A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR
by Mark Helprin; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 792 pages; $24.95
There has never been any question about Mark Helprin's talent, and since his first books of fiction, A Dove of the East and Refiner's Fire, he has seemed on the point of accomplishing marvels. He has also seemed -- notably in Winter's Tale, an overblown fantasy starring an annoying magical horse -- to be a posturer incapable of modulating eloquence or intensity, a too appreciative taster of his own words, a gifted windbag.
Helprin's big, rumbustious new novel is about four-fifths of a marvel. Helprin has...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
