Refiner's Fire (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Riding in a new 1938 Ford through the March countryside of North Carolina, Paul Levy was astonished by the tranquility and depth of the blue..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Marshall Pearl is orphaned at birth on an immigrant ship off the coast of Palestine in 1947, then brought to americanca. His experiences take him from the Hudson River Valley, to Harvard, to sea on a British merchant ship, then finally back to his birthplace, where he serves as an Israeli soldier in the Yom Kippur War. “Superb...A first-rate odyssey, full of insight and humor and hard-earned truths” (San Francisco Chronicle).

About the Author

MARK HELPRIN has written for the Atlantic Monthly, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and the New York Times, among many other publications. His collection The Pacific and Other Stories was published in the fall of 2004. He lives in Virginia.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books (October 20, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156762404
• ISBN-13: 978-0156762403
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #884,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fire burns, language soothes, December 23, 2000

By	J. Guberman (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best Fiction I have read in English since I read the translation of Milan Kundera's "Unbearable Lightness of Being". The beauty of the language is such that it would not be surprising if one required grief counseling after completing this book. The experience and beauty gained in the reading, is mourned soon after you have turned the last page and a feeling of loss descends upon you. Though the book is not sad. Completing it is. It is alive with the joy of lively and interesting characters who take you with them in their dreams and hopes for the future. It is only this that one loses by turning the last page. Intellectually a stimulating story and linguistically one of the best examples of how English should be written with an appreciation of the natural poetic imagery of the language.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best living writer of fiction alive today., October 16, 2001

By	archer "music lover" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

I started life reading all of the works of William Faulkner -- The best American writer of the 20th Century. Richard Powers is obviously a genius and a great writer. Don Dillio, John Irving, and especially Wallace Stegner are all great writers. But Mark Helprin is a true genius with language. After reading four of Mark Helprin's books, he comes closest to the magic writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, except I end up caring a gread deal more about his characters. "Winter's Tale" is remarkable. Just the language in "A Soldier of the Great War"; and "Memoir from Antproof Case" are worth reading. The brillance of the later works are evident in "Refiner's Fire".

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DO NOT READ THE ENDING FIRST, August 19, 1997

By	Randy Krieger "rkrieger2" (Birmingham, MI United States) - See all my reviews

If you do, you will deprive yourself of one of the joy's of reading this book. While endings typically conclude, surprise, or leave questions, Refiner's Fire does so much more: It affirms life. Read the book, page by page, and let the story carry you away. Then, as the pages remaining become thinner and thinner you will race to finish -- but you must not. Allow it to unfold and experience one of the most joyful and moving books ever. Just terrific