2024 the best noble in another world review

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(as of Nov 16, 2024 13:01:08 UTC - Details)

An epic love story set in post-war New York, by the best-selling author of Winter's Tale.

In the summer of 1946, New York City pulses with energy. Harry Copeland, a World War II veteran, has returned home to run the family business. Yet his life is upended by a single encounter with the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale, as each falls for the other in an instant.

They pursue one another in a romance played out in 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 threatens his life.

In the end, Harry must summon the strength of his wartime experience to fight for Catherine, and risk everything.

“In its storytelling heft, its moral rectitude, the solemn magnificence of its writing and the splendor of its hymns to New York City, [In Sunlight and in Shadow] is a spiritual pendant to Winter’s Tale and every bit as extraordinary...Even the most stubbornly resistant readers will soon be disarmed by the nobility of the novel’s sentiments and seduced by the pure music of its prose.”—Wall Street Journal

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0544102606
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; First Trade Paperback edition (October 1, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 720 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780544102606
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0544102606
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.76 x 8 inches
Reviewer: R. Pryor
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The raves I understand. The pans not so much.
Review: An aggregate rating of three-point-six stars? Three-point-six? Really? You people are nuts. If I could write like Mark Helprin, I would ask for nothing more out of life. In my ideal world, if you give one or two stars to a Mark Helprin novel, someone comes out to your house, slaps you, and takes away your Kindle. I'm only giving this book five stars because there is no six. It's right up there with Helprin's other masterpiece of New York life, "Winter's Tale."On the surface, this story is about an American Jew who served as a parachutist with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII, and he's now freshly home in postwar Manhattan where he's inherited his father's business and proceeds to fall deeply and passionately in love with a young heiress/Broadway actress. On top of this, he has to deal with a Mob boss who's out to bankrupt him, or worse. That's what the book's about on the surface. But in every paragraph, every line, and every word, what it's REALLY about is the necessity to live life by a code, by a set of values that, if you believe you have a soul, you can't ever surrender or compromise. It's about living life as if the good were always eventually, someday, rewarded, evil always punished, and we all lived forever, despite the fact that none of those propositions is true. We all know the good and the beautiful are sometimes defeated utterly, and we all die, and this book is kind of an extended answer to those bleak truths. It's also, in itself, as beautiful as a hand-painted porcelain vase. Harry, the protagonist, is about as quietly tough as it's possible for a man to be, but he also has an eye for beauty that really only Mark Helprin could have, and an open, lively intelligence and curiosity about the world that make him relatable to the ordinary reader.I should mention that if you're a reader who's used to a very spare, stripped-down, Hemingway-esque prose style, you should know going in, that's not Helprin by a longshot. His writing is lyrical, poetic, high-flown, full of striking images, metaphors, and superlatives, with brief diversions to reflect on the nature of this and that. Some people might find his style ornate or florid; I just think it's beautiful. Keep in mind, you don't need to do a book report or write a term paper on the book - just do what I did and let all the imagery and language and metaphor just wash over you like a waterfall. Don't analyze or parse it, just read it. By the time you finish, I think you'll realize, the effect of the language and style is cumulative, and ultimately it's part of what makes this book so deep and profound, the kind of book you'll be thinking about for days.We were all born to do certain things, whether we ever find them or not. Mark Helprin is lucky enough that he's doing exactly what he was born to do: write deep, thoughtful, profound, emotionally moving novels about hard choices, fragile beauties, and the people and places he loves.

Reviewer: febnyc
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A bit disappointing...
Review: ...for an author of the quality of Mark Helprin, that is. I have read just about everything Mr. Helprin has written, including all of his short stories. I would say he is my favorite American author and one of the most talented anywhere. His beautiful use of the English language always has thrilled me and I've wandered with him through all sorts of fantasies and settings. In "In Sunlight and in Shadow" I think he goes over the top. Over the top, that is, with his descriptive powers. Every movement, every thought, every situation is limned with an overflowing cataract of words. It seems like this marvelous author was trying too hard - when it all could have been told, just as vividly, in half the time. Oh, the story is compelling - fantastic, of course - but lovely and moving. But I tired near the end and wanted it to be over. Never before have I felt that way as I completed a Helprin work - it's a shame. However, recommended - since mediocre Helprin still is better than top-notch anyone else!

Reviewer: Peter Lake
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Helprin's prose conquers all
Review: As a long time fan of Mark Helprin I Iooked forward to his next major novel with great expectations. That it did not live up to the standards of Winter's Tale and Soldier ofthe Great War is more a tribute to the singular genius of those works than a knock on Sunlight and Shadows. It would equilibrate to asking why Tolstoy never met the standardof War and Peace as great as his other works were. Or suggestive of that timeless response of Joseph Heller to a critic he met at a cocktail party who asked "Why have you neverwritten a greater book than Catch 22? To which Heller replied, "Who has?" As usual Helprin mixes deep serious questions with his irrepressible wit. There are so any hilarious lines in the book to relieve the foreboding you sense as the plot windsto what turns out to be an inevitable climax that it makes wading through the emulsive descriptions of sunsets, winds, weather, buildings worth the effort. The characterof Harry Copeland is a gem as is the love of his life. Helprin takes off into a kind of crazy tangent with the threat and the ultimate resolution of the mafia threat but if you'veread him enough you realize that like much of the novel, it's kabuki theater. He's using the mafia's threat to Harry as a stinging metaphor for the unrelenting corruption thatwas New York in that era and by the way, is not much better today. His crucial central point was that the orchestration of political, police, union and organized crimecorruption had become such a way of life that to have the sheer effrontery to challenge it as Harry does, leads one to suspect he might be a bit dotty. Defending the legacyof Copeland leather also speaks to a far bigger issue and that is the coarsening of man's work, the acceptance of the shoddy, the shrinking demand for the slavishquality of goods only pride could produce. As ever reading Helprin astonishes us with his command of the English language that soars to Shakespearean heights as few other modern writers have,or have caredto produce. Is this his best ever? No. But B list Helprin is better than most every other A list novel you can think of. And that' no small accomplishment. A great read.

Reviewer: M. J. Creen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Just like Mark Helprin's other work, his prose is rich and his stories are full of warmth for humanity.

Reviewer: minette
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Love is nearly idyllically wonderful at the beginning of the story. All the hidden feelings and stirring emotions in a relationship are beautifully described.War is described in such reality later on, you nearly feel the bomb blasts. Descending from a plane into enemy territory as a paratrooper, is chilling. War as part of life to many and how they live afterwards is described very well.The horrible climax of death as though by accident, is kind of stunning.This book certainly is to me, one of the great love stories of all time...like Abelard and Heloise...a time past, and filled with reality, unreachable, but dream-able.Inspiring with seriously well-written language.Liked it a lot.

Reviewer: Jerry Tollinsky
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is excellent on many platforms. Helprin is a brilliant author. His use of language is briliant. He tells so may realistic truths in a work of fiction. I was advised to read his short stories first. I will go back now and become a serious fan. You may want to have a dictionery handy some times.

Reviewer: Mrs Jill E Carter
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Totally brilliant book. I loved the previous one I read 'A Winter's Tale' and this one is equally good. A riveting story, engaging characters (apart from the nasty ones!), beautiful prose. i'm sure I'll read it again and again, one my all-time favourites,

Reviewer: Caryl Sinclair
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I read the end of this book at least 5 times. Helprin captures love, in all its senses. The language is breathtaking.I highly recommend this to any reader who is interested in "literature".