Winter's Tale

By: Mark Helprin

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 27 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A #1 New York Times Bestseller: Mark Helprin’s masterpiece transports you to New York of the Belle Epoque, to a city clarified by a siege of unprecedented snows…

A Winter’s Tale is a major motion picture starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, and Jennifer Connelly.

This is a book about the beauty and complexity of the human soul, about God, love, and justice, and yet you can lose yourself in it as if it were a dream. You will be transported to New York of the Belle Epoque, to a city clarified by a siege of unprecedented winters. One night, Peter Lake—orphan, master-mechanic, and master second-story man—attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the affair between the middle-aged Irish burglar and Beverly Penn, a young girl who is dying. Because of a love that at first he cannot fully understand, Peter, a simple and uneducated man, will be driven "to stop time and bring back the dead." His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and beset by winter, is a truly beautiful and extraordinary story.

©1983 Mark Helprin (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

"This novel stretches the boundary of contemporary literature...is a gifted writer's love affair with the language." ( Newsday)

AWFUL !!!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People who enjoyed Forest Gump (the book by Winston Groome) would love this long tedious story. Although , they would be disappointed that there is no monkey in this tale.

What was most disappointing about Mark Helprin’s story?

It made absolutely no sense.

I just wasted 27 hours of my life

Listen to anything... literally anything else. The narrator was great, but the story...just listen to something else.

So good until the last few pages

Loves this until the end. I hated the ending. Flying away to the city by the lake in the sky?!? Ugh, what a waste! I felt so let down and disappointed. Maybe the movie ends better. Gonna watch it now.

Endless self-indulgent word dump

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

A discernible plot, compelling characters that were more than just archetypes, Sentence structure instead of nonsensical word vomit.

What was most disappointing about Mark Helprin’s story?

The story aimlessly flits from event to event with no narrative thread to follow. The imagery is scatty, at times downright absurd: "Across the river was an eighteenth-century knoll with trees standing upon it like peasant women with arms akimbo, and the spotlight of the sun firing their green tops, while black shadows below suggested a grove of infinite proportions." What? The word dumps never end. I love words, I adore an original turn of phrase; I just think that they are best as a seasoning for the story, not as the ENTIRE book. If you prize random word pops and crazy-quilt imagery over story itself, this is the book for you.

TIME-CONSUMING PUZZLEMENT WRITTEN BY A SMART-ALECK

I was two-thirds through the story when Real Life intervened. Now a few weeks later, I have decided to just move on. I have a high IQ and college degree. But I don't need to prove to anyone that I can figure this guy out. I will say that his use of words is marvelous. I heard words I never heard before. Words combined to convey marvelous pictures. There is one small passage I found hilarious; a sort of factory overseer is explaining to the main character what is going on in the factory. The use of words is lovely. But I still could not see how this fit into the story. The author is self-indulgent! He cares little for his readers.

I hardly knew what country, what continent or what century the story was in at any moment. While I thought we were in NYC, I seem to remember going to San Francisco for awhile. The selling blurb is extremely misleading. I expected a romance and maybe some time travel. Something like Kate Morton's Forgotten Garden or Robert Nathan's Portrait of Jennie. Oh, no. The girl dies and her boyfriend even retreats from the story.

There's a lot of primitive travel in very cold conditions and the tale is too disjointed to have anyone stopping for cocoa or any kind of resolution. I keep track of the characters. I know when they bathe or sleep. This book just goes on and on and on . . . If you're under 30 and a literature major, then maybe you better give it a listen. You may live long enough to make some sense of it. Good luck! I'm bailing.

Never ending bordom

Couldn't get past part one of four, just seemed like a bad dream that wouldn't stop

As amazing now as it was 25 years ago

Would you consider the audio edition of Winter's Tale to be better than the print version?

I always have been a fan of printed word, and would be cautious of saying audio is better. Currently however I do not have the time available to read as I would like, but my drive to and from work make audio reading a good choice, and this audiobook is pure joy

What was one of the most memorable moments of Winter's Tale?

I originally read this book 25 years ago when I was in college. The beauty of the writing grabbed me them, and has grabbed me again in the audio version. I love the section in Grand central station when Peter Lake is up among the stars in the ceiling. Also when he first encounters Beverly and can't remember her eye color. Just the little details.

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has a very expressive voice, and very easy to listen to.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Over twenty hours, I don't think so.

Any additional comments?

Read or listen to this before the movie comes out in February.

Speechless

Mark Helprin's intimate relationship with language and the physical world in which he writes his stories is a genius I personally admire to no end. This particular story captures and encapsulates a fleeting moment in time, spread out over nearly 30 blissful hours of listening. The level of detail in which the story is told submerges the listener deep within the world Helprin has constructed, and the experience is pleasantly profound. The narrator is light, and adds appropriate emotion where it belongs. Combined, the narrator and story produce a unique audiobook experience I have yet to find a comparison for.

Avoid this bizarre book

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

Oh, let's see...a comprehensible narrative? or, perhaps a different narrator? or, I don't know, a book that didn't seem as if written on a drunken dare? Hmm. How about, all of the above.

What do you think your next listen will be?

A non Mark Helprin book

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His nasal inflected voice at times was very annoying.

What character would you cut from Winter's Tale?

Honestly, none of the characters were believable or even very likeable. They all just seemed to be bizarre cartoons.

Any additional comments?

I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks--a variety of genres and narrators. This is the first one that I could not bring myself to finish. I listened to about two-thirds before I finally listened to my wife's counsel of to just quit torturing myself. The book has nothing that compelled my attention. Just kind of wandered around, looking for a place to land.

Yuk

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

A believable story

Would you ever listen to anything by Mark Helprin again?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He didn't

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Winter's Tale?

The whole return to the area where he was found as a youngster with the street urchins.

Any additional comments?

Hated it