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Forever

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 5,488 ratings · 950 reviews

From the bestselling author of Snow in August and A Drinking Life comes this magical, epic tale of an extraordinary man who arrives in New York City in 1740 and remains...forever.

From the shores of Ireland, Cormac O'Connor sets out on a fateful journey to avenge the deaths of his parents and honor the code of his ancestors. His quest brings him to the settlement of New Yor...more

Hardcover, 613 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Little, Brown (first published October 1st 2002)

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Dec 02, 2008 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Kristen by: Cindy

Shelves: high-brow

I generally look over other people's reviews to refresh myself before I add a book I read a long time ago. I was genuinely surprised to see how many people hated this book. It seems like people either got it and loved it (like me), or didn't get it and simply hated it.

Admittedly, the story is far-fetched. You must suspend disbelief in order to swallow the premise of the story, which is of an impoverished Irish boy doomed to live forever until he is able to avenge a wrong done to his family. If y...more

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Dec 18, 2007 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a truly great read, filled with history, mysticism, humanity, and wonder. The protagonist is Cormac O'Connor who was born in Ireland during the 1700's I believe. A sequence of events unfolds and he is forced to travel to an infant New York City where he eventually saves an African slave who is also a sort of shaman. Long story short, O'Connor is given a gift of eternal life, except that he can never leave the island of Manhattan. So enters the next "main" character of the novel: New...more

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Sep 22, 2007 Meredith rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Conceptually I liked this book, though it lost something in the execution. Exploring New York through the eyes of a single character *is* interesting, but in order to do it justice the book needed about 1,000 more pages (at least!). If this novel was a five book series--told more slowly--it would have worked much better.

I found the 9/11 chapter a bit forced. There was way too much foreshadowing. We know what's ahead of us and yet the Hamill can't resist mentioning low flying planes and looming t...more

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Sep 22, 2009 Cassy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-historical, 2009, physical-own

Part of my disappointment in Pete Hamill’s “Forever” is probably based on the fact that I had different expectations when I began reading. There was an extremely misleading quote on the back cover comparing the book favorably to "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter". I also expected the book to focus on New York City, which is does, but only well after a hundred pages based in Ireland.

Okay. The book did have its good points. I thought the concept was fantastic: immortal man witnesses the evolut...more Part of my disappointment in Pete Hamill’s “Forever” is probably based on the fact that I had different expectations when I began reading. There was an extremely misleading quote on the back cover comparing the book favorably to "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter". I also expected the book to focus on New York City, which is does, but only well after a hundred pages based in Ireland.

Okay. The book did have its good points. I thought the concept was fantastic: immortal man witnesses the evolution of a city. The characters were robust and intriguing. Hamill presented interesting, well-researched tidbits from New York City's history. (I especially loved the section set during the city's fetid period.) And although I wasn't expecting such an extended portion of the book to be set in Ireland, that section was actually my favorite. He really placed me in the setting with the mist rolling off the green fields and the mystical lore of the native Irish. He should have expanded this section and made it a separate book. That book might have earned four stars.

Now, onto the bad points. It dragged and I had trouble finishing. In addition, the book abruptly jumps from one time setting to another. I would just start to be engaged in the storyline and to identify with the characters. Then, bam! There’s an entirely new era, theme, and cast of characters. Instead of keeping things exciting, it annoyed me. He really needed transitions. And these mini-stories were treated differently by length. Some were short and some just went on and on, which made the book seem unbalanced. Furthermore, the plot suffered from this jarring jumps since the mini-stories are rather poorly connected. Of course, the main character did have two over-arching goals: to kill every descendant of his father’s killer and to eventually reclaim his mortality. The second motivation pulled the story along admirably. But Hamill abandoned the revenge plot in a lame matter (I won’t write more to avoid spoilers) only to halfheartedly reintroduce it much later in the story. It could have been so exciting! Lastly, I read in an interview that Hamill had actually finished the manuscript prior to 9/11 and then rewrote the ending to incorporate the attack. While I understand that 9/11 was a defining moment in the city’s history, its integration into the book never sat well with me. It read like what it was - a last minute add-in

I don’t regret reading “Forever”, but I would not recommend it to anyone I know. In fact, it is sitting in a pile of two-stars-or-less books to be traded at my local used bookstore.
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Aug 13, 2008 Kim Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: all new yorkers

Shelves: current-works

This book had me from the first page. It starts in Ireland in the 1700s and takes us on a fantastic journey ending in New York in 2001. Through the protagonist's eyes we see the humble beginnings of New York City in its infancy and watch as it transforms over the centuries to the mighty metropolis it is today. Saying anything else would be spoiling. I certainly recommend this book if you are a New Yorker like me. It has been said that we are the most forgetful when it comes to our own history an...more

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Apr 24, 2008 Gregory Baird rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned, fiction-literature

This was not the book that I expected it to be. Every plot summary of this novel describes it as a history of New York City as experienced by a man who is granted immortality only so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Granted, that does happen, but first you have to slog through an annoying, practically-a-novel-in-and-of-itself three hundred pages of trifling back-story. That would have been fine if only it had been more interesting. Hamill seems to back himself into a corner with...more This was not the book that I expected it to be. Every plot summary of this novel describes it as a history of New York City as experienced by a man who is granted immortality only so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Granted, that does happen, but first you have to slog through an annoying, practically-a-novel-in-and-of-itself three hundred pages of trifling back-story. That would have been fine if only it had been more interesting. Hamill seems to back himself into a corner with a curiously apathetic protagonist, Cormac O’Connor, who goes about tracking down the man responsible for the deaths of his parents with all of the passion of a man running errands on his day off. After arriving in Manhattan he wastes time doing … nothing really. He learns a trade as a printer’s apprentice, dabbles in a relationship that he doesn’t seem too passionate about either, and agonizes about how he really kinda should be looking for his sworn enemy. Imagine Hamlet without any of Shakespeare’s wit or dramatic urgency to redeem him and you have a pretty good idea of how frustrating Cormac is. The only thing he feels passionately about is fighting slavery, which ultimately – perhaps fatefully – leads to his gift / curse. That’s another sticky point of this novel for me: there is no grey area when it comes to political issues such as slavery. All of the good guys possess an inexplicably modern perspective when it comes to social issues, while the villains are fierce racists who strive to use slavery to their own advantage. It’s so simplistic, and not historically accurate. I find it hard to believe that people who were raised in a society where slavery and racism were so ingrained into the mainstream would instinctively know how to think outside the box.

The historical aspect of the novel is often interesting when Hamill draws out episodes of history that are unfamiliar, such as the period when Manhattan’s water supply was severely restricted by greedy bureaucrats in the 1830s (leading to city-wide pestilence and frequent cholera outbreaks), but it is less so when Hamill indulges in a lust for big cameos and cheesy set-ups, such as when Cormac saves General Washington’s life during a skirmish at the onset of the American revolution, screaming “We need you alive, God damn you!” (again, it seems, Cormac has been blessed with an unnatural prescience). And despite his ardor for throwing off the shackles of tyranny, Cormac engages in some pretty misogynistic relationships with women (his mandate for eternity in Manhattan even includes an order to “love women,” and while it also orders him to respect and protect them it still results in a series of non-emotionally attached relationships that essentially reduce the woman to the means for sex only).

A lot of people seem to enjoy this book, and I suppose I can see why. What I offer here is a different perspective from someone who did not enjoy it … at all, really.

Grade: D+(less)

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Apr 24, 2008 Kristen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The idea of a first-person account of the whole history of Manhattan was really intriguing to me, so I was really excited to read this book, and assumed that the whole "you're immortal but you can't leave Manhattan" thing was just a weird plot device in order to make this first-person narrative make sense. Instead, the opposite seemed to be true: the history of Manhattan seemed to be just a setting for the whole strange spiritual-mythological side of the story.

That said, I loved the first 1/3 o...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Jim Rymsza rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading several of the reviews, both good and bad, I place myself in the 'dissapointed...expected more' camp. I was also mis-lead by the cover's synopsis and, like others, expected less soap opera and melodrama and more historic background. Too much time was spent, given these expectations, on the hero's personal saga rather than a more sober critique of NYC history, as the book seemed to imply. Granted, I knew it was a work of fiction, but so much of the history became trivialized and too...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Christie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ficiton

I have mixed feelings about this novel. The beginning one third of the story was very captivating and moving. I thought the author did a great job with character development and drawing the reader into an intriguing plot laced with bits of Irish folklore and Celtic Mythology. Somewhere around the middle, however, the story began to drag for me and became quite overrun with characters to follow. An account that takes place over more than two centuries, ending after the events of 9/11/01, lends it...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Walt Giersbach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

New York City was the subject of a marvelous hallelujah chorus about three years ago by Colin Whitehead called "The Colossus of New York." A multitude of other writers — F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Washington Irving, Norman Mailer — have also used the city as a backdrop to drama.

Pete Hamill, former editor of the New York Daily News, however, has devoted virtually his whole life to exploring and writing fiction, current events and history about this colossus on the Hudson. It made me wonde...more New York City was the subject of a marvelous hallelujah chorus about three years ago by Colin Whitehead called "The Colossus of New York." A multitude of other writers — F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Washington Irving, Norman Mailer — have also used the city as a backdrop to drama.

Pete Hamill, former editor of the New York Daily News, however, has devoted virtually his whole life to exploring and writing fiction, current events and history about this colossus on the Hudson. It made me wonder if there are any other cities that have been given such microscopic attention with such consummate skill. Chicago or San Francisco or New Orleans? Not really any comparison there.

Hamill’s "Forever" focused on an Irish immigrant in the mid-18th century who was cursed to live as long as he never set foot off the island of Manhattan, and we followed the protagonist through the Revolutionary War, meetings with 19th century politicos and finally his escape into mortality in the late 20th century. Wow! What a premise, and what a canvas for painting the portrait of a city.

"Snow in August" was a beautiful story of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s and the ethnic soup that makes the city vibrate like a high-tension wire. "Downtown" gave us the history of the city as only a newspaperman walking the streets could write it. I was a newspaperman for a short while before putting in thirty-five years as a corporate editor and PR practitioner on Park Ave. Like New York Timesman Russell Shorto’s "Island at the Center of the World," "Downtown" was also a wonderful education into why the city is one of the most dynamic, tolerant and international metropolises in the world. I mean, what other city in 1643 had a population of 800 who spoke 18 languages?

Pete Hamill is less a stylist than a damn competent writer, whose words march across the pages in orderly fashion and whose subjects provide the drama and verve that carry the story forward. It is their stories — not Hamill’s — that brought tears to my eyes even when the situation he described was humorous.

With every one of his books, a part of me felt sorry I left my shotgun flat on Sixth St. at Avenue B in 1974, but — mea culpa — I worried that I’d come home one day and see my son riding the bumper of a Second Avenue bus, and so opted for a one-fifth-acre barony in Jersey. I copped out; Hamill didn’t.

J.D. Salinger had "Catcher in the Rye’s" Holden Caulfield wishing that a good book would never end, and that when it was finished he wanted to write the author a letter. I remember how infrequently I heard from my corporate readers unless I misspelled their name or failed to cover their success in some achievement or other, so I wrote Hamill a letter not too long ago. I told him, “Among the many memorable pieces you’ve written, I feel the one that best sums up the city’s place in history and the arts is your eulogy to Susan Sontag and Jerry Orbach a year ago.” In it, he had said, “In its tough, often remorseless way, New York is a crucible for every manner of talent. Some of the talented young are swiftly defeated, and retreat into more ordinary lives. Others are shooting stars, here and gone. Those made of sterner stuff last longer, and it helps if they have lived on our streets.” Place and people; they’re inextricably connected. People go to New York to get away from America.

And I thanked Hamill for helping make some sense out of life and the city.

He didn’t answer my letter, but then readers don’t usually write to authors and editors. Holden Caulfield knew that.
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Oct 03, 2012 Barry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Caution: spoilers. All in all an uneven read. Fun, if you aren't critical, but lots to take issue with. The main character is given the gift of eternal life, with conditions. The first quarter of the book which takes place in Ireland, is better, though a bit stereotypical of Irish culture. The plot sounds fun, but in truth makes the main character less than completely sympathetic. Somehow he manages to be consumed by revenge, yet is bland and boring. The sections of the book are vignettes of dif...more Caution: spoilers. All in all an uneven read. Fun, if you aren't critical, but lots to take issue with. The main character is given the gift of eternal life, with conditions. The first quarter of the book which takes place in Ireland, is better, though a bit stereotypical of Irish culture. The plot sounds fun, but in truth makes the main character less than completely sympathetic. Somehow he manages to be consumed by revenge, yet is bland and boring. The sections of the book are vignettes of different times in NYC, but don't have a consistency of writing. Hamill says he took back the completed book after the Trade Center disaster and added a section. In my opinion, that shows, the book would have been better without it. Deus ex machina rules in this book, with the main character saved from sure death by such interventions as a dolphin suddenly appearing, a magical horse, a raven, etc. Coincidence is too easy, such as that his final murder target just happens to have bought his father's historic sword, so it is handy, should he need to use it. And when he decides not to kill him, the guy dies in the World Trade Center disaster. The main figure just happens to save George Washington's life, has an affair with the historical person who betrayed the slave revolt (or just made it up). Women are generally one-dimensional, mostly whores or witches. He is supposed to be able to be released from his vow when he finds a certain special women, but the one he seems most enraptured with is Madam of a brothel, and she isn't the one. Its hard to understand why the woman who IS THE ONE, is very appealing, certainly not as interesting as some of the other women he beds down. The ending just ignores the main source of motivation, and makes no sense. The main character is supposed to be on an life(s) long search so he can enter the Otherworld, but when he get the chance, he doesn't do it. Hamill tries to rehabilitate historical figures like Boss Tweed, which is questionable at the very least, and has poor Irish and Blacks as allies in 18th century civil strife, while they were actually not at all... more like adversaries competing for the same low wage jobs. Women are basically for sex, and sometimes become traitors, blacks are the "mystical negro" trope, all either into voodoo, or have magical powers. Hamill is best at describing New York City's history. He puts light on some seldom known periods and events, as well as giving insight into the sounds, smells, and sights of old New York. A literature prof I know, was frustrated by Hamill's constant use of sentence fragments, and said the book "is not great literature." On the other hand, if you are less critical and don't mind wading through over 600 pages of a repetitive fantasy, have fun. I hope Pete doesn't read this review, because he is a really great guy and a great writer, and I have all kinds of respect for him. But this book just didn't work for me.(less)

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Aug 08, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this one up because I’d heard it was a great way to learn about the history of New York City. As the back cover summary explains, one man is offered immortality with the condition that he can never leave the island of Manhattan. The problem is, that twist is given away before you open the book and yet 200 pages into the story it still hasn’t even happened. So you find yourself just waiting for it, instead of allowing yourself to be taken in by the rest of the tale.

The first 100 pages or...more I picked this one up because I’d heard it was a great way to learn about the history of New York City. As the back cover summary explains, one man is offered immortality with the condition that he can never leave the island of Manhattan. The problem is, that twist is given away before you open the book and yet 200 pages into the story it still hasn’t even happened. So you find yourself just waiting for it, instead of allowing yourself to be taken in by the rest of the tale.

The first 100 pages or so went really slowly. The book is supposed to be a great New York City tale and at 150 pages, the main character hadn’t even made it to NYC yet, he was still living in Ireland. Then it picks up and the speed completely changes. The story covers multiple centuries but the vast majority of it happens in the first 20 years of his life and in the final part of his life. I felt like the entire middle was simple skimmed over with only a few pit stops. The pacing of the whole thing felt off to me.

The fact that the main character knows he will outlive everyone he meets definitely has an effect on character development. I felt like I barely got to know most of the people he befriended. It was like the main character didn’t want to get too attached and so the author didn’t let the reader become invested either.

I really enjoyed some sections and felt like I did learn a bit more about the city, but I don’t think I would have made it through the whole book if I wasn’t already planning a trip NYC.

**SPOILER**
One interesting thing, the author finished the book shortly before the 9/11 tragedy. When the two towers were attacked, he talked with his editor and decided to rewrite the ending. He didn’t believe it was right to release a book dealing with so many major events in the city’s history, but not to include such a monumental one.

**SPOILERS OVER**

“New York, he was learning, was a city of present tense, an eternal now.”

“I don’t know what that means. To truly live.”
“To find work that you love, and work harder than other men. To learn the languages of the earth, and love the sounds of the words and the things they describe. To love food and music and drink. Fully love them. To love weather, and storms, and the smell of rain. To love heat. To love cold. To love sleep and dreams. To love the newness of each day.”(less)

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Jul 21, 2012 Sean Randall rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Have I seen my last snowfall? My last spring? And have I walked for the final time through a summer afternoon?"

This certainly isn't my usual sort of book, but I really got into it. The opening chapters were beautiful in their descriptive detail, which really pulled me in so that I actually cared for Cormac and his future.

The tribalism of the Babalawo and that whole ethos is alien to me, but it wasn't really overdone, which helped me keep my focus on the story. I particularly liked how the view...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Grace Herndon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book and I have a love/hate relationship. Forever took me much longer to read than books I have read in the past. I was surprised at first when I started to read this book because the story did not start as I had expected it to. From the back cover of the book I could tell that this book had an element of fantasy and that it took place in New York city. However, the book starts off in Ireland (around the 1700s I believe) and with out prior knowledge I would have considered this book to be h...more This book and I have a love/hate relationship. Forever took me much longer to read than books I have read in the past. I was surprised at first when I started to read this book because the story did not start as I had expected it to. From the back cover of the book I could tell that this book had an element of fantasy and that it took place in New York city. However, the book starts off in Ireland (around the 1700s I believe) and with out prior knowledge I would have considered this book to be historical fiction.
I thought that there was too long of an introduction of the characters and description of Ireland in the beginning of the book. I got pretty bored reading about the day to day life of Cormac O'Conner very fast and I would put down the book and not read for several days. Something kept me coming back though, the story that unfolded was eerie, dark and mysterious. It was after the death of Cormac's mother that the book seemed to really get started.
The element of fantasy was revealed when Cormac's father starts to teach him the ways of the ancient Ireland religion. As Cormac grows up his father teaches him how to be a true Irish man. Cormac then travels to America seek revenge on the man who kille his mother and the book becomes rather boring again.
The characters in this book are all very relatable and I felt as if I was truly friends with many of the people that Cormac meets in New York. The best part of the book takes place when Cormac rescues a slave who turns out to be a sort of shaman. Cormac almost dies that night but the slave saves him an grants him eternal life as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. I love the way that Cormac is able to encounter people from so many different eras and watch the evolution of New York City almost from its birth. However overall I thought this book was a great idea but it did not hold my attention and I found it hard to finish. I would recommend this book to read because I thought it was interesting but it is definitely not one of my favorites.
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Jan 23, 2012 Adrienne Vogt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is truly a love letter to New York. Pete Hamill has taken a tantalizing idea — what would you do if you were granted immortality? — and envisions it through the eyes of an Irish teen, Cormac O'Connor.
The book's highest points shine when Hamill documents real people and places in Manhattan. The reader comes along for the journey of New York growing from a wild village into one of the greatest cities on Earth.
The disconnect occurs when Hamill describes the mythical happenings that take p...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Christian Blum added it · review of another edition

An excellent text that puts the post 9/11 world within an interesting historical context. Hamill uses the character of Cormac O'Connor to remind readers of our immigrant tradition-- an important consideration given the recent nativistic trends that reminds one of the film Gangs of New York. The novel also captures the essentials of the ancient religions that remind people of the currency associated with Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths and traditions. Hamill reminds the reader of the faiths th...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Libby Maccarthy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Libby by: My mother

This has to be one of my favorite books. While long, the book is well a written and captivating piece of historical fiction (although some of the descriptive bits can be a bit much). While I really enjoyed the story's plot, my favorite aspect of the book was the description of the changes in New York over generations - from the atmosphere of the streets right to the putrid smells that characterized New York for decades.

"This widely acclaimed bestseller is the magical, epic tale of an extraordin...more

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Feb 01, 2010 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is quite a bit of suspension of disbelief involved: Cormac O'Connor was born in the 1700's in Ireland. Through trials and tribulations, he arrives in New York on a mission of revenge. He befriends a group of African slaves, one of whom has mystical powers via Ye Olde Religione. Cormac is given immortality, under the stipulation that he may never leave the island of Manhattan.

Okay, so that's all a little bizarre. But this book takes the "what if?" premise and runs with it. It starts out as...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Jaye Liset-lynch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A friend told me about this book, so I picked it up one day at the bookstore. There are really almost two full stories in this wonderful book. First, imagine if you were born hundreds of years ago in Ireland to parents who ensure you are schooled in Gaelic myth, language and traditions. Then imagine you have to frantically escape Ireland by boat (I can’t give the “why?” away). That’s what happens to our protagonist, Cormac. And that’s the first story.

Then the second story begins. On the boat, C...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been going through a homesick sort of thing lately and this book was like a drug. It's historical fiction that charts the history of New York City from circa 1740 through 2001 as lived and experienced by one main character. (You'll have to suspend your disbelief regarding the necessary fantasy element of this because the book itself is wonderful).

The author, Pete Hamill, is impressive in his dedication to providing endless historically accurate details about the city he adores (this is esp...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Note: There's no way to put in a review here without some fairly major spoilers. I'd recommend you read this book on blind faith, and skip the review.

This is another book I read hesitantly at the behest of my father and fell totally in love with. Hamill's forever balances a huge scope on the fulcrum of a singular protagonist, and does it well. The story follows a young boy in Ireland in pre-colonial times, with a strong background in Irish folklore. The humble beginnings of the novel cover troub...more

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Aug 14, 2007 Dan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like Hamill from A Snow in August, but this novel was awful, i only finished it to see how he tied it together. The plot too ambitious, you can't pack the history of new york into a story of one man. Hamill can't properly end it and does an awful job of foreshadowing the 9/11 attacks. The towers seemed to be mention in every paragraph when the story shifts to the recent past, poorly alluding to what will come. I do not recommend this at all and wish i didn't waste money on it.

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Aug 19, 2012 Lyndsey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It seemed like a long time since I began reading Forever by Pete Hamill. I kept reading, stopping, and reading some more. Near the last pages of it, I just wanted the whole thing to be done with. I'm glad I struck it out. It was a bit predictable in some parts. I'm not really a religious person but it had a lot to do with different religions, cultures. It made you learn. It made me think. It made me wonder about that fateful day in New York - or many of the days that have ruled New York's street...more

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May 17, 2012 Aspry Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Forever" is the tale of a young Irish guy in the late 1700's and the brutal destiny that awaits him after the murder of his family, more or less at the hands of the Earl Of Warren.

The young man is introduced more fully to his heritage when it becomes known to him that it is his duty to hunt down the Earl to the ends of the earth and avenge his loved ones through the Earl's demise and also the subsequent killings of his every male spawn. That mission takes him to New York City where he befriend...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Rowena rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I feel like Pete Hamil could have done SO much more with this plot- A man who lives forever so long as he stays on the island of Manhattan?? I mean come on, PH touched on maybe 3 major New York events and I feel like he skipped an entire century's worth of news. I don't expect him to write about every single piece of history but still, I feel like he started out strong with a great idea, and then got tired of his own novel and wrapped it up as quickly as he could..

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Aug 30, 2011 Kayla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would give this book a four and a half if I could. I've read some opinions on this book that weren't all that good simply because it hadn't been what they expected. As I read I kept thinking, 'How narrow-minded must these people be to not like this book only because it wasn't what they were expecting'. I didn't know what to expect, but I read it anyways and I loved it. It had a way of saying things that are so true, but that people never admit outloud for whatever reason. This book is totally...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I picked this book up randomly, I too thought it had a nice premise. Living forever in New York but constricted to Manhatten? Unlike most people, I found the backstory in Ireland interesting, and I felt it help connect the story as whole. I liked the history aspects of it all but wondered why we were treated to some points of history and not others. The 20th century seems virtually skipped! I also could not get used to his, in my opinion, fixation on nakedness and the vagina. Did we really...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Cynthea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Absolutely LOVED this book - it's really a 4 1/2 stars. Me thinks however, that you need to have NYC in your blood to really enjoy it.

It seems that all the other reviews and rankings fall into I hate it, or I really loved it. I can appreciate the parts of the book that people complained about - there are definitely a few disjointed points, and disconnections and a few places that seem a bit random in flow. However, there is so much of the actual story and the history that is woven into that sto...more

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Sep 21, 2009 Michaela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow.

The ending seemed a bit rushed, but it may be that I both did and didn't want to know how it came out in the end.

It's amazing that Hamill apparently re-wrote the entire ending after 9/11 -- I can't imagine how he could have ended it before that terrible tragedy.

One small complaint: the Boss Tweed section felt like it had been cut by an editor worried that one more historical epoch in NYC history would lose people. Personally, I would have loved more in that section. But! I was glad to learn...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Darla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. To be honest, didn't love the ending so much, but I just soaked up the history of New York. Why is that? I have never been to New York, but I love reading about the history of that city. When Wall street was actually a wall to keep out Indians...when the Dutch ran the place, strictly as a money-making proposition. Wonderful stuff. I would recommend this to anyone who likes their history in bold swipes.

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About Pete Hamill

Pete Hamill is a novelist, essayist and journalist whose career has endured for more than forty years. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. in 1935, the oldest of seven children of immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Catholic schools as a child. He left school at 16 to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a sheetmetal worker, and then went on to the United States Navy. While serving in t...more

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“Human beings want to know too much abut each other, and that's why there are so many lies.” — 7 people liked it

“To love women. To pleasure them, to make them laugh. To be foolish for them. To protect them. To respect them. To listen to them. They are life-givers. To live is to love them.” — 4 people liked it

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