A Dove of the East: And Other Stories
by Mark Helprin
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Description
In these twenty stories, Mark Helprin offers a series of meditations on some of humanity's most enduring and universal questions. At the hour of his death, an American priest in Rome must choose between his church and his God. A young man finds love in a hot, dirty typewriter-ribbon factory in the Bronx. A Dutch child in a Canadian orphanage carries the pain of war and her love for her family in her heart. An Israeli scout risks the safety and respect of his comrades in an act of show more transformative charity. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Twenty short stories by Mark Helprin. Although reviews of the stories seem to find a theme, I didn't find one. Instead, I was caught up in the beauty of the writing, the descriptive phrases one of Helprin's greatest talents. If you want your stories' endings tied up neat and proper, these stories are not for you. They leave so much to think about that I had to put the book aside after each story. I'm a great fan of Helprin's longer novels, and I'm pleased to find that his short stories have the same visual essence.
More elves disguised as humans, and Rivendell disguised as Maine. I like that Helprin inspires us to see the transcendence of the world -- to see it as transcendently lovely, transcendently cruel, as a living artifact of the creator's might and incomprehensibility. That said, despite much, much beauty, I found myself wanting to stop reading.
Levi learned that soft lesson, and it became the steel of his life
4.7.08
Levi learned that soft lesson, and it became the steel of his life
4.7.08
Short stories (which I generally don't like to read) by a writer I like.
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Author Information
21+ Works 13,815 Members
Mark Helprin was born in Manhattan, New York on June 28, 1947. He received degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and did postgraduate work at the University of Oxford, Princeton University, and Columbia University. He has served in the British Merchant Navy, the Israeli infantry, and the Israeli Air show more Force. He is the author of numerous novels including Refiner's Fire, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir from Antproof Case, Freddy and Fredericka, and In Sunlight and In Shadow. Winter's Tale was adapted into a movie in 2014. His short story collection, Ellis Island and Other Stories, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1981. His other short story collections include A Dove of the East and Other Stories and The Pacific and Other Stories. He also writes children's books including Swan Lake, A City in Winter, and The Veil of Snows. He has received several awards including the National Jewish Book Award, the Prix de Rome, the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award in 2006, and the Salvatori Prize in the American Founding in 2010. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Eine Taube aus dem Osten und andere Erzählungen.
- Original title
- A Dove of the East: And Other Stories
- Original publication date
- 1975
- Dedication
- For Theodore Morrison
- First words
- He had tried to explain for his sons the sense of mountains so high, sharp, and bare that winds blew ice into waves and silver crowns, of air so thin and cold it tattooed the skin and lungs with the blue of heaven and the bro... (show all)nze of sunshining rock crevasse.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But God protect it [the dove] if it should die alone, and God protect its poor family.
- Blurbers
- Cheever, John; Ozick, Cynthia; Adams, Alice; Wakefield, Dan
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 286
- Popularity
- 110,826
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.69)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 3
