#20 Ellis Island (1981) Mark Helprin
After a few disappointing short stories in this collection,
I decided to give it one more try and read the longest and most ambitious of
these, the title work, Ellis Island.
Although obviously talented and deserving of all the accolades, I just
do not enjoy Helprin’s style. If I cant
appreciate this story, its unlikely my mind will change by reading more.
If I can borrow Helprin’s use of simile (since he uses so
many its like he invented the element himself):
I feel like this story is like a professor's treatise on how to write
descriptively. All the technique is
there but none of the emotion. Page
after page of simile and descriptive phrases, a lot of which I find to be stretches
or just confusing nonsense. After a
while I want to scream at the page:
DON’T TELL ME WHAT ITS LIKE TELL ME WHAT IT IS!!!
Again, its just a personal disconnect with his style. Once you get a bad taste in your mouth its
hard to taste anything else. There is no
need for me to rehash this story in detail.
It’s an imaginative tale about an immigrant (really an amalgam of many
of the cultures that came through Ellis Island during the early 20th
century). Hope, Heartbreak,
determination, etc. Feel free to read it
yourself and find better things than I have.
Notable Passage: “Is humanity out of fashion? Then, to hell
with fashion.”
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