read, and I've read Salman Rushdie's Fury. Bottom line is that I don't mind crap, but I do mind deadly dull crap. Everything happens without much point, even within the universe of the book. Why would a super idealistic newspaper run a column entitled The Mayor Looks Like an Egg. Period.? Why is it that the one horrid person in the universe is a complete buffoon? What was the point of the horse other than a deus ex machina? Why did the little girl die in the first place? What is the point of her coming back to life? Why did we hear about Beverly's so called prophecy of the little girl in the last 50 pages of the book? And worst of all, why is there that complete copout of for what happened to Peter Lake, it must be left to the reader's imagination? My imagination's pretty strong, I could have imagined what happened to him about 500 pages before it was actually asked of me. Such a pointless waste of time.

***

I'm going to make an exception and write a review even before I'm done with it, because I'm not sure I'll remember or even want to when I'm done with it. I can't remember where I read it, but I did I swear, that Mark Helprin did not consider Winter's Tale to be Magical Realism. In fact, I remember him being downright snooty about the kind of fiction that came from South America. He's right. No matter what criticism you can level at One Hundred Days of Solitude, the one thing you cannot say is that it's incoherent. The magic there works in conjunction with the story, and does not stick out like some sore thumb.

What is he telling with this story? If winter was a tree, this would be a Terrence Malick movie. Characters are not half well described as the beloved snow drifts and some weird cloud wall that may or may not surround New York. In fact, the characters could be replaced by a piece of cardboard and we would not know the difference. These are not people, they are types. How many people will fall in love as soon as they see a person? How many times will Helprin insist that this is "true love"? How can such purity sustain itself? It's not the only pure concept either. I mean, how many times are we going to get beaten on the head with there is nothing more beautiful than the sight of a just city rejoicing in justice alone? Alright, we get it. There's no need to have every character repeat the blathering. Does he think that if it's repeated often enough it will become true?

The women of this thing deserve their own paragraph. Beverly, the first one is an impossible character to exist. She's too beautiful to exist, but exist she does. Animals in the stars talk to her as she lies in the specially made rooftop room, and she writes down equations explaining the workings of the universe. She makes things happen. The most villainous of people turns into mush (well, he sleeps) when she's around. And if this isn't enough, she's dying. By consumption. The one disease that enhances beauty rather than ravaging it. She's unspoiled before she hops into bed with a thief and a stranger, for no other reason than she's horny. But this is true love.

Then there is Virginia. Not as impossibly beautiful as Beverly (seriously there's no match for her), but still perfect. Add to that she talks like a lexicologist at a seminar which I found mind numbing, but what do I know. The people who she talks to are so dazzled by her sparkling conversation that they end up giving her a job starting yesterday as a columnist no less. But she, being oh so very humble decides to start from the bottom. She has this lovely attribute of dreaming the future. So far, she's seen nothing that is bad for her. Also, she has some random stranger fall in love with her instantly (see the theme?) and nicely for her he's young, handsome, and believes her crazy fantasies. True love.

Edit after page 373. More random people falling in love, this time via a wall. And of course when they finally meet, the girl is beautiful and the man not bad at all. What is the purpose of introducing so many characters I wonder, other than to make them fall in love with each other? More about the horse, which to me doesn't serve any purpose other than rescuing Peter Lake whenever Pearly Soames corners him. Why is it even there? And I find it hilarious that there is a character in the book who talks like she is raping the dictionary. Why, that is exactly how I feel about Helprin when I run into an endless description of snow. (less)

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Apr 09, 2009 Sandor rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you ever fell in love with New York, or yearn to fall in love with New York, or simply fall in love at all, you'll adore this book. There aren't many books I want to read twice, but this is at the top of that list.

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Oct 18, 2008 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teh-brillianz, fantasy

woot - magical realism has a new benchmark in my humble opinion! This is superb stuff, all the characters are so fully realised.

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Oct 03, 2012 Melki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, read-more-than-once, best-of-2012

I wasn't planning to read this book again, when my friend Lynn picked it for our October "real life" book club selection. I'd read it in 1985, and while I didn't remember a lot of details, I do remember absolutely loving it. And then it happened...

At the September meeting, the attacks started.

"Well," said one woman, "I almost never give up on a book, but I couldn't take more than a hundred pages of this one. And could somebody please tell me just what the heck a 'cloud wall' is supposed to be?"

"...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Holly Weiss rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-historical-fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, group-read

Re-read this in April 2013. Extraordinary writing. I am at a loss to describe this masterpiece of literature. As Newsday Magazine says, "It is a gifted writer's love affair with the language."

The almost 800 pages of reading is both taxing and magical. I had to linger on passages and reread them because of the beauty. The opening scene with Athansor, the white horse, is marvelous. The character of Peter Lake, who couldn't seem to die is unforgettable, as is Beverly, the woman who couldn't stop lo...more

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Mar 19, 2008 Chak rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Marquez fans, readers in love with writing and not necessarily plot, those who love epic tales

Shelves: literary-snackers, favorites, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There is no better book to curl up with on a cold, winter weekend. The writing is beautiful, poetic, magical, enveloping, transporting. The story is fragmented and surreal - magical realism at its best, but difficult to follow - at times comical and at times heartbreaking. The characters are engaging and many of them are lovable. If you loved 100 Years of Solitude, you will love this book. Just as with 100 Years of Solitude, I don't think I could tell you exactly what this book was about (New Yo...more There is no better book to curl up with on a cold, winter weekend. The writing is beautiful, poetic, magical, enveloping, transporting. The story is fragmented and surreal - magical realism at its best, but difficult to follow - at times comical and at times heartbreaking. The characters are engaging and many of them are lovable. If you loved 100 Years of Solitude, you will love this book. Just as with 100 Years of Solitude, I don't think I could tell you exactly what this book was about (New York, through many ages, does play a significant role), but I certainly count Winter's Tale among a short list of my all-time favorites.

I love quotes from books, so here are a few of my favorites:

Talking to Beverly Penn about her belief in the stars and what they represent. Peter Lake tells her that he believes her.
p. 175 – “That’s only love,” Beverly answered. “You don’t have to believe me. It’s all right if you don’t. The beauty of the truth is that it need not be proclaimed or believed. It skips from soul to soul, changing form each time it touches, but it is what it is, I have seen it, and someday you will, too.”

Mr. Marratta, talking to his son, Hardesty about the values on the golden salver: Honesty, Courage, Sacrifice, Patience)
p. 246 – “Little men,” he once said, “spend their days in pursuit of such things. [wealth, fame and worldly possessions] I know from experience that at the moment of their deaths they see their lives shattered before them like glass. I’ve seen them die. They fall away as if they have been pushed, and the expressions on their faces are those of the most unbelieving surprise. Not so, the man who knows the virtues and lives by them. The world goes this way and that. Ideas are in fashion or not, and those who should prevail are often defeated. But it doesn’t matter. The virtues remain uncorrupted and uncorruptible. They are rewards in themselves, the bulwarks with which we can protect our vision of beauty, and the strengths by which we may stand, unperturbed, in the storm that comes when seeking God.”

Beginning of the first chapter in book III – The Sun and The Ghost
p. 359 – Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long strong of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic political acts, the rise of the great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of furtune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishingly frigid winter after another. Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be certain.

p. 471 – To be mad is to feel with excruciating intensity the sadness and joy of a time which has not arrived or has already been. And to protect their delicate vision of that other time, madmen will jusify their condition with touching loyalty, and surround it with a thousand distractive schemes. These schemes, in turn, drive them deeper and deeper into the darkness and light (which is their mortification and their reward), and confront them with a choice. They may either slacken and fall back, accepting the relief of a rational view and the approval of others, or they may push on, and, by falling, arise. When and if by their unforgivable stubbornness they finally burst through to worlds upon worlds of motionless light, they are no longer called afflicted or insane. They are called saints.

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Mar 13, 2008 Stuart rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who has ever crossed a bridge, ever looked at a bridge or who is a bridge.

Recommended to Stuart by: Shana Cohen

Shelves: the-stuff-of-greatness

Winter's Tale sat on my shelves for about two years before I started it, taking up far more shelf space than any book has a right to unless it deals with subject matter like the wealth of nations or anatomy, but this book is huge because New York City is squeezed between the covers.

It's a profound book, steeped in love and human emotion, and yet whimsical in a lot of ways.

Hurrah for contradictory introductions to reviews!

Winter's Tale initially flirts with introducing philosophy, like an adult t...more Winter's Tale sat on my shelves for about two years before I started it, taking up far more shelf space than any book has a right to unless it deals with subject matter like the wealth of nations or anatomy, but this book is huge because New York City is squeezed between the covers.

It's a profound book, steeped in love and human emotion, and yet whimsical in a lot of ways.

Hurrah for contradictory introductions to reviews!

Winter's Tale initially flirts with introducing philosophy, like an adult trying to get across the moral of a fable to a child, when the child is only interested in the story. I was only interested in the story. As the book progresses, and the progression is a visceral, lividly descriptive journey, the actions of the characters begin to demand your philosophical understanding if they are to make sense. It lures you into thinking more deeply about what you are reading.

The characters also begin as simple, straight-up-and-down folk, as you might find strolling through fairy tales or myths and legends, but gather layers of complexity and depth around themselves as time passes. And you will love the characters. I was startled when Conrad (my friend, not the Heart of Darkness chap) said he cried at the death of a character in another book...but Winter's Tale brought me close. Very close. Twice.

Come to think of it, all things gain complexity and depth as time passes in this story. The characters, the plot, and the city. But both the complexity and the depth are rich and enjoyable.

I had no idea that the book had a strong vein of magical realism until people started being abducted by clouds, and this put every supernatural occurrence in a novel and charming light, giving them a real sense of magic, like being happily charmed and confounded by a skilled street magician.

Winter's Tale is an awesome book.
It's a jaw-dropper, the kind of book that your mind sinks gleefully into and only emerges from occasionally to check that the body hasn't wandered into mortal peril.

It's not a quick read, but by the end I was putting off finishing it, to prolong the experience.

I loved it.
Plus there is a horsey.(less)

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Jan 10, 2008 Courtney rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers

Wow. This book is magic. And I do not mean it is "magical" to read, but that literally it contains magic.

Let me start by stressing that this novel is for READERS. Not people who say they like to read but only do so occasionally or lightly. Or even those who do delve into many wonderful works but only when the stars are aligned. This is a rewarding and wondrous book for those who will actually take time for it and really get lost inside. If you are not that kind of person, than maybe you should p...more

11 likes · like · see review

Sep 20, 2007 Robert Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone and everyone

Shelves: favorites

My dad gave me a copy of this book for Christmas one year, and it sat on my shelf for a while until one day I had nothing to read. I haven't finished reading it yet, even though I've made it from the front cover to the back cover at least four times now. I tell anyone who will listen that they should read this book, if just this one, once.

Helprin's style of writing is like the ocean, deep and dark, quietly ebbing and flowing, eroding the edges of continents, but also confident and strong, churni...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jul 08, 2007 Jack Rudra rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: thebestofthebest

This is the best book I've ever read. Anyone who has an appreciation for language would fall in love with this book in the first ten pages. Despite it's depth and commentary on the human drama, it is also the most beautiful love story ever written, hands down.

Helprin takes us on a Journey through New York in a fantastic way. Once in what feels like the early 1900's and again in a more modern Manhattan, but both places are of a different dimension altogether, where anything is possible. This is n...more

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Apr 12, 2009 Jude added it

romantic to the nth degree.
women impossibly beautiful & wise, men impossibly gallant and fair.
with a white horse & whiffs of fascism if you read that way, which i couldn't quite because of the romance of humans & makings. makings of bridges, makings of machines - and the heart and eternity of the relationships established there... & of course makings of stories. and this story doesn't quite end. any more than we have. or romance has.

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 03, 2008 Chrissie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: usa, mystery, fiction, medical, not-finished, swap, magic

I didn't like this book! In fact about 2/3 of the was through I asked myself why, why am I reading this? I couldn't care less about any of the characters. So I didn't finish it, and that is really unusual for me. I absolutely adored the author's book A Soldier of the Great War. What a let down this was. I think I disliked it because there was just too much fantasy in it for me. I need some truth interwoven into a story. I like stories whaere I can find the cities where it takes place on a map, o...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 25, 2008 Tattered Cover Book Store added it

Shelves: jeannie-recommends, staff-recommends

A truly fabulous read. Gorgeously written, fantastical tale of love and loss set in mythical turn of the century
New York City. One of my top ten favorite books of all time.

Jeannie

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 10, 2013 Brian Grover rated it 1 of 5 stars

After reading the borderline masturbatory blurbs on the back of this book, I was hopeful that my first read of 2013 would be one of the best. But oh man, did I hate this book. Of course, I hated it more than usual because of its extreme length. I actually enjoyed the first 30% or so of the book, the portion set in the late 19th Century. But once the action jumps forward to "the present" (and I say that very loosely), it falls apart in every conceivable way.

Where to begin? How about the author's...more

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About Mark Helprin

A conservative commentator who has served in the Israeli army may not seem the likeliest source of whimsy, but Mark Helprin's tales are written from the soul of a poet. Soldiers and burglars figure prominently in his work, but the stories are not tales of intrigue; they focus more on love, morality and far-flung travels. - http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

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Quotes from Winter's Tale

“He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.” — 271 people liked it

“Justice can sleep for years and awaken when it is least expected. A miracle is nothing more than dormant justice from another time arriving to compensate those it has cruelly abandoned. Whoever knows this is willing to suffer, for he knows that nothing is in vain.” — 52 people liked it

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