The Cloud Sketcher: A Novel [Paperback]

Richard Rayner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2002

In a tiny village in Finland, Esko Vaananen is at the brink of despair -- he loves a woman he can never have. Suddenly, in the magical light of the aurora borealis, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from the frozen lake and disappearing into the clouds above him. This pilvenpiirtaja -- "cloud sketcher" or skyscraper -- sparks a lifelong quest for beauty in Esko. He will pursue and protect these two passions -- his vision and his love -- no matter how great the cost, for the rest of his life. It is a journey that leads him into the Bolshevik revolution and the Jazz Age nightclubs of New York City and to strike a Faustian bargain with a ruthless gangster -- all in the pursuit of artistic perfection and impossible, unattainable love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Taking early skyscrapers' unlikely assault on the heavens as its central metaphor, this transatlantic Great Expectations of the jazz-age '20s spins a captivating, if somewhat improbable, tale of a disfigured Finnish boy's life quest for fame as an architect and his elusive true love. In 1901, three events shape 11-year-old Esko's future. He is burned and blinded in one eye in a fire. News reaches Esko's remote Finnish village of the country's first elevatorAan invention that immediately captures the boy's imagination. Then months later at the village fair, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful Russian girl, Katerina Malysheva, the unattainable daughter of the czar-appointed provincial governor. The years find Esko pursuing his dream as a draftsman in Helsinki, and Katerina engaged to Esko's best friend and colleague, Klaus. Surviving the Bolshevik revolution and Finland's own bloody civil war, Esko emigrates in 1922 to New York, where he works as a riveter on skyscrapers and saves the life of Paul Mantilini, who later becomes a powerful bootlegger. Esko gains an entr?e into New York's architectural world through a newspaper design contest and learns that Katerina is gaining fame in that city as a photographer. When he finally finds Katerina again, Esko has achieved a measure of professional success, but she is engaged to Manhattan blueblood Andrew MacCormick, who offers to finance the building of Esko's skyscraper. After he is arrested for MacCormick's murder, Esko seeks help from his gangster friend. Ultimately, Esko must put a price on his dreams, personal loyalties, honor and life. While the broad strokes of the story have often been seen before, Rayner (whose memoir, The Blue Suit, was widely praised) vividly captures details of Finnish culture, history and landscape and the developing architectural aesthetic of the age. This is an old-fashioned novel in the best sense: full of incident and passion, presenting a slice of history and relating a gripping story. (Feb. 11) Forecast: The generally unfamiliar territory of this novel should be an enticement to readers searching for a new fictional landscape. In addition, Rayner may flash on readers' radar screens as the author of Los Angeles Without a Map, which was made into a movie with Johnny Depp, and Murder Book, soon to be filmed by John Malkovich. Its confidence in this book's breakthrough potentialAbacked by a 6-city author tourAhas inspired HarperCollins to sign Rayner to write a sequel. Foreign rights have been sold in France, Germany and Finland.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This novel has all the ingredients of good historical fiction, including a strongly told story; an expansive, fascinating setting; and richly drawn period details. The story opens with a bit of a cliff-hanger as Esko Vaananen, a well-known Finnish architect, arrives in New York in 1929 aboard an ocean liner and is immediately arrested for murder. We then move back to Esko's sad childhood in rural Finland, when the country was under the rule of the Russian czar, although the political unrest of the Bolshevik Revolution stamped his student days. Esko's childhood fascination with the invention of the elevator--a credible metaphor for escape--leads him to his adult passion for architecture and the creation of skyscrapers, or "cloud sketchers." His other adult passion, for Katerina, a well-off Russian girl he met in childhood, is perhaps a bit hackneyed in design if less so in execution. But there is plenty else to enjoy in this novel, not the least of which is Rayner's depiction of glittering, Jazz Age Manhattan and the Mephistophelian Paul Mantilini, a professional gangster. Rayner is an eclectic writer, last year publishing the successful neo-noir mystery Murder Book, and his latest doesn't fit snugly into any category. Perhaps because of that, it is sure to delight a broad spectrum of readers. Brian Kenney
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060956135
• ISBN-13: 978-0060956134
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,817,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Instant Classic, June 4, 2001

By 

Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Cloud Sketcher (Hardcover)

It's unfortunate to me that so far this book hasn't attracted the widespread audience it deserves. It begins in Finland with a boy named Esko Vaananen who becomes obsessed with the skyscraper, or pilvenpiirtaja as he knows it. Shortly after he meets a young girl who entrances him, and his destiny converges in his quest for love, and his desire to be a brilliant architect. Spanning nearly thirty years and crossing from the frozen Finland tundra to The jazz infused gang run clubs of New York City Rayner's intricately researched novel certainly brings to mind comparisons with Ayn Rands, "The Fountainhead". Yet for many this will be a much more accessible novel. The dramatic journey the character goes through makes this book an obvious choice for a feature adaptation. A satisfying and wonderfully woven book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but flawed, July 23, 2001

By 

Richard E. Hourula (Berkeley, CA. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cloud Sketcher (Hardcover)

A man goes from harsh winters in rural Finland, to the fast-paced excitement of New York. A story I can relate to because it applies to my own father. It is also the story of Esko Vaananen, the central character of The Cloud Sketcher. Imagine my excitement at discovering a book that is set largely in the home of my ancestors! It's a grand tale too. Accurately telling the reader about Finland, it's Civil War, the Big Apple in the Jazz Age and the competitive world of architecture. The story also centers around the protagnist's undying love of a woman despite innumerable obstacles. Like many "epic" style novels, The Cloud Sketcher depends on repeated chance enounters and discoveries that stretch credulity. But what keeps this from being a great story and turns it into a flawed one, is the inexplicable actions of so many characters.

I think I love you after all. I suddenly don't love you. I don't really know you but I'll hire you. Get away from me, no, let's work together. I trust you, no, I want to destroy you.

Many characters are stick figures whose actions cannot be explained other than they help move the story along. I believe a good story is driven by characters, in The Cloud Sketcher, the characters exist to move along the the plot outline. Certain type of readers, such as myself, will still be unable to resist The Cloud Sketcher (architects, Finns, Jazz Age fans) but others will be quickly discouraged by characters acting out of... well, character.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cloud Sketcher, March 20, 2001

By 

evan dunsky (Venice, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cloud Sketcher (Hardcover)

I'm a big fan of Richard Rayner's work. I loved "The Blue Suit", "LA Without A Map", and "The Murder Book". "The Cloud Sketcher" is not only his most ambitious, but also his best book to date.

This book is a passionate love story that begins in the back woods of Northern Finland in the early 1900's and continues through the Finnish Civil War. It ends in New York during the twenties.

What intrigues me most about this book is that it captures a time and a place about which I knew very little. It's got everything: a wonderful love story, history, politics, architecture and murder and it's all interwoven in a very compelling way. I could not put this book down.

To me, "The Cloud Sketcher" delivers what I expect from great literature. I highly recommend it to all who appreciate beautiful writing, a riveting story, and a unique journey into an incredibly vivid world.