In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin

Ladies, wars were against Nazis, and even cowboys and their partnersĭanced cheek to cheek. Ought to be, reanimating a bygone era when men were men, women were Mannerly and Manichaean age: a poster couple invented to persuadeĢ1st-century readers of the way things once were and, presumably, still 'Harry and Catherine serve as the standard bearers of a Harry spins toward ever more treacherous waters.' ELLEN EMRY Unlikely occurrences fit with the mythical proportions of the plot, as An old beau seems to weigh a bit too heavily onĬatherine's theatrical career by buying off every critic.

When Harry and Catherine rescue a vagrant who turns out to be a Wall 'In Sunlight and in Shadow has its improbabilities, such as Majesty of New York, and a cranky, pedantic elegy for the world that Story, a tribute to the fighting spirit of World War II, a hymn to the Despite its 700 pages, In SunlightĪnd in Shadow is a sensational and perfectly gripping novel: a love 'Despite its often inflated, swoony prose style, the novelĭelivers a rich portrait of postwar America, and a late, lengthyįlashback to Harry's war experiences brings some much neededīallast to the bigger picture.

Street loft that houses Harry's high-end leather goods Vividly specific account of the production process at the West 26th Speech patterns of Catherine's ultra-privileged social class, or a His sentences, he brings it down to earth with a shrewd comment on the Shadow might float away into the ether, lofted by the sheer beauty of But just when you think In Sunlight and in 'rose seems too mundane a term for Helprin'sĮxtravagant way with words and emotions as he chronicles the courtshipĪnd marriage of Army veteran Harry Copeland and heiress/actressĬatherine Thomas Hale. Harry's wartime experiences during the Normandy landings and theīattle of the Bulge expands the novel's scope and sets it more Magnificence of its writing and the splendor of its hymns to New YorkĬity, the new novel is a spiritual pendant to Winter's Tale, andĮvery bit as extraordinary.

'In its storytelling heft, its moral rectitude, the solemn That glide across the harbor trailing smoke. York's golden age, a city of 'whitening sunrises. Romance, filled with both triumphs and failures, takes place during New Catherine is already engaged, and the Mafia is after But the course of true love never did run Both smart and attractive, theyįall passionately in love. Is a blue-blood Wall Street heiress and struggling actress and singer,Īn unlikely match for Harry, a non-practicing Jew who has inherited hisįather's leather goods business. Nothing more than to meet the woman of his dreams.

THE STORY: When Harry Copeland, 32, returns home to Manhattan inġ946 after four years fighting the Nazis in World War II, he desires See our profile on Mark Helprin on page 12. In Sunlight and in Shadow.' Retrieved from

MLA style: 'In Sunlight and in Shadow.' The Free Library.

In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin