Rating: 
Summary: It's all in the ending
Review: Another Helprin travesty. Read his "Soldier of the Great War", a fantastic novel. Then just walk away.
Rating: 
Summary: Why?
Review: Another Helprin travesty. Read his "Soldier of the Great War", a fantastic novel. Then just walk away.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing compared to his other novels
Review: Granted, it must be impossible to live up to the reputation once you have already produced a series of masterful novels. I think Helprin is one of the very finest 20th century writers in English. A Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War (and Antproof) are some of the finest pieces of fiction ever written. I have to admit that I found The Refiner's Fire much weaker than his other books, but I'm still glad I read it. It's heartening to know that even true geniuses have trouble maintaining this level of achievement 100% of the time. Still worth reading for serious Helprin fans.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing compared to his other novels
Review: Granted, it must be impossible to live up to the reputation once you have already produced a series of masterful novels. I think Helprin is one of the very finest 20th century writers in English. A Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War (and Antproof) are some of the finest pieces of fiction ever written. I have to admit that I found The Refiner's Fire much weaker than his other books, but I'm still glad I read it. It's heartening to know that even true geniuses have trouble maintaining this level of achievement 100% of the time. Still worth reading for serious Helprin fans.
Rating:
Summary: Read "Soldier of the Great War"
Review: Having read "Soldier of the Great War", I was disappointed in this novel. "Soldier" was superb! I found myself suspecting that this was an earlier work, perhaps his first novel (which it is). It is broad in scope and bold in vision, but too often the use of language is pretentious and obscure. There is some excellent writing, which previews what is to come in "Soldier". But "Refiner's Fire" lacks the control and the consistent elegance that I had expected and which one finds in his later work. This book is an interesting read for one who enjoys observing the development and maturation of a great writer.
Rating:
Summary: It's all in the ending
Review: Helprin consistently creates characters that show us a human potential we can all strive for. The very last line of the book is absolutely perfect, but don't you dare spoil it by skipping ahead or you'll ruin it.
Rating:
Summary: Best living writer of fiction alive today.
Review: 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".
Rating:
Summary: Jewish Magical Realism
Review: I was absolutely enchanted by the begining of this novel, his childhood in Eagle Bay, NY, etc. By the time we were going on punitive expeditions against Rastafarians in Jamaica, he was stretching my suspension of disbeleif a little thin. It went out the window when we met Lydia at the party. I know that he was trying to show the rush of adolescent love, but to me, it seemed like just that, a writer trying to show the rush of adolescent love. I did not buy it, and I was a little embarassed for the writer. The parts in the Israeli army were a little better, but I had a hard time returning to the fold after the middle part. "A Soldier Of The Great War" is absolutely masterful, though. Orfeo lives!!
Rating:
Summary: Reality and truth, fantasy and fiction, hang ten on history
Review: I'm sorry for the guy disappointed by the book. I must have gone through six or seven copies of RF in my 20/30s - a good book to give to friends and, as some of the other part-time critics here have written, a very life affirming book. It seems to combine the best of the wonderful chaotic rush that life in adolescence can give you, when you're doing everything for the first of times; with the other pleasures - of age, now - of looking back on the past and realising personal time then is now becoming part of history. Helprin catches that cusp dead on, naturally without pretentious artifice. I'm a Brit, Welsh by background, and RF has an age-spanning resonance for me with 'Oh Lucky Man', a film made in 1974, directed by Lindsay Anderson, a 'new realism' Brit, socialist/surrealist theatre director. He's also famous for 'This Sporting Life' and 'If' - which is about English public schoolboys rebelling (I've just remembered the recent US school massacre and made the connection)and taking the guns from the school OTC armoury and attacking the parents and teachers as they come out from a memorial ceremony. That was made in 1970, so I don't think the lawyers can class it as an influential video nasty. 'Oh Lucky Man' is a modern equivalent of a Mystery Play. Young Man is tempted, learns, becomes wiser in different ways, and then is plucked from the crowd to star in 'Oh Lucky Man'. A similar focus on the intensity of experience of life with Helprin, but of 'American' as both immigrant and explorer - but a stranger always in his adopted lands - the subtitle of the book is, I seem to remember: Marshall Pearl, The Adventures of a Foudling. Which, when you think about it, is actually a fairly Dickensian/middle Victorian sort of subtitle ? Some keys are maybe there ? In RF, Helprin has created a Dickensian kind of sprawl of characterisation - though not as caricatured as Dickens; a span of history and class; and a hero with a self-creating will and destiny who keeps getting caught up in history. Read this book ! P.S. Also read Alan Garner's collection of Essays
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT READ THE ENDING FIRST
Review: 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
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