In Sunlight and in Shadow

By: Mark Helprin

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 29 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Mark Helprin’s enchanting and sweeping novel asks a simple question: can love and honor conquer all?

New York in 1947 glows with postwar energy. Harry Copeland, an elite paratrooper who fought behind enemy lines in Europe, returns home to run the family business. In a single, magical encounter on the Staten Island ferry, the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale falls for him instantly but too late to prevent her engagement to a much older man. Harry and Catherine pursue one another in a romance played out in postwar America’s Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine’s choice of Harry over her longtime fiancé endangers Harry’s livelihood - and eventually threatens his life.

Entrancing in its lyricism, In Sunlight and in Shadow so powerfully draws you into New York at the dawn of the modern age that, as in a vivid dream, you will not want to leave.

About the author: Mark Helprin was educated at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Oxford. He served in the Israeli military and the British Merchant Navy. He is the acclaimed author of Winter’s Tale and numerous other works.

©2012 Mark Helprin (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“In this prodigious, enfolding saga of exalted romance in corrupt, postwar New York, resplendent storyteller Helprin creates a supremely gifted and principled hero…Helprin’s suspenseful, many-stranded plot is unfailingly enthralling. The sumptuous settings are intoxicating. The novel’s seething indictment of mobster rule in the 1940s is bracing, and the lovers’ high-stakes predicaments are heartbreaking. Helprin’s personal articles of faith shape every scene as he expresses deep respect for soldiers, sensitivity to anti-Semitism and racism, and stalwart belief in valor and individual exceptionalism. So declarative is this philosophical tale that it can be read as Helprin’s spiritual and lyrical answer to the big, bossy, and enduring novels of Ayn Rand.” ( Booklist, starred review)

“Elegant, elegiac…A fine adult love story - not in the prurient sense, but in the sense of lovers elevated from smittenness to all the grownup problems that a relationship can bring.” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Glorious and golden, truly like reentering another world where another sensibility prevails and even the sunlight and shadow have a different weight.” ( Library Journal)

too slow and jumps all over.

struggled, I did not love this book. the storyline does not move along, and it jumps from idea to idea, making it difficult to follow. this would work in a fast-paced book, this is not a fast-paced book.

Incredibly tedious and pretentious

Would you listen to another book narrated by Sean Runnette?

Yes.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not for me. It is not a book I would recommend to any of my friends.

how did this book get published?

What disappointed you about In Sunlight and in Shadow?

overwrought prose, silly plot, characters not remotely believable

What could Mark Helprin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

listened to a good editor who might have trimmed the book down by half

What didn’t you like about Sean Runnette’s performance?

monotone style

Too Long to tolerate this narrator

If it were 8 hours, I might have gotten through it, but it was about 20 hours too long to suffer. The story sounded to great but narration didn't.

tons of long, detailed descriptions.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

storyline

What was one of the most memorable moments of In Sunlight and in Shadow?

i now am interested in war stories

Would you be willing to try another one of Sean Runnette’s performances?

he drove me crazy with to much long detailed descriptions. i would often forget what it was he was talking about. my mind wandering off and wishing to just hear story

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

sad

Any additional comments?

will avoid this author

Couldn't make it through this

What did you like best about In Sunlight and in Shadow? What did you like least?

Some of the writing was lyrical and well thought out, in individual small passages.These were limited to brief descriptions, or asides.I couldn't take the incredible overstating of how much everyone was in love, how perfect Catherine seemed, etc. etc. Catherine sounded like a nut job. Too many things in her behavior didn't add up. I just couldn't go along with any narrator or character who didn't see that. Everyone's behavior was destined to lead them to trouble, and it did. Big surprise. I couldn't take it any more, and read a summary of the end on the web, and saved myself 10 hours of listening to how these idiots managed to screw up their perfect lives.

Would you ever listen to anything by Mark Helprin again?

Not likely.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The Narrator was great, but the material was so fawning that it just sounded ridiculous.

Tedious

An expose of bombastic medifors and similes. Good basic story that is twice as long as it should have been. The narrator droned on and on with no variation in intonation nor rhythm.

Trying to repress memory

This is probably the worst book I've read on audible. It had been highly recommended by someone, so I ventured into this daunting, 4 part epic, over 30 hrs, that I had been led to understand was WW II genre, which it was not really. The book was disappointing on so many levels, the most egregious was the verbosity. The plot took many chapters to enter and the entire story could have been told in under 8 hours, not 30. The excess of description was downright annoying, with long, drawn-out pining over the hero's love, the mother of pearl buttons on her shimmering blouse, ad nauseum. I'm as romantic a woman as most, but this guy's superfluity of emotion was like wading thorough maple syrup. I kept fast forwarding, hoping to find something substantial as to the plot line. It was gooey wading.

The book was tedious, the narrator was annoying.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the author had taken out 90% of the adjectives, and if a different narrator had read it there is a possibility it would have been tolerable. I don't know about a 4 or 5-star experience.

What was most disappointing about Mark Helprin’s story?

The sappy love story. Really!

What didn’t you like about Sean Runnette’s performance?

He just droned on and on.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It could have been an interesting story. I really wanted to finish the book. I tried. I really tried. I finally had to give it up. I just couldn't do it any longer. The overblown writing was bad enough but the narration was exhausting.

Not good for listening

What would have made In Sunlight and in Shadow better?

Read the written word

What was most disappointing about Mark Helprin’s story?

Narration combined with incredibly detailed description of every breath and every button. Too much. I had to stop.

Would you be willing to try another one of Sean Runnette’s performances?

Probably not

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom