Memoir from Antproof Case

Rating:
Summary: Musical
Review: !
How to describe this book, except to say that I am grateful it was written and that somehow I found it?

I am not well read, certainly don't qualify as a literary critic, and am perhaps a little giddy after having just read Antproof Case for the third time. That said, this story is one of the funniest, liveliest, and saddest tales I have ever encountered. It speaks to me and I relish it like no other. Memoir from Antproof Case entertains, enlightens, and implores one to slow down and contemplate the good things in life--momentous things like love and family, smaller things like the beauty of a spring meadow or the joy of hard work and a job well done.

And while I am extremely wary of attempts to romanticize bygone eras--they inevitably gloss over yesterday's shortcomings and dismiss the countless benefits provided by human progress--Helprin has a way of making you wish for the pace and gentility of yesteryear.

As for the seemingly outlandish hero of our story, I have a feeling most of us can relate to "Oscar Progresso" upon considering his motivations. He is faithful through and through. His eccentricities and demeanor are cause for both hilarity and inspiration--if only I could live a life so true to myself.

Clearly this isn't a work for everyone; what story worth telling is? If you enjoy a great adventure, like to laugh, savor good prose, and admire world-class story telling, give this a try. It might be more than you bargained for.

Sheer genius!

Rating:
Summary: Pass the Kosher Turkey...
Review: And I'd just say, ladies and gentlemen, one of the qualities of American politics that distinguishes us
from other nations is that we judge our politicians as much by the manner in which they leave
office as by the vigor with which they pursue it. You do not lay claim to the office you hold, it lays
claim to you. Your obligation is to bring to it the gifts you can of labor and honesty and then to
depart with grace. And my time to leave this office has come, and I will seek the presidency with
nothing to fall back on but the judgment of the people, and nowhere to go but the White House or
home.

Six times - six times I've run for Republican leader of the United States Senate and six times my
colleagues, giving me their trust, have elected me, and I'm proud of that.

So my campaign for the president is not merely about obtaining office. It's about fundamental
things, consequential things, things that are real. My campaign is about telling the truth, it's about
doing what is right, it's about electing a president who's not attracted to the glories of the office, but
rather to its difficulties. It's about electing a president, who once he takes office, will keep his
perspective and remain by his deepest nature and inclination one of the people.

Therefore, as the campaign for the president begins in earnest, it is my obligation to the Senate and
to the people of America to leave behind all the trappings of power, all comfort and all security.

So today (Wednesday, May 15, 1996) I announce that I will forego the privileges not only of the
office of the majority leader but of the United States Senate itself, from which I resign effective on
or before June 11th. And I will then stand before you without office or authority, a private citizen,
a Kansan, an American, just a man. But I will be the same man I was when I walked into the room,
the same man I was yesterday and the day before, and a long time ago when I arose from my
hospital bed and was permitted by the grace of God to walk again in the world. And I trust in the
hard way, for little has come to me except in the hard way, which is good because we have a hard
task ahead of us.
-Bob Dole's resignation speech from the U. S. Senate (written, at least in part, by Mark
Helprin)

Since at least the publication of Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin has been hailed as a writer's writer. This
generally means someone who gets stellar reviews from the critics for the quality of his prose and his
use of language, but who pays little attention to either formal plot or the desire of the average reader
to comprehend what the author's up to. I've read, or tried reading, all of his novels, many of his short
stories, and even his children's books, and I readily admit that while he does write beautifully at times,
I find it daunting to try to wend my through the 500 or so pages he typically serves up. I'm not
someone who is willing to forgo narrative structure just because the words are pretty.

However, especially in recent years, Helprin has emerged as one of the most graceful and consistently
insightful conservative columnists in America, writing mainly in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
In addition, in both the speech above and in the portion of the 1996 GOP Convention speech that he
wrote, Helprin performed the nearly miraculous feat of making Bob Dole sound eloquent. So I keep
reading his books, just waiting for the one that will combine his political ideas, his imagination, and
his beautiful language into a truly great book. In my opinion he still has yet to achieve this greatness,
but in Memoir from Antproof Case he seems to be getting closer.

For one thing, the book has a fascinating and frequently hilarious protagonist, an old man hiding out
from assassins in Brazil--a life as an orphan, fighter pilot, billionaire, murderer, and much more
behind him--consigning his colorful life story to the antproof case that will protect them so that his
wife's son by another man can eventually read them. The memoirs would be amusing enough on their
own, but even more enthralling are his obsessions and phobias, chief among them his hatred of coffee.
the "evil bean that enslaves half the world."

Though still an over bounteous smorgasbord of a book, it benefits from a much more defined sense of
narrative direction than some of Helprin's others and that goes a long way towards carrying the reader
through the lulls and misdirections. This isn't yet the great novel he's going to write one day, but it's
well worth reading.

GRADE : B-

Rating:
Summary: A juvenile exercise
Review: Helprin's prose always stood on the edge of an abyss of self-indulgence, and in "Antproof Case" it takes a big step forward. The author seems so worried about his readers noticing the plot's thinness and stingy doling of tired, obvious revelations that on every page he unleashes a loud literary diversion. Watching a writer stop just short of leaving a note at each chapter break which says, "admire me, respect me" is almost enough to engender sympathy. However, such an aura of smugness pervades the book that it's unlikely anyone will feel sorry for long. What could be amusingly picaresque in another's hands is made numbingly picayune in Helprin's, and in the end it's a shame the ants didn't get to the manuscript and save everyone a bit of trouble.

Rating:
Summary: Good book...
Review: I must confess, I originally picked this one up because of the cover. It had a P-51 on it and I figured that any book with a P-51 on the cover can't be all bad. I'm glad that I picked this book up. It was very well written and had probably one of the most interesting characters this side of Vonnegut. He seemed to have done it all and led a very interesting life. Mark Helprin's use of the language was fantastic and made me pick up other books by him.

Rating:
Summary: better than the Perils of Pauline
Review: Just reread the book, and I stand by what I wrote 8 years ago. Kosher turkey anus is still hilarious:

There ought to be a law against books this pleasurable--gusts of luminous description, earthy humor, and thrilling adventure physically restrained me from letting it leave my hands until I'd finished. A goofy American magic realist, Helprin shares Garcia Marquez's compassion and Rushdie's love of endless story. (Also, this forces fewer of his Republican interjections on you: he wrote Dole's goodbye-to-the-Senate speech.) Our hero, who may be named Oscar Progresso and then again may not be, gets blown out of airplanes twice, kills two men (both of whom richly deserve it), robs a bank, battles to the death with Walloons, has sex in a steamy pizza parlor, and wages a lifelong battle against coffee, the scourge of humanity. In a passage that had me laughing for several days, he is forced to eat kosher turkey anus at a company dinner. Later, he develops a taste for it. As soon as the book ended I wanted to start it again.

Rating:
Summary: Mark Helprin is greatest living novelist.
Review: Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale" was best novel I have read in the past 25 years. "A Soldier of the Great War" was also one of the best written novels I have read. "Memoir From Antproof Case" is right behind "Winter's Tale" in sheer writing virtueosity. Helprin can use words, images, thoughts, stories in a beautiful web. William Faulkner is greatest novelist in last 100 years, and Mark Helprin is greatest living novelist.

Rating:
Summary: Great novel ! ! !
Review: Read this book 1995 or 1996--tremendously enjoyable book.

Great writing style and a great story!

This book deserves more of a review than this, but I've forgotten much of it, other than the fact that it involves a hatred of coffee and a spy theme....and that I really, really enjoyed reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Indecently entertaining
Review: There ought to be a law against books this pleasurable--great gusts of luminous description, earthy humor, and thrilling adventure physically restrained me from letting it leave my hands until I'd finished. A lovably goofy American magic realist, Helprin shares Garcia Marquez's compassion and Rushdie's love of endless spirals of story. (Also, this forces fewer of his trademark Republican interjections on you; remember, he wrote Dole's goodbye-to-the-Senate speech.) Our hero, who may be named Oscar Progresso and then again may not be, gets blown out of airplanes twice, kills two men (both of whom richly deserve it), robs a bank, battles to the death with Walloons, has sex in a steamy pizza parlor, and wages a lifelong battle against coffee, the scourge of humanity. In a passage that had me laughing for several days, he is forced to eat kosher turkey anus at a company dinner. Later, he develops a taste for it. As soon as the book ended I wanted to start it again

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly engaging read
Review: This book was recommended to me as a must read for non-coffee drinkers around the world. Although not a coffee-drinker, I was relieved to find that the book doesn't hang on this! Not even remotely... Instead, Memoir from Antproof case is an amazing story from cover to cover!

I must confess, despite being a good read from cover to cover, I found it a little slow to get into the first couple of chapters or so of the book. The only thing that kept me going was the extraordinary fluid way the words flow across the page, seamlessly blending to create melt in your mouth sentences... Its hard to describe, but Helprin has a beautiful command of the english language and if all his work is like this, he can probably make the dryest legal document readable...

However, after the first couple of chapters, the plot explodes to completely engage the reader - and a couple of VERY late nights ensued while I powered through the rest of the book... And Helprin's beautiful sentences underly the unfolding story, adding an extra dimension. The plot twists are amazing and you HAVE to keep turning pages as the book builds up to a climax. My only grumble in that area was the climax probably came just marginally too soon, leaving the book with a 2 chapter wide down.

This novel is written as what I call "Big novels" i.e. a riveting work of fiction describing someone's life, with all its highs and lows. I loved the fascinating life described by the narrator in this book, and recommend this book to anyone - whether they like coffee or not! In fact, the coffee is just an interesting trait in the book (adds humour...) so don't EVER let that put you off reading this book if you are coffee drinker!