I’m reminded of the thing Italo Calvino said: “Myth is the hidden part of every story, the buried part, the region that is still unexplored because there are as yet no words to enable us to get there.” A Winter’s Tale seems to be Mark Helprin’s attempt to mythologize the world, the time we live in. As this thing, which I will deem “human society,” progress ever forward, as our states and our economies become more consolidated and more powerful, and as we see what seems to be more chaos, more threats to our vitality, we lose, I think, our sense of meaning, our sense of purpose, and individually we become more disenfranchise and isolated from the system that’s been created. This just adds to the the chaos, to the depravity we witness. With this magical, mythological tale of superhuman characters living lives that span a hundred years to build bridges and to protect children and to fall in love with each other, I can see Helprin creating a story he hopes to become a myth. And he does it convincingly. Though I do not like all aspects of his story, I can say that it is beautifully written and that we do, in fact, need that myth that he is trying to create.

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A Winter’s Tale :: by (published 1983) read: 31 May 2002 rating: [+]

A Winter’s Tale ::
by (published 1983)
read: 31 May 2002
rating: [+]