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  • Winter's Tale

  • By: Mark Helprin
  • Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
  • Length: 27 hrs and 46 mins
  • 3.3 out of 5 stars (1,101 ratings)

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Winter's Tale

By: Mark Helprin
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
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Publisher's summary

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
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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)

What listeners say about Winter's Tale

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    320
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    227
  • 2 Stars
    165
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    55
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Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
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    241
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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    156

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Brilliant reading

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.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Confusing

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

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book....

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!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

What an overly descriptive and boring story

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.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing.

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







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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Boring

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

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

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.

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4 people found this helpful