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)

NYC 2000 as imagined in 1983

Posted to Goodreads on 3/19/12:

This book was written in 1983 but released again in 2008 as an audiobook, which I picked up from Audible at a very good price. I liked the fantasy, magical sequences of the story and the portrait of New York City from the late 1800s to the year 2000 (the future, as of 1983). The story was slow to get going, although the "Gangs of New York" style of the beginning held my interest. Once some of the main characters really take the stage (Peter Lake and Beverly Penn), the pace picks up. On the whole, however, some of the fantasy borders on the juvenile, similar to the movie Polar Express, and some of the history seems incorrect. Also, when the author tries to imagine New York of the future and a cataclysmic event that could destroy the city, he does not reach his goal. That a character tries to build a bridge to see the face of God is difficult to consider seriously.

The book is really too long, but if you have the time, you may like the early approach to magical reality. The book has some similarities with Chronic City.

Hate the reader

I'm giving the story the benefit of the doubt since so many people love it, including my dad and several close friends, but I could not get into this audiobook at all, because the reader utterly fails to work for me. I see that Mr. Wyman has performed many prominent books, and perhaps his style works for some of them, but for this tale of magical realism I felt his reading took all the magic away and actively prevented me from believing in or caring about the story or the characters. My friend got a different audio edition from the library, and I wish Audible offered that one because it sounded a lot better.

Better than it seems...

It has been said that Wagner's music is better than it sounds. I found this novel better then it seems. The writing is like a bit of Voltaire mixed with C. S. Lewis. Winter???s Tale is not exactly a story, or even a tale, and the characters are not traditional, but this listen is gratifying, akin to viewing a beautiful image through a kaleidoscopic. Many, if not most, may find this kaleidoscopic experience confusing, disorienting and worthless, if not down right annoying. I found the writing pleasant and the underlying philosophy oddly fulfilling.

Messy but beautiful

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes - it is so absurdly romantic but so beautiful that all of the absurdity is forgiven. I didn't buy Wyman as the reader at first (I have read this book decades ago) but he grew on me and, by the end, I enjoyed his performance.

I wanted to love this...

The first part of this story kept me very interested and enjoying the characters. The second part was so mixed up and filled with crazy, even unnecessary characters that I was sad for the story to go so awry. The best part by far, was the narrator who made the characters live. I wanted him to go on even though the story needed to end.

Narrator ruined it for me.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I tried my best to adapt to the Narrator's Tales from the Crypt style affect. I failed. Disappointing. Reading the book on the other hand allowed a much more poetic universe unravel.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

How did the narrator detract from the book?

See above.

Interesting(ish).

Well written with interesting(ish) things... A (kinda) glossed over and sweetly realized story. Ater 8+ hours into it, I realized that I had JUST zoned (again) and missed an important happening....and... I needed to rewind. I suddenly realized that there was still more than 16 hours to go ...and kinda shuddered. That said it ALL. Oh well. Maybe I'll try it again a few years from now...but for now, ..it's just not my particular cup of tea.

Brilliant reading

Oliver Wyman reads Helprin's book with commitment and apparent pleasure. It's such a treat to listen to him. The writing is filled with glorious similes and metaphors, and the story is wonderful. Oddly, even though Helprin's writing is superlative, it doesn't ring as literature. That's okay.

Confusing

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

I really liked Mark Helprin's "Freddy and Fredericka", so I was surprised that I didn't like this one at all. I could even finish it. The writing included so many oxymorons that it got to be joyfully agitating (see what I mean? It didn't make sense). Also, I could understand the plot. It was weird.

What was most disappointing about Mark Helprin’s story?

I couldn't understand what was happening. It seemed like it was happening at a real point in history, but then there were really weird fantasy aspects to the story that I didn't understand. I just didn't understand the premise of anything in the story.

Which scene was your favorite?

I did like a scene where Peter Lake first arrives in New York, and he encounters the man with the monkey.

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

Confusion

I wanted to like this book....

Any additional comments?

I had heard good things about Helprin and perhaps I started with the wrong novel... but Winter's Tale was a wholesale letdown for me. Although the plot begins with modest promise, the character development is scattered and/or non-existent. Ten hours into the work, I find myself indifferent to the plight of any of the characters. The tone is frenetic. In some instances, it resembles a children's tale, penned with the same idealism and yearning you may find in a 'Chronicles of Narnia'. But then the lily-white protagonist beds-down with a home burglar for a one-night stand and any parallel to Lewis is lost for me. At the same time, the writing is far too whimsical & detached to be taken seriously as a novel or an epic. All sense of context was lost on me.

I am generally open to most Audible narrators, and even if one may not be my favorite, I can adapt to their pacing and cadence after a few hours. I wish I could have said the same for Oliver Wyman. His voice is high and felt affected throughout, as if he were reading for a 30-second television spot as opposed to a 30-hour novel. A lot of forced emphasis.

At this time of this review, Winter's Tale has a 3.7 rating on Audible, so it's obvious that others have enjoyed. I, for one, would bypass.

p.s. in full disclosure, I did listen to this book after completing East of Eden, which is one of the best audiobooks I have ever heard... tough to follow that one!