A Dove Of The East: Twenty Short Stories from The New Yorker – Exploring Love, Faith, and War

by Mark Helprin

The twenty stories here, many of which first appeared in The New Yorker and have since been anthologized throughout the world, are strikingly beautiful essays on enduring and universal questions: In Rome, in the hour of his death, an American priest must choose between his Church and his God. An Israeli scout risks the safety and respect of his comrades in an act of transfiguring gentleness and charity. In a hot, dirty typewriter ribbon factory in the Bronx, a young man finds love. A Dutch child in a Canadian orphanage carries in her heart, her love for her parents and the pain of war. A soldier is overpowered by his days of burying the dead. A Sicilian widow meditates on the end of her family line. These twenty stories are strikingly beautiful pieces on enduring, universal questions by a writer the San Francisco Review of Books calls "a master crafter of the short story."

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Mark Helprin belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend. As many have observed and as Time Magazine has phrased it, “He lights his own way.” His three collections of short stories (A Dove of the East and Other Stories, Ellis Island and Other Stories, and The Pacific and Other Stories), six novels (Refiner's Fire, Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir From Antproof Case, Freddy and Fredericka and, In Sunlight and In Shadow), and three children's books (Swan Lake, A City in Winter, and The Veil of Snows, all illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg), speak eloquently for themselves and are remarkable throughout for the sustained beauty and power of their language.

Reviews

[Bob Koelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took an inordinately long time to finish for me. His floral prose is more appropriate for the long form. If you're writing a three or four page story, I'm looking for more direct story-telling, and not such overlong descriptions of characters and settings, with whom we are only spending a few minutes. And some of the descriptions seemed overwrought to me as well, which surprises me. Helprin's language is what attracts me, as much as his story-telling. Perhaps it was just out of place.

[James Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An utterly wonderful used-bookstore find. I picked this one up purely off the author's name. I've read Helprin's 'Winter Tale' (and been delighted by it) and so figured a book of short stories by him couldn't be bad. And I was not wrong. This book is masterful. Helprin has a easy, compelling prose style and his stories are imaginative and evocative to the core. Each story here is well worth the read, but I'll mention that I particularly enjoyed 'On the "White Girl"' and 'A Dove of the East'. Both of those stories...oof. Pierced me through to the heart. Helprin writes with heart and grace and I am grateful that I was able to read this one.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful short stories from Mark Helprin. His first published work. Some hits, some misses, but all characterized by Helprin's fabulous descriptions--of nature, of personalities, of lives exuberantly lived. One can see the outlines of the talent that would produce his great later books.

[Arnie Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had trouble relating to many of these stories. Rich on descriptions of the environment, no attention to the actors.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am having a hard time judging this. Part of the issue is that these are first stories that are collected and published in 1975. The preoccupations of literature were different. Many of these were in the New Yorker and I definitely have an odd relationship with NYer style stories.

I love Raymond Carver, mostly, but his success caused a move towards a certain type of literate story telling. Maybe.

I feel cheated when reading these stories. I find the emotional heft missing and I can't put in the missing pieces. It is told by an author whom I cannot relate to. Even though he does have agriculture in his background, he is from Manhattan. I don't always find the lives of the characters convincing.

A couple of these stories shine and maybe then they really spoke. Regardless, the writing is good. I have a novel of his that I will give a chance. It was written after most of these stories. Maybe with more time and space, I will grow to love a character.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story in this book is gorgeous. I love Mark Helprin, and I wish I could say that I found this book to be as flawless as ELLIS ISLAND AND OTHER STORIES or WINTER'S TALE, but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it. It's obvious that some of these stories were written when Helprin was younger and had yet to fully marry his way with words to his poetic vision, but let that not be too great a detraction from this wonderful, wonderful book of short stories.

To read these stories is to be uplifted. They are meditations on beauty, love, right and wrong, and truth. Helprin has a sound heart. Take his heart to yours.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a lover of short stories, because I feel the author should share his vision of completion. But that’s just me. These stories, for the most part, I enjoyed, and I didn’t mind putting my own conclusions on them.

[Laurie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was quite a departure from what I love about Mark Helprins writing, couldn't finish it, very disappointed.

[Teresa Mader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a quick read, and I enjoyed the stories.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

“…the war having taught him both how temporary life is, and how valuable.”

“The greatness of the world he thought is not in anything man has done but in what God has done.”

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tags: sentimental fiction, fantasy, romance, character-oriented, female beauty, romance, war, sadness, escapism

[Cliff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read first a long time ago. I didn't remember any of these stories at all. Didn't have much impact for me this time around.

[Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rounding the rating up to 5/5 on the strength of the best selections which are quite affecting.

[Lcohen1000gmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved

[Steve Saroff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title story... brilliant emotion. It still haunts me.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The landscape imagery in many of these stories is incredible. Sometimes it feels like Helprin is using characters solely to convey the story of a place. As in his other fiction, here Helprin writes idealistic characters like no other. The interests in truth, beauty, and justice that permeate his other works are here as well. Some of these stories felt a little incomplete or not fully realized, but even those had their charm. There is often a magical quality to Helprin's writing, and some of these stories felt like fairy tales.
My favorites were "A Jew of Persia", "Katrina, Katrin'", "Shooting The Bar - 1904", "The Legitimacy of Medium Beauty", "The Home Front", "Elizabeth Ridinoure", "Back Bay Conservatory", and "A Dove of the East".

[Moses · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to return this book to the library, so I couldn't finish the last story. But I doubt it would give the lie to the impressions I got from the rest of the book.

This is early Helprin. It's clumsier and more formulaic than Winter's Tale or Freddy and Frederica.

In these stories, Helprin's characters are much the same: beautiful, world-weary, tanned, exotic.

It's like a multi-national Great Gatsby with Jewish sophisticates falling into long, depressing love affairs and ruminating about them as the sea crashes hard upon the rocks like a child. (That was a Helprin sentence. I kid, I like the guy).

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helprin's short stories are as brief and intense as fables, and they have the same sort of mythic quality. The people in them don't talk much, but a single one of their gestures or observation speaks volumes. Somehow they are both spare and emotionally detailed. In tone they are generally tragic and romantic, culminating in the title story, in which which a lone ranchhand in post-WWII Palestine holds a kind of deathwatch over an injured dove. In less able hands this would just be four-hanky melodrama, but Helprin is a master.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume is better described as a collection of character sketches rather than short stories. Helprin tells fantastic tales in his novels, but this collection--while including some of his fantastical style--more often than not involves a short, sympathetic description of a one character and his tragic past or a brief period of his life. Especially touching are A Jew of Persia, Katrina Katrin', and A Dove of the East.

It was probably my least favorite of Helprin's fiction, but that is like saying it is the least favorite of favorites.

[Natalie Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! That's my review of this collection. Mark Helprin is a master of elegiac writing. Though he employs great simplicity in his style of writing, understanding his work requires thought. From reading this collection, I believe him to be one of the best contemporary American novelist! My favorites so far are "First Russian Summer" and "Katrina, Katrin." You can tell that he has used his life experiences to help in writing and also he believes in the power of his love. His words are beyond beautiful and I love the epigraph: "Love moved me and made me speak." -Dante's Inferno

[H.Friedmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Helprin is one of my favorite authors. All of his stories have an element of the fairy tale to them created by a certain style of writing. Even when the tale takes place in the world as we know it, there remains a mood that feels somehow magical and otherworldly.

That being said, this compilation somehow felt the darkest of all the ones that I have read, dealing primarily with Death and Loss. As a result, it may be my least favorite, but that doesn't mean it's any less excellent. So read it and enjoy.

[Paul Piro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories ??? Many struck me as little more then character sketches. Halfway through the collection I found myself shaking my head and somewhat exasperated, oh no, not another young woman with green eyes wearing a white dress. Last time I checked there are four seasons. Maybe pretty green eyed women in white dresses and young men captivated by them only come out in the autumn. Mark Helprin may have been young when these were written, in the thrall of love and still cutting his teeth on a literary career. That said he is a favorite author of mine, and I look forward to a next novel.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales richly evocative of the places they are set. Helprin seemingly writes with his passport as much as his pen, effortlessly taking us from country to country, and not in broad brush strokes but with colorful intimacy. Especially impressive considering these were all written in his twenties.

A bit passively delivered at times. But what they sometimes lack in urgency and pace, they more than compensate with exquisite subtlety and heartbreaking beauty. Timeless, gorgeous storytelling.

[Joe Holley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Helprin is not light reading. He is a master storyteller and his stories are filled with deep meaning and hidden gems of wisdom. His command of the english language translates into his writing which is impeccable creating a rich reading experience. My favorite story in this book was the title story "A Dove of the East". I have loved everything I have read by him and thoroughly enjoy reading great writing. A must read for Helprin fans.

[Stephen C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review of The Pacific and Other Stories. These are as good although not as well promoted. Helprin is amazing in capturing the emotion of who we ar eand what we feel and this is simply an extension of the Pacific and other short stories. Both collections are exceptional and should not be missed.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a few years since I last read these stories, but they never fail to satisfy when picked up again (and again) - this is an ideal book for a country house bedside shelf. I cite the Boston portrayed in "Back Bay Conservatory" as the one I grew up in and loved, and which has utterly vanished under the present day's affluent suburbanized-world-city synthetic pseudohistorical gloss...

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended to me by someone at work, I decided to give this anthology a try.

The stories are beautiful! A trend I picked up on was the glorious prose followed by a devastating twist in the tales. Beautifully written; I only regret it took me so long to pick it up to finish the last story.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this four stars instead of five because the stories are not all of equal caliber. Some of them felt forced, as if they were trying too hard to be literary. But those are the minority. The majority of the stories were brilliant, and in the span of a few pages caught me up completely.

[Rose]

This is Helprin's first published book, a collection of short stories, exquisite gems. These word pictures are all very poignant and perceptive, mostly exotic and many with a Jewish background. They alternate between male and female protanganists.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like taking a course on how to write amazingly.