Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and nominee for both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the American Book Award, these ten stories and the celebrated title novella are “beyond compare . . . [Helprin’s] imagination should be protected by some intellectual equivalent of the National Park Service” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
PRAISE FOR ELLIS ISLAND
"It's genius. . . . Ellis Island ascends to the peak of literary achievement." - The Boston Globe
"Such an ambitious reach is almost unheard of in our short fiction." - The New York Times Book Review
"Constant brilliance . . . Rarely less than breathtaking . . . every single story sings with purity, vibrates with light."- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
"It's genius. . . . Ellis Island ascends to the peak of literary achievement." - The Boston Globe
"Such an ambitious reach is almost unheard of in our short fiction." - The New York Times Book Review
"Constant brilliance . . . Rarely less than breathtaking . . . every single story sings with purity, vibrates with light."- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
About the Author
MARK HELPRIN is the acclaimed author of Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Freddy and Fredericka, The Pacific, Ellis Island, Memoir from Antproof Case, and numerous other works. His novels are read around the world, translated into over twenty languages.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Educated at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, MARK HELPRIN served in the Israeli army, Israeli Air Force, and British Merchant Navy. He is the author of, among other titles, A Dove of the East and Other Stories, Refiner's Fire, Winter's Tale, and A Soldier of the Great War. He lives in Virginia.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By E.S. Kraay
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am not a regular reader of short stories. In general, I do not like them. Still, as a Mark Helprin fan, this is one of his few works that I had not read. I pressed on ... when I concluded the final story, Ellis Island, I felt completely satisfied with the journey. If you've never read Helprin, I believe "Ellis Island" and "A Vermont Tale" are most representative of his longer works. Each story will tempt you to read his novels, all of which are poetic magic. As I read through these stories, I saw glimpses of each subsequent novel, particularly my favorite, "A Winter's Tale." If you've read Helprin before, you owe yourself the time to read this collection. If you are new to Helprin, this work will encourage you to read more.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
My first encounter with Mark Helprin was his long novel, Winter's Tale. I thought it was perfect: glorious and mysterious, realistic and magical, funny and fantastic and wondrous and sad. It was almost too much of a good thing; sort of like chocolate decadence topped with mocha ice-cream and drenched in hot fudge sauce.
The stories in Ellis Island and Other Stories offer the same enticing overdose of goodness but in smaller doses. Lest you be thrown off by the cover or the title, these stories are definitely not history or even historical fiction. They are not exclusively about immigrants, Europe or the War, although threads of these subjects do run through them.
The title story, Ellis Island is the longest and the last. It is about the Ellis Island and immigration, of course, but it is also fantastic fantasy complete with a wonderful machine that melts the snow from the streets supported only by its own jets of fire, the Saromsker Rabbi and his glorious sermon on bees, the lovely Hava, and Elise, whose hair is nothing less than a pillar of fire. Of the eleven stories, Ellis Island comes closest to Winter's Tale in its spirit of fantasy, although A Vermont Winter best describes the perfection of a deep Northeastern snow. As in Winter's Tale, in Ellis Island, Helprin is not averse to destroying beautiful things for the sake of a larger good, even if the logic of his narrative does not demand that he do so. But that, you see, is Helprin; for him death is just another part of art.
All of these stories are brilliant and all of them are beautiful. In The Schreuderspitze, a photographer deals with tragedy in the luminous beauty of the Alps; in Letters from the Samantha, questions of humanity and guilt are dealt with on an iron-hulled sailing ship in 1879; in Martin Bayer, we get to know a small boy on the eve of war; in North Light and A Room of Frail Dancers, we glimpse the devastating effects of battle on soldiers. La Volpaia is wonderful, wise and witty and Tamar is nothing if not lovely in the extreme. White Gardens and Palais de Justice defy any sort of description; you simply must read them and then savor them yourself.
Anyone who has read any of Helprin's other works knows he certainly has a way with words. Here are words from the end of Tamar that not only describe the story's beautiful seventeen year old protagonist, but serve to sum up this volume as a whole: Perhaps things are most beautiful when they are not quite real; when you look upon a scene as an outsider; and come to possess it in its entirety and forever; when you live in the present with the lucidity and feeling of memory; when for want of connection, the world deepens and becomes art.
These stories are nothing if they are not art.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this beautiful short story collection after just finishing all of Helprin's lengthy novels. I was surprised that a writer who produced such brilliant long works of fiction (A Winter's Tale and Soldier of the Great War) could write just as well in a short story format. These stories are incredible. The one about the loons in Vermont is one of the most devastatingly haunting stories I have ever read. The opening story is one of my favorites as well. After finishing all of Helprin's works, I'm convinced that he's one of those rare writers that inspires you to want to walk around in his mind for a day to see how he pens such memorable works.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A terrific collection of stories
I love this book! In particular I like the story The Schreuderspitze which I've reread many times. I have even assigned these stories to students, mostly Freshmen, in my college... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Garth Novack
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Lyrical Collection of Short Stories in the Style of Magical Realism
Mark Helprin is the author of one of my favorite novels, Winter's Tale. In this collection of short stories, he again shows the beauty of our language through his utilization of... Read more
Published on May 18, 2009 by Bonnie Brody
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical!
Few writers can evoke a sense of place and mood like Helprin. The first story, "The Schreuderspitze", is as mystical and moving a story as you'll ever read. Read more
Published on July 31, 2001 by Michael J. Edelman
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a Good Jumping-Off Point
I have to preface my comments by stating that though I was dissappointed with this collection, I remain an ardent fan of Mark Helperin. Read more
Published on June 10, 2000 by Bruce Kendall
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lyricism at its best in the short story
Mark Helprin's writing provides a wonderful experience somewhere between the pruned brilliance of Hemingway,the lyricism of Pasternak, and the surreal vistas of Garcia-Marquez. Read more
Published on April 14, 2000 by James A. Scott
4.0 out of 5 stars
A rich collection of short stories
Mark Helprin is one of the few authors I've read that makes me forget I am reading, i.e. his words create such a strong sense of place that I lose myself in his stories. Read more
Published on February 23, 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
The magic and poetry of the human soul
In "Ellis Island" you will find both the magic
which made "Winter's Tale" rich in texture and
also the soul searching agony one finds in Truman... Read more
which made "Winter's Tale" rich in texture and
also the soul searching agony one finds in Truman... Read more
Published on June 26, 1997
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 5
books:
18
books
cite this book:
See all 18 books citing this book
- Swan Lake by Mark Helprin in Front Matter
- Memoir from Antproof Case by Mark Helprin in Front Matter
- A Dove of the East And Other Stories by Mark Helprin in Front Matter
- A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin in Front Matter
- Ellis Island by Instructor Books in Front Matter
- Changing the Bully Who Rules the World: Reading and Thinking aAbout Ethics by Carol Bly in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters by Michele Slung in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Schocken Book of Contemporary Jewish Fiction by Ted Solotaroff in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Memoir from Antproof Case by Mark Helprin in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation from People Who Know a Thing or Two by James L. Harmon in Back Matter
See all 18 books citing this book
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Listmania!
|
|
