Paris in the Present Tense
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Narrated by:
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Bronson Pinchot
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By:
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Mark Helprin
About this listen
The New York Times best-selling author of Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War, Mark Helprin reveals a powerful, rapturous novel set in a present-day Paris caught between violent unrest and its well-known, inescapable glories.
Seventy-four-year-old Jules Lacour - a maître at Paris-Sorbonne, cellist, widower, veteran of the war in Algeria, and child of the Holocaust - must find a balance between his strong obligations to the past and the attractions and beauties of life and love in the present.
In the midst of what should be an effulgent time of life, with its days bright with music, family, and rowing on the Seine, Jules is confronted headlong and all at once by a series of challenges to his principles, livelihood, and home, forcing him to grapple with his complex past and find a way forward. He risks fraud to save his terminally ill infant grandson, matches wits with a renegade insurance investigator, is drawn into an act of savage violence, and falls deeply, excitingly in love with a young cellist who is a third his age. Against the backdrop of an exquisite and knowing vision of Paris and the way it can uniquely shape a life, he forges a denouement that is staggering in its humanity, elegance, and truth.
In the intoxicating beauty of its prose and emotional amplitude of its storytelling, Mark Helprin's Paris in the Present Tense is a soaring achievement, a deep, dizzying look at a life through the purifying lenses of art and memory.
©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2017 Mark HelprinListeners also enjoyed...
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Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love. Told from alternating points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair.
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Good, but not great.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-01-16
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Beautiful Animals
- A Novel
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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On a hike during a white-hot summer break on the Greek island of Hydra, Naomi and Samantha make a startling discovery: a man named Faoud, sleeping heavily, exposed to the elements, but still alive. As the two women learn more about the man, a migrant from Syria and a casualty of the crisis raging across the Aegean Sea, their own burgeoning friendship intensifies. But when their seemingly simple plan to help Faoud unravels, all must face the horrific consequences they have set in motion.
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please offer more of this author's books
- By S. Liskey on 07-20-17
By: Lawrence Osborne
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Netherland
- By: Joseph O'Neill
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Alone and un-tethered, feeling lost in the country he had come to regard as home, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure who is part idealist and part operator, introduces Hans to an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.
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Get Your Post-Colonial Gatsby ON!
- By Darwin8u on 04-13-12
By: Joseph O'Neill
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Hunters in the Dark
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh, and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense. Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve - pushing 30 and eager to sidestep a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher - decides to go AWOL. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future.
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Graham Greene
- By Foxhuntingman on 02-26-16
By: Lawrence Osborne
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Fury
- By: Salman Rushdie
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- Unabridged
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The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
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surprisingly good
- By David on 11-21-07
By: Salman Rushdie
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The Museum of Innocence
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Maureen Freely (translator)
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
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Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.
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one of the very best I've ever heard
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 03-06-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
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Driving on the Rim
- By: Thomas McGuane
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The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
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Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
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The Darling
- By: Russell Banks
- Narrated by: Mary Beth Hurt
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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The Darling is Hannah Musgrave's story, told emotionally and convincingly years later by Hannah herself. A political radical and member of the Weather Underground, Hannah has fled America to West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends and colleagues of Charles Taylor, the notorious warlord and now ex-president of Liberia. When Taylor leaves for the United States in an effort to escape embezzlement charges, he's immediately placed in prison.
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Complex and compelling
- By Ellen H. Anderson on 02-05-05
By: Russell Banks
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The Magus
- By: John Fowles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 26 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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John Fowles’s The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, and it continues to create tension and concern today.
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One of the best novels that I really think I hate.
- By Darwin8u on 01-29-14
By: John Fowles
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The Red-Haired Woman
- A Novel
- By: Orhan Pamuk
- Narrated by: John Lee, Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
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On the outskirts of a town 30 miles from Istanbul, a master well digger and his young apprentice are hired to find water on a barren plain. As they struggle in the summer heat, excavating without luck meter by meter, the two will develop a filial bond neither has known before - not the poor middle-aged bachelor nor the middle-class boy whose father disappeared after being arrested for politically subversive activities. The pair will come to depend on each other and exchange stories reflecting disparate views of the world.
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Drags On
- By T. Conrad on 10-25-17
By: Orhan Pamuk
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Bloodline
- By: Sidney Sheldon
- Narrated by: Jenny Agutter
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Elizabeth Roffe, only child of one of the world's richest men, has it all; beauty, intelligence, innocence and youth. But when her father dies, she discovers that she has inherited not only his vast pharmaceutical company, with offices and factories all over the world, but also an unspeakable terror that threatens to destroy the business. As she struggles to save the company that took her family four generations to build, she realizes that she herself is the target of an unknown assassin.
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Awful, I want my credit back.
- By Jojo on 12-23-19
By: Sidney Sheldon
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What listeners say about Paris in the Present Tense
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- EJH
- 11-16-17
A great listening experience.
A very good book well read. It took a little while to get into. But eventually I got into the rhythm of the book and didn’t want to stop listening.
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21 people found this helpful
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- Laura
- 06-18-18
Incandescent and uplifting! Beautiful!
When I first started this book, I found the French accents a bit jarring, but I persisted and in a short time, the narration was as beautiful and natural as the writing. The story is complex, with many threads weaving together, and many characters whose paths cross and uncross.
Getting to know the main character, Jules LaCour, reminded me of the Count in “A Gentleman in Moscow”. Both men are educated, erudite, philosophical, gentle, far-seeing and living in difficult circumstances not worthy of them.
The novel is like a slow burn, lighting up like a fire taking hold and bringing warmth, colour, leaping shadows and something of the sacred... Many times I became teary-eyed and felt that sense of loss when something brushes by and slips from your grasp. The novel is such a beautifully written story, with an over-arching tension, and love in all its forms - paternal, filial, romantic, humanitarian, hopeless, imaginary, patriotic, and eternal...
Kudos to Bronson Pinchot who brought the story even more alive and textured - if that’s possible. He added colour and drama to the characters, and his talent is supreme!
If you like a complex, philosophical, character-driven, intellectual and unusual story, you will love this novel. After you’ve read it and savoured it, I recommend A Gentleman in Moscow because both novels are masterpieces built around a character you would love to meet, respect and pay homage to!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Cynthia R Phillips
- 10-28-19
Pinchot tour de force
A lovely character study by Helprin...one of my favorite of his. The story is made wonderful to listen to by the excellent performance of Pinchot...every character distinct, every emotion palpable. Bronson Pinchot truly 'acts' as opposed to some narrators who simply read.
Being familiar with the compositions noted in the story, it was a bonus to be able to listen to those works in conjunction with the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Ben Hurst
- 08-25-18
The reader’s accents were distracting.
The book was fine, although I thought In Sunlight and in Shadow was better. The reader’s French accents were too frequent and thick for my taste, and distracted from the story.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jason
- 05-02-18
A beautiful book
I got this book from the daily deal special. so glad I did. I got this book from the daily deals special. So glad I did. it started out slowly but after a couple of chapters I was hooked. at times it was heartbreakingly sad, at others laugh out loud funny. throughout just full of life and love. a very special bonus is Bronson Pinchot. just more proof that he is one of my favorite narrators. so used to his work in science fiction that it was refreshing to hear him do modern fiction. highly recommended.
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- Watson's mom
- 11-14-18
Helprin Sucks You In
Mark Helprin offers another complex and engaging narrative masterpiece with an unforgettable protagonist. Jules, a 70 something Parisian who hides behind a simple facade, experiences a series of cascading events that lead to betrayal and death. Helprin's novel addresses themes of racism, intertwining Jules' memories of hiding from the Nazis with his Jewish parents during World War II with his experiences in French controlled Algeria and the racially motivated hate crimes plaguing contemporary France. Jules nostalgically longs for simpler times as he faces the dismissiveness of a high-tech world that treats everything as disposable, including people. Helprin creates a feeling of suspense as Jules' actions ensure inescapable consequences. While Pinchot's narration suits the novel and its characters, the audio quality sometimes lacks, requiring volume adjustment. Overall, the novel provides a satisfying listen that transports the reader to the Paris of the past and present. #PastMeetsPresent #Suspenseful #GoodGuyGoneRogue #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes
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- T
- 05-02-22
Excellent writing with a big but . . .
This book is lyrical and almost poetic at times, with a deep and appreciative view of life. It also has some surprises. For the most part I enjoyed it.
I took a point off because, despite the title, much of the book takes place in the past, and there is a huge emphasis on events taking place between Jewish people and Germans. I felt a little bit imposed on by the topic, particularly because I’m currently listening to another book in which that is a main theme. If I had expected it and chosen to take it on that would have been different.
That being said, the book is not heavy-handed or redundant, and in fact has thoughtful and introspective insights into love. Maybe a bit too much of the women all being beautiful and the main character obsessing about them.
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- Michael Mutal
- 06-09-18
Paris in it's Beauty
a wonderful tale about life in Paris for a slice of its people. the story is written beautifully and it is narrated superbly. It is a must-read for all
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-06-22
Phenomenal.
Just a spectacular book. Amazing story and highly relevant. Highly recommend. Love love love love
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- Eric
- 02-15-24
The intoxication of deprivation
Norms, loves, expectations dance in and out of view, held together by a thread of composed sound.
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