In this Sunday’s City section of the New York Times, the editors are asking readers which books are the new New York classics.
We here at OnePeople encourage each and every one of our loyal readers to nominate Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. Once you have read it, the book will inform everything you do as a New Yorker. But don’t take our word for it, Benjamin De Mott said as much on the front page of the New York Times Book Review:
“Is it not astonishing that a work so rooted in fantasy, filled with narrative high jinks and comic flights, stands forth centraally as a moral discourse? It is indeed….I find myself nervous, to a degree I don’t recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance.”
We here at OnePeople can’t think of higher praise, or a book more suited to being one of the “new New York Classics.” So how can we make sure Winter’s Tale gets the attention it deserves? You can start by commenting on this story, or mailing OnePeople directly, and we’ll make sure that it ends up on the City editor’s desk. Pass this message along to all your bookish friends, too — we need all the help we can get.
a technology job is no excuse 
It physically pains me that more people don’t know about this book. If it makes it into the Times list, maybe I won’t have to spend so much time at parties telling people that they have to read it. Though I’m sure I would just find another reason to bring it up…
LikeLike
Winter’s Tale is many things. It is a novel of possiblity, a story of love surpassing time, and a sweeping tale of the search for transcendent beaut and justice. Whatever a reader may find in it, it is, as much as anything else, a love poem to the city of New York. From her outer banks to her inner heart, Mark Helprin has heard her song and has made the voice of this great lady of our land reverberate through his work. Surely, an author can show no more love for a city…for its highs and lows, its splendor and squalor…than Mr. Helprin shows for New York in his novel, Winter’s Tale.
LikeLike
This is hands down one of the best books ever written. Indeed it is the one book that made me yearn to move to New York and the romance of this City. The romance and energy is still here, but it’s a very hard town.
LikeLike
Due to lack of time, I cannot put much, but I have to say that I completely agree with the other comments on how this is book is just so awesome and it has to do with New York. There’s no reason why this shouldn’t go on the list.
LikeLike
I have been waiting to hear the good news about Mr. Helprin’s writing for nearly 10 years. I have read his Winter Tale which was given Mr. Helprin in Latham, New York. Everyone in USA should be able to come to read his book.
LikeLike
I have been waiting to hear the good news about Mr. Helprin’s writing for nearly 10 years. I have read his Winter Tale which was given Mr. Helprin in Latham, New York. Everyone in USA should be able to come to read his book.
LikeLike
I have been waiting to hear the good news about Mr. Helprin’s writing for nearly 10 years. I have read his Winter Tale which was given Mr. Helprin in Latham, New York. Everyone in USA should be able to come to read his book.
LikeLike
Is the complete Benjamin De Mott NY Times Book Review of Winter’s Tale available anywhere on the web?
Thanks.
LikeLike
Winter’s Tale is a work of surpassing beauty, soaring prose and horses, in which New York City is itself a central character. It is a beautiful book that should be read by everyone, but certainly every New Yorker. I can think of no novel more worthy of inclusion on this Times’ list.
LikeLike