Winter's Tale Audiobook By Mark Helprin cover art

Winter's Tale

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Winter's Tale

By: Mark Helprin
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
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About this listen

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
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Ireland
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Critic reviews

"This novel stretches the boundary of contemporary literature...is a gifted writer's love affair with the language." ( Newsday)
All stars
Most relevant  
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.

I thought I was going to love this

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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.

Wandering story

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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.

Wow

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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.

Interesting(ish).

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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.

Brilliant reading

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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

Confusing

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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!

I wanted to like this book....

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What aspect of Oliver Wyman’s performance would you have changed?

Oliver Wyman did a very good job with a variety of character voices. There was one older woman's voice that sounded horrible to me, but she had a very small part and honestly, he was probably out of options to make it sound different.

Any additional comments?

There were moments when the author's description for something went on and on . . . . and on. There were lists of words that seemed never ending and added nothing to the description as the point had been made with the first word. It was as if the author wanted to use every big word he'd ever come across or looked up. Rather than it being impressive, it was incredibly boring and frustrating. In addition, the plot had a lot of holes and never culminated into anything worthwhile. I'd like to have these 28 hours of my life back! This is possibly the only time ever that I think the movie will be a better choice than the book.

What an overly descriptive and boring story

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His worst book. Way too long. First 1/3rd is excellent, but the rest is a serious
waste of time.







Disappointing.

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i wonder if the movie was better? I just could not get into this story.

Boring

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