Mark Helprin

I tried to finish reading this book. I thought a great challenge would be nice. I also am not fond of overly historical books. This book went beyond what I would ever understand, and the only way to understand it would be to pull out maps and watch videos so I could relate to the umpteen places through which this plot gallops (like the gorgeous white horse character which I did love). It is TOO LONG! It uses every long and antiquated word it could find from every form of language from several countries. Seriously, any teacher who would assign this to even upper-level high school academic students would be an abuser, at best! I am a Southern gal raised to believe that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. (Sorry, Mama!) I actually went to Goodreads reviews first, wondering if anyone would agree with me. I don't usually see 1-star reviews. I saw a LOT of them! Most were saying exactly what I thought. I finished nearly 500 pages of this nearly 800-page book. Don't torture yourself further by getting it in print, as the actual book is very hard to hold. I have a background in Education. I won't tell you how many pages I would read six times each. I have three other books I needed to be reading, so after struggling on and off a month to finish this, I decided to call it quits. I had already gotten to the point of the story where the beginning-of-the-story characters came back into the plot. Instead of being excited, I thought, "NOT AGAIN!" If this book was re-written to flow better, explain more, use more simple language, and focus more on the interesting parts of the characters, this might be more of a success. I was OK with the mythical part. I LOVED the imagery until it was overused ad nauseam. Too many details, rambles, does not tie together well. I loved the title, the story about Peter Lake and Beverly Penn, and the majestic white horse. Pull out those characters, rewrite the story leaving out some of the unnecessary characters in the beginning, and you might have a romantic winner! I did think the artistic references and bridge engineering references were magnificent but really didn't tie into the theme. In fact, since I stopped reading Winter's Tale, I have no CLUE by over halfway through the book what the theme is. Well, at least I am ready to move on and read something more digestible. I will always attempt to read anything at least once!… (mer)