The Pacific and Other Stories

This is a book filled with the imagery of Light. Not the light of the innocent day. Rather, a light that emanates from the Life tempered by Autumn and Winter; it is a joyous light like laughter from the belly. In this book the pale suhshine has "everything about it of spring about to break the seige of winter." Consider this: "...the appearance of a million gently burning lights that gradually took the place of the bright scales with which the setting sun had armored the face of every building." In each story, the glorious scepter of redemption casts its healing gaze on the chief characters of each story, lives tempered by wars and losses-grevious losses. Yet, out of these losses arise characters annointed by a differing purpose, a more noble one. I especially loved the story "Perfection." In it a small Jewish boy, Roger Reeves, has lost his parents in the German death camps. He attends religious school all the while haunted by the question, "Why must the righteous suffer?" He challenges God to a duel on-of all places-a baseball diamond-the house of Ruth, Yankee Stadium. Superb ending.

For many years now, when I forget how precious life is, I re-read Helprin's short stories, and, inevitably, I cry, regardless of the outcome of the story. His storytelling moves me profoundly, in ways that I'm just too inarticulate to express. And so it is with "The Pacific". I'll remember every word of "Monday" for the rest of my life. I'm humbled by his ability to capture what makes life worth living, even in the darkest moments of his characters' lives. I'm glad to have him back on my bookshelf (where he doesn't spend much time, considering I've read "Soldier" at least 12 times; 3 years ago I bought a cheap paperback version because hauling the hard back copy to the beach was impinging on my carry-on limit and the sand content accumulated between the pages was making it too heavy to lift). Buy and treasure this book.

Perhaps it is good that we are blessed with the riveting wonderment of a Mark Helprin short story collection every other decade or so. His stories are so infused with light that their sheer brightness frightens away those who would prefer their fiction to reflect things the way they would want them to be rather than the way they are in the light of eternity. "The Pacific And Other Stories" is fiction bathed in glory, yet with its feet still on the ground. Even through absurdity and laughter, the power behind the prose never wavers, remaining irrevocable and true as a swallow on it's way home. Mark Helprin's anointed prose ever lingers on the threshold of immortality, paradoxically beyond words. It lures and beguiles you like a tender breeze on a warm summer's evening, only to sometimes return and break the deepest part of your heart in the end. But when the end comes, you will find that you have made a wondrous journey which you would not have missed for all the world.

Reading Mark Helprin's stories, short and long, call forth every emotion. They are all about love and honor and the gifts parents, children and lovers give to one another. Some of the gifts are sent but never received. Some of the gifts multiply and change the lives of the donors who join in the giving. The stories Monday and Perfection are so powerful that I found I had to tell whoever I was talking to about them. Discovering that Helprin had written a new book was a gift to me. Treat yourself and read it.

This book replaces a tattered notebook of Mr. Helprin's stories containing copies I have culled from various and sundry sources and to which I often return. The writing is beyond my ability to praise. Reading his work can be compared to listening to a gifted musician; his prose is musical and ideas profound. These are moral tales. I believe that much of Mr. Helprin's fiction evidences a deep frustration with the fact that we live amidst such richness of knowledge and opportunity in an incredibly beautiful world yet we fall prey to lesser enticements; we ignore or forget the truths upon which anything good and true must rest. They are stories about discoveries of surpassing worth and importance. We owe it to ourselves to turn off the TV, put down the newspaper, and give Mr. Helprin a chance to point us to our better natures.