Forever

Rating:
Summary: A Wee Bit o 'NYC History
Review: I've always liked Pete Hamill, and find that most people either do or don't with not much room for in between. This book was some work to get into. I started and quit a few times. It is not a quick read on the beach. But the effort is well-rewarded. This is a fascinating glimpse into a couple of hundred years of the immigration to and history of New York. It is a thorougly implausible plot--a young man who lives forever so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan-- but it is a riveting story of the many stages of the developpment of New York. I came away 1) not wanting the book to end, and 2) thirsting to read a few of the classic historical volumes recommended by PH.

Rating:
Summary: Time Travel with a Twist
Review: Instead of taking a modern character back in time or bringing an old character forward, Hamill proposes a character who doesn't age and passes the history before him...in this case, an ancient Irishman living the history of New York. As an ex-New Yorker with English and Irish roots, I found it fascinating. I couldn't put it down and there's not many books I'd say that about. I will agree that Hamill fast-forwarded through a lot of things and lingered a bit long on others, but it was a wonderful story that I was sorry to end.

Rating:
Summary: Annoying, Boring, Crap.
Review: Noticed how I cleverly used ABC in the title of my review. Those are the first 3 letters in the alphabet! Get it. That's about how clever Forever is. I became so annoyed with this boring book that I abandonded it somewhere in Thailand. It was the last book I brought on my trip, but, after a few hundred pages, I felt no book was better than this book. If you like books about a person who has a telepathic relationship with his horse and dog and vice versa, then this book is for you.

I rarely review books on Amazon, but this book was such a waste of money, time and paper that I felt it my duty to warn fellow readers. If you like children's books, then read one of those, not this fantastical Easy Cheese.

Rating:
Summary: He set too ambitious a task
Review: The first 124 pages of this novel contain some of the most powerful writing I have ever experienced. Unfortunately, I found it downhill after that. In those initial pages, we meet Cormac O'Connor, an Irish lad with a Jewish mother and Celtic father, his horse Thunder and dog Bran in Ireland of the 1730s. By the end of the section he has lost all and travels to New York City to fulfill a duty of blood: to kill the man and all of his male offspring who brought about his family's destruction. After arriving in New York, Cormac's good deeds toward an African shaman earn him the gift/curse of everlasting life with one condition: he must never leave the island of Manhattan, otherwise he will die. His death will be considered a suicide and he won't be able to enter the Otherworld (the Celtic version of heaven). Cormac is given one opportunity for eternal rest: If he ever feels world weary he is to find a woman with special spiral markings. He will need to make love to her in a cave and then he will be able to pass on to the Otherworld and be reunited with his family. After Hamill sets up the situation, he condenses over 200 years of Cormac's life in less than 250 pages. It is an impossible task. We loose so much of Cormac's experience as Hamill quickly moves the story along, except for a seemingly endless experience with Boss Tweed and life in a house of prostitution. This condensation of so many years into so few pages weakens the strength of the book, especially in comparison with the beginning. The tale comes to a climax with the 9/11 attack on America. I'm not giving anything away here; it's foretold on the jacket cover. Why did the publisher do that? I am sick of reading books which have no regard for the reader and give away the climax before the first page. This is just another rotten example. And then, when the attack finally comes, Hamill is at a loss to convey the emotion, the impact of this event -- maybe no writer alive could capture the moment. And then he ends the book with a sugar-coated finish. What a disappointment. Pete Hamill is one of America's greatest chroniclers of the passing scene. His book, "Loving Women," is in my top five. But, this book which begins with such promise fizzles out and leaves an empty feeling of abandonment by the author.

Rating:
Summary: What's goin' on?
Review: The first part of this novel, with its stock scenes of the noble Irish and brutish English, are, frankly, awful. Once main character Cormac O'Connor gets to New York, it gets better, but not good enough to finish. A glitch in the reading line-up caused me to pick "Forever" up again, and suddenly, on page 307, it really took off and was as good as the reviews had promised. Pete Hamill's novel has 613 pages, which puts this puts this remarkable transformation pretty much right smack-dab in the middle. What's going on here?

The writing in the Irish scenes is pallid; the tales have been told before and no new life is breathed into them. The revenge story it sets up is uninteresting, and even the magical horse and dog are pretty flat. Cormac's arrival in New York perks the tale up a little, but his relationship with the Africans--key to the story--never rings true. But once the story transitions from the Revolutionary War to the 1830s, everything works. Cormac is now immortal. By this time he is close to 100 in real years, yet appears to be a young man. People who've known him for years wonder why he isn't getting older. He wonders how he's going to live forever. The city and its people spring to life. The dialogue picks up. The story takes on depth and color. You are hooked in and wonder how Cormac's story will turn out.

So what's my advice? Start "Forever" at chapter 72? If you can soldier through the first half, the second part of the book is engaging and well done. I suppose it depends on what you have next on your reading list.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: The first part of this novel, with its stock scenes of the noble Irish and brutish English, is, frankly, awful. Once main character Cormac O'Connor gets to New York, it gets better but really not good enough to finish. A glitch in my reading line-up caused me to pick "Forever" up again, and suddenly, on page 307, the book really took off and was as good as the reviews had promised. Pete Hamill's novel has 613 pages, which puts this puts this remarkable transformation pretty much right smack-dab in the middle. What's going on here?

The writing in the Irish scenes is pallid; the tales have been told before and no new life is breathed into them. The revenge story it sets up is uninteresting, and even the magical horse and dog are pretty flat. Cormac's arrival in New York perks the tale up a little, but his relationship with the Africans--key to the story--never rings true. But once the story transitions from the Revolutionary War to the 1830s, everything works. Cormac is now immortal. By this time he is close to 100 in real years, yet appears to be a young man. People who've known him for years wonder why he isn't getting older. He wonders how he's going to live forever. The city and its people spring to life. The dialogue picks up. The story takes on depth and color. You are hooked in and wonder how Cormac's story will turn out.

So what's my advice? Start "Forever" at chapter 72? If you can soldier through the first half, the second part of the book is engaging and well done. I suppose it depends on what you have next on your reading list.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book was a wonderful combination of history and fiction. I enjoyed reading about NYC history while being entertained by the storylines. As long as the book is, I breezed through it and was left wanting more!

Rating:
Summary: Good history, but the characters just didn't come alive
Review: This novel has a lot going for it. It's by Pete Hamill, a New York City columnist who understands the gritty realities of the city and whose writing is clear and to the point. It's therefore as much about the history of New York City as it is about the lead character. The plot is unique too. A young Irish man, Cormac O'Conner, comes to New York City in 1740 and is given eternal life - just as long as he doesn't leave the borough of Manhattan. Well, that's a book I can relate to. I live in Manhattan myself, and figure that even if I don't travel much, I do live in the best place in the world. And so I expected to embrace this book completely.

At 613 pages, this is a novel to sink into. I looked forward to picking it up again every time I had to put it down. There's a lot of action and colorful images and a true sense of New York City through the years. There's love and war and a quest for revenge. Obviously, the author did a lot of research. However, he tried just a little too hard to make Cormac politically correct at all times, fighting injustice, particularly against African Americans, throughout the book. And, just in case the reader forgets the fact that Cormac has eternal life, the author has him constantly reflecting on the history we have just seen him live through. This is all right up to a point, but it's unnecessarily repetitive and often bogs down the story.

The book is strongest at its beginning and ending sections. The beginning really gets into the life Cormac led in Ireland as well as his early years in New York. And the last section, which incorporates the recent 9/11 tragedy into the narrative, is full of tension, especially since I knew it was coming and kept wondering how the author would have the story play out. I did enjoy the book, but it was more from a point of view of "isn't this interesting" instead of getting deeply involved with a complex character. Also, even though Cormac talks about the fact that he cannot leave Manhattan Island, it's mostly talk. There is no plot development that seriously puts him on the brink of a bridge or tunnel or river landing with a decision about leaving Manhattan to make.

The book is an excellent review of New York City history as well as a narrative of both the Irish and the African American experience in this city. However, it lacks in making me really care about the characters. However, I did find myself drawn back again and again to the book and wanting to find out what happens next. I therefore do recommend it, especially for New York lovers with an interest in history.

Rating:
Summary: Great Beginning, poor middle - didn't finish it
Review: This was my first Peter Hamill book. I had heard much good stuff on reviews about this author. I choose the book at random, well mostly at random - i was interested in the NewYork theme. I was overjoyed when i read the first 39 chapters - don't get excited that was only 150 pages!. I was immersed in the story and I loved the North or Ireland story of growing up in south Belfast many years ago. A place I have spent many years in myself. When the story moves to NY the pace of the story changes and the quality of the plot changes with it. I got really bored with Cormac the reporter theme. Maybe it was my own fault for enjoying the Irish theme too much and not wanting it to change. Maybe I have no patience. Either way I didn't finish it and donated the book to my work book club. With so much choice of books today I moved on.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning Expansive History of NYC
Review: Through the life of one man, Cormac O'Connor, Hamill leads the reader into the morass of human brutality, vice, art, nobility, passion and the grinding boredom that so often describes the arc of individual lives.

The book has three main rhythms that roughly divide the story into thirds. The opening rhythm is an active experience of Cormac's odd heritage, his parents' love for him and one another, the passion of his father's work and a believable melding of Gaelic myth and lore. This rhythem sets the foundational values of Cormac's life in the subsequent rhythms. It takes Cormac to a burgeoning New York City that has already passed from the Dutch to the British. It is here in the 1700's that Cormac encounters much brutality, death, despair and hardship.

Yet Cormac is a young man of deep passion that grows out of the conviction and inculcation of his people. His nature leads him to be an advocate for the weak oppressed by British rule and this deep value inside his soul leads to the next rhythm: the onset of eternal life, bounded by the shores of the island of Manhattan.

The second rhythm is at first passionate and full of wonder. Yet as the story ebbs, the full nature of the rhythm surfaces: life is plodding and repetitive, it lacks color and taste. It is boring. It is shocking in its acceptance of cruelty, indifference and isolation.

At first I thought that Hamill had lost focus because Cormac took no action against any Warren during this rhythm. And frankly, I thought the story was muddled. Eventually, I came to wonder if Hamill wrote this intentionally, much as Steinbeck wrote the Grapes of Wrath with a ponderous, plodding narrative to convey the despair, monotony and desperation of migrant workers. I think Hamill's intent was to convey the awful durability of human faults as he experienced them after scores and scores of years in his eternal life.

Almost suddenly, the third rhythm arrives with the new millenium and Hamill's placement of contemporary brands and landmarks brings the reader into the New York City of today. Cormac easily and quietly circulates at an art exhibit near Rudy Giuliani and Madonna. He buys coffee at Starbucks. He plays improv jazz at a smoky club. And his life moves inexhorably toward September 11, 2001.

In these three rhythms, Hamill masterfully paints the history of New York at times with cursory strokes and at other times, with a detailed glimpse into the odd reality of being human in New York City. This is a stunning story told by a wonderful storyteller. The story is informed by Hamill's deep love for New York City and an intriguing bibliography. It has moved into the sparsely populated domain of My All Time Favorite Books, in which only Steinbeck's East of Eden and Stephenson's Cryptonomicon exist.