Winter's Tale

De: Mark Helprin

Narrado por: Oliver Wyman

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

"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.

I thought I was going to love this

Update: After taking a break, I came back to this book, and I’m glad I did. I still found it rather unbearably long and overly detailed. However, the story does all tie together if you have patience, and it’s a good story. So I’m revising my rating. However, if you are not fond of long, detailed books, this one probably isn’t one you will enjoy.


I read this book long ago. So long ago, I don’t remember when, and I don’t remember much about it. I just remember that it felt magical, and I loved it. Then I watched the movie last year, and while I liked it, the story didn’t match my memory of the book. So when I purchased this as an audiobook, I fully expected to enjoy listening to it. Unfortunately, I’m not.

I’m on Chapter nine, and I’m stopping. There are so many tangents, and so much pointless detail. And now what seemed like the main story has disappeared, and a different story is taking its place. I’m thinking (hoping) it will tie together again, but holy buckets...there are still twenty two hours left in this book. I’m not enjoying it enough to want to slog through all of that.

Maybe the problem is that my life has changed a lot since I first read this so it no longer speaks to me. I don’t think that’s the problem, though. I still really want to know what happens. I just don’t want to spend twenty two hours on description that gets a bit too enthralled with itself to find out. Although the writing is beautiful, it lingers like a self conscious teenager staring into the depths of an ornately framed mirror that shines as a ray of dusty light illuminates the air of the city, bouncing off of high windows before settling down to the streets where the inhabitants spend their days scurrying about, oblivious to the parting of the cloud wall that allowed the sun to reach out to them in a gentle caress.

Yeah, I just can’t continue. Maybe I’ll try again someday, or maybe not. I suspect that I skimmed through a lot of the detail to focus on the story when I read this all those years ago. Such skimming doesn’t work well with audiobooks.

Wandering story

What disappointed you about Winter's Tale?

This book is rich in descriptive detail, which is usually a plus, but here a lot of that detail is completely unrelated to the narrative and doesn't move the story along one bit. I continually find my attention wandering as the writer goes on at length about some minor character or setting. This could be a great book, if it was about 1/2 as long. Not surprising that many people said it was un-makeable as a film. I can't imagine the frustration the screen-writer endured in trying to wrangle this unwieldy thing down to 2 hours!

Has Winter's Tale turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. I still like fantasy and magical realism, but I won't bother with another book by this writer.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator has a bit of a grating and annoying voice with some of the characters, but is overall decent.

What character would you cut from Winter's Tale?

There are too many minor characters to remember them all. As noted above, this writer wanders off on tangents and a lot of them are about these non-relevant minor characters.

Any additional comments?

The film in this case is MUCH easier to follow than the book.

Wow

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

This book was not written for anyone with working brain cells.

What was most disappointing about Mark Helprin’s story?

The extreme abuse of the english language.

Which scene was your favorite?

Where after 7 hours of torture I turned the book off. That was the sweetest part.

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

Yes, I can and did turn it off and I can return it for my credit back. Awesome qualities!

Any additional comments?

I am all for magic, syfi whatever you want to through in there, fine. Just not in a Suessian way that hurts my head.

The narrator however is amazing! Oliver Wyman is the only reason I was able to listen for 7 hours. He took a dull piece of literary flotsam and did his best. Kudos to him for finishing the reading and doing it masterfully.

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.