Winter's Tale Readalong Post #3

Is anyone still reading? I know a lot of people dropped out and that some never started. I'm woefully behind, but if you're reading, please share your thoughts in comments so I can steal learn from them when it comes time for me to post.

Winter's Tale Readalong Post #2

Okay I didn't get up a post last week, because I admit that it took me awhile to get into the book and I was distracted by other things. But I forced myself to stay up and finish the section for today and I'm really glad I did because I'm becoming very enamored by the book. Like most readalong chunksters, it took about one hundred pages for me to become engaged because so much back story had to be laid. But the writing is very beautiful and descriptive, even if I feel Helprin has overused the word hiss.

So...some observations!

--This is a magical book, that much is clear half the time I have no idea what's going on. I sort of feel like I'm reading a story only getting some of it, because the world it takes place in is so completely different. But I sort of don't mind because it's so enchanting.

--Even though I was rolling my eyes at how Peter Lake and Beverly fell in love by merely looking at each other, their emotions feel so real. Peter Lake's dream of Beverly after she died was heart wrenching, the general urgency to their days as death approached felt so true.

--I love the way New York feels in this book--it feels so alive, teeming with feeling and emotion, a place where a mass of humanity collides and there's beauty and ugliness. I love the discussions of justice, that the contrast between the wealthy and the poor is something that plagues Peter Lake, that he's haunted by the vision of that sickly child he saw when he first arrived in New York. I think it's interesting that every time he brings this up, the wealthy have an excuse, a reason why there are poor people that pretty much frees them from all responsibility. But it's till not enough for Peter Lake.

--There's even a little bit of humor, though not enough. One of my favorites was when they sent a telegram telling them to look everywhere for Beverly, and the reply was, "where's everywhere" so they listed off all the places to look. I don't know why, but that really made me laugh.

--I guess ultimately I'm just really enjoying the way this book is so otherworldly, yet not, a little like a fairy tale, but not, with rich descriptive language and tackling big huge issues.

One of my favorite quotes so far:
"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."

Anyone else reading along? Please tell me what you think so far!

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin Readalong Schedule

This has been a really really bad reading year for me and I'm desperate to read something amazing. None of my previous readalongs have let me down, so I'm hoping this one doesn't either. My friend Shu, a relatively new book blogger, is cohosting with me at Read with Shu. Each Monday we'll have our discussion posts/thoughts on the section of the book we just read. I hope you'll join in!

Monday November 7th--Prologue, Part I: A White Horse Escapes through Beverly
Monday November 14th--Part I: A Goddess in the Bath through Aceldama
Monday November 21st--Part II
Monday November 28th--Part III
Monday December 5th--Part IV, Epilogue

I really really hope some of you will join us!

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin Readalong

A few people have been asking about this readalong--still doing it! But I'm pushing the start date back to the end of October because a brand new book blogger is co-hosting with me and her school work eases at that time.

So....get the book if you haven't yet and mark your calendars...I think this will be a great read.

Set in New York at the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, Winter´s Tale unfolds with such great narrative force and beauty that a reader can feel that its world is more real than his own. Standing alone on the page before the book begins are the words, I have been to another world, and come back. Listen to me. In that world, both winter and the city of New York (old and new) have the strength and character of protagonists, and the protagonists themselves move as if in a vivid dream. Though immensely complicated, the story is centered upon Peter Lake, a turn-of-the-century Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young heiress whom he encounters in robbing her house, and who eventually will die young and in his arms. His love for her, and a gift of grace, will allow him after the most extraordinary and painful explorations and discoveries to stop time and bring back the dead. To follow him, his predecessors, his inheritors, and his companions is to experience one of the great stories of American literature.